humming from front end

[lorakew]

I am stumped.
I am still having this humming noise at around 50 mph, it will go away around 60mph and then again it starts around 70mph.

So i wanted to update every one on what's going on with this car:

It is a 2000 toyota camry 5S-FE, and has 95,000 miles on it. I've changed both the drivers side and passengers side bearings. When i took off the knuckle hub assembly and had Napa change out the bearings, I also took a look at the dust cover to see if maybe it was rubbing against the rotor, and it seemed fine. Nothing else was obstructing the front axle. In addition to the humming noise, my steering wheel shakes slightly when i'm driving at higher speeds, and i noticed one day going over the bridge in st. pete that my car kinda goes up and down bobbing only very slightly, and also swaying side to side, but very slightly. I've also changed my tires after noticing the humming and put brand new tires on. I up with balance and rotation, i've also had an alignment; but the humming noise is still there. I read my haynes manual about the swaying and bobbing and haynes suggests that i look at the stabilizer bar, stabilizer linkage bar, bushings, shocks and struts. Although i don't believe any of these things are causing the humming, i did a thorough look at those parts today on my car.

I took a few detailed photos and posted them in a slideshow. Please take a look. I checked the struts for leakage, looked at the bushings, but i didn't remove the bracket. Now i realize that the bushings are not infront of the bracket but rather inside the bracket. I also looked at the stabilizer bar linkage on both wheels, and the stabilizer bar doesn't look bent. I'm curious about changing the struts but it's pretty expensive, however, i have also heard sounds when i go over bumps. the passengers side wheel makes a few hollow quiet thumps when i go over a bump. kinda like something is creaking around the passengers wheel. I'm stumped about the humming and thumping.


Here is the link to the slideshow. Please let me know if you see anything unusual.

http://s138.photobucket.com/albums/q...view=slideshow

[Scrapper]

you may want to check the strut springs around the struts and see if one is broken. by the way what kind of tires did you put on it? but sterring wheel going back and forth sounds like a tire you can get brand new tires and they look good but they could be out around with sterring wheel going back and forth and a tire can sing i call it going down certin roads. but still it sounds like you have loose parts on front causing your steering wheel going back and forth. only other thing i can think of is the rack but it don't sound like rack. can you take it to another place and get alignment checked because they may find your problem?

good luck......

[lorakew]

The tires are BF Goodrich i bought at walmart, they also put them on. The alignment was done by a friend of mine who works at a dealership, he hooked it up to the computer and he printed out the report which said that my car didn't need any adjustment. it had all the specs about the toe and camber results. my friend at the dealer was wondering if it could be the rack.

i will check the spring to see if it is broken tomorrow evening.
have you ever heard of a bearing in the rear going bad? The NAPA guy said that sometimes you may think the bearing in the front is going bad, when it could be from the rear.

Another piece of info that is important is that this humming started happening after my uncle took a look at my car and it fell off the jack. I had another fella at Just Brakes stick a pry bar in between the rim and the dust cover to straighten it out. The scratching scraping noise went away but humming did not.

[Brian R.]

Some Camrys around that vintage had trouble with the front strut mounts. I am not sure if the 2000 vintage had the problem in some of the cars or not. The symptoms were noises like you describe when you go over a bump.

See the following post in the FAQ thread:
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...4&postcount=19

[lorakew]

Thanks Brian R., i read the post in the FAQ thread below and the rattle is exactly as described in the post. I will be sure to look into changing it.

I am a bit confuzed at the bottom of the post under "Hints for the Wise" the poster talks about how the problem is most likely the strut mount and not the bearing. Now looking at the suspension diagram at the top, i don't see "strut mount" ... which part is he referring to? Does he mean suspension support?

Well, i looked the part "strut mount" on autopartswarehouse.com and it costs about $75.00 for both the strut mount and bearing (comes packaged together). The only problem is that the parts are sold by "their location on the car", front left or front right. i don't know which side the passengers side is. Is the passengers side a front right, or front left?
http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/se...tt=strut+mount



One problem solved, now the humming is still left to fix.

Any ideas? I searched up "front end noise hum" and read a similar thread on a Chevy Blazer, and it was diagnosed with a bad right lower ball joint, idler arm, and wheel bearing assembly. . I already had the bearing changed, however would you suggest replacing the ball joint and idler arm? I thought you could only tell if the ball joint was bent. How can you tell if a ball joint is bad?

Originally Posted by Brian R.

Some Camrys around that vintage had trouble with the front strut mounts. I am not sure if the 2000 vintage had the problem in some of the cars or not. The symptoms were noises like you describe when you go over a bump.

See the following post in the FAQ thread:
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...4&postcount=19

[Brian R.]

Originally Posted by lorakew

Well, i looked the part "strut mount" on autopartswarehouse.com and it costs about $75.00 for both the strut mount and bearing (comes packaged together). The only problem is that the parts are sold by "their location on the car", front left or front right. i don't know which side the passengers side is. Is the passengers side a front right, or front left?
http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/se...tt=strut+mount

The passenger side is the right side of the auto.

Originally Posted by lorakew

One problem solved, now the humming is still left to fix.

Any ideas? I searched up "front end noise hum" and read a similar thread on a Chevy Blazer, and it was diagnosed with a bad right lower ball joint, idler arm, and wheel bearing assembly. . I already had the bearing changed, however would you suggest replacing the ball joint and idler arm? I thought you could only tell if the ball joint was bent. How can you tell if a ball joint is bad?

Fix the strut mount before you do anything else, then continue if you still have another unrelated problem. There is a reasonable chance the humming is related to this problem and will disappear when you replace the strut mount. Good luck. You are doing a great job.

[lorakew]

Originally Posted by Brian R.

Fix the strut mount before you do anything else.

So i'm having a few problems with compressing the spring to replace the strut mount. The spring compressor i have from autozone has such a long post. And it's giving me a hard time because the long post is hitting the top of the frame. I'm not sure how much i'm supposed to compress the spring. I took some pics and would appreciate it if you could give me some feedback.

And yeah, i put one spring compressor on a certain way, and the other spring compressor on a different way (upside down). i'm not sure which is better. Ugh. When i'm compressing the spring, it's making a creaking sound and it's starting to make me uneasy and uncomfortable. Can you please tell me if that sound is normal?

Here is a link to the photos i took:http://s138.photobucket.com/albums/q...view=slideshow

[Brian R.]

The creaking is normal. If you grease the compressor tongues and threads, you should not have much noise. The sound is that of the spring twisting as it compresses. If something breaks, you will likely not get any warning.

The only time I had to compress my springs I removed the wheel and placed a block under the suspension arm and put the weight back on the spring. Then I installed the compressor with the spring compressed by the weight of the car. Jacking up the car took the load off the spring and I didn't have to actually tighten the compressor. Position the compressor tongues to grab as many of the coils as possble. I don't know if this is possible with your vehicle, but if you can, it will save you time.

In all honesty, I would advise you to bring it to a mechanic for this work. It is dangerous and I can't advise you to do it yourself, even if you are competent. I would feel very bad if you hurt yourself doing this job with me advising you over the internet on how to do it. Either that or get someone experienced to look over your shoulder as you work with the compressed spring. This is a bad job to learn on by yourself.

Be careful.

[lorakew]

Originally Posted by Brian R.

The creaking is normal. If you grease the compressor tongues and threads, you should not have much noise. The sound is that of the spring twisting as it compresses. If something breaks, you will likely not get any warning.

The only time I had to compress my springs I removed the wheel and placed a block under the suspension arm and put the weight back on the spring. Then I installed the compressor with the spring compressed by the weight of the car. Jacking up the car took the load off the spring and I didn't have to actually tighten the compressor. Position the compressor tongues to grab as many of the coils as possble. I don't know if this is possible with your vehicle, but if you can, it will save you time.

In all honesty, I would advise you to bring it to a mechanic for this work. It is dangerous and I can't advise you to do it yourself, even if you are competent. I would feel very bad if you hurt yourself doing this job with me advising you over the internet on how to do it. Either that or get someone experienced to look over your shoulder as you work with the compressed spring. This is a bad job to learn on by yourself.

Be careful.

Yeah i put a big brick under the ball joint, and i have a jack under the control arm. I'm so close, yet i don't want any mistakes to happen. Is there going to be any problems if i uncompress the spring when i take the spring compressors off in trying to get everything back on and seated properly?

In all honesty, i thought i could do this job fairly quickly because i watched a video on replacing a spring on the advanced auto parts website:
http://www.advanceautoparts.com/engl...er_clinics.asp

I clicked on the shock and strut replacement video at the top left menu. I also read my haynes manual, which said that when the spring is compressed, i should be able to wiggle and jiggle it up and down. I'm not sure how to proceed... I have an idea about putting 4 spring compressors on it, maybe that might be safer?

I have just called my friend who works at the dealer to see if he will watch beside me while i work on it.

Any advice? or tricks that can help me out are appreciated.

[Brian R.]

From the repair manual, you don't have to compress the spring to remove the strut (p. SA-35). You compress the springs with the spring compressors while holding the strut in a vise once the strut is removed from the car. Then you can disassemble the strut safely.

Don't you have a copy of the repair manual?

[lorakew]

Originally Posted by Brian R.

Don't you have a copy of the repair manual?

yes, i used my repair manual while fixing this.

i was confuzed because my 2 sources said contradictory steps about the compressors. the haynes repair manual said to remove the strut and then compress it, where as the advance auto parts video said to compress the spring before removing it.

I ended up removing the strut and then compressing it. i had such a hard time removing the stabilizer bar link from the strut, but eventually i wiggled and it came out. I changed the strut mount, and test drove the car and the rattling on the passengers side is gone, however the humming has not.

p.s. i called my friend who is a mechanic and got some advice in deciding how to proceed.

any ideas of where the humming is coming from?

[Brian R.]

What I meant was: Don't you have a copy of the Toyota FSM which is stickied at the top of this forum?

Does the humming occur when you are coasting or while you are under power or both? What about on curves? What conditions make it worse or better?

[JOET/CAMRY]

Originally Posted by lorakew

Another piece of info that is important is that this humming started happening after my uncle took a look at my car and it fell off the jack. I had another fella at Just Brakes stick a pry bar in between the rim and the dust cover to straighten it out. The scratching scraping noise went away but humming did not.

When you say you had a mechanic stick a pry bar in between the rim and the dust cover to straighten it out are you talking about the brake rotor and the dust shield?

Also you mentioned you had the front wheel bearings replaced. Was this done before or after the car fell off the jack? Most likely there is something that was damaged as a result of the car slipping off the jack and hitting the ground.

Regards,
JOET/CAMRY

[lorakew]

Originally Posted by JOET/CAMRY

When you say you had a mechanic stick a pry bar in between the rim and the dust cover to straighten it out are you talking about the brake rotor and the dust shield?

Also you mentioned you had the front wheel bearings replaced. Was this done before or after the car fell off the jack? Most likely there is something that was damaged as a result of the car slipping off the jack and hitting the ground.

Regards,
JOET/CAMRY

Yes immeadiately after the car fell off the jack, i noticed a humming sound and a loud screaching noise. Then, a mechanic stuck a pry bar in between the brake rotor and the dust sheild which fixed the loud screaching sound. A humming noise kept happening though. The humming happens around 50-55mph and again at 70-75 mph. Every speed in between those it sounds fine. I've received advice that it might be the wheel bearing, so i had both front wheel bearings changed out in the last 6 months. The humming noise still didn't go away. Yesterday i also changed out the strut mount on the passengers side (for an unrelated problem). The humming didn't go away.

Does the humming occur when you are coasting or while you are under power or both? What about on curves? What conditions make it worse or better?

The humming occurs while i am coasting exactly at 55mph and also when i am coasting at 70mph. It also occurs under power (if i'm accelerating past 55mph it will hum while going through 55mph then stop around 60mph. if i keep accelerating, the humming will start at 70mph and end at 75mph). The same happens when i decelerage (if i let off the gas at 80 mph, when the odometer drops to 70mph it will start humming, then the hum will go away below 70mph, and if the speed keeps dropping the car will hum again at 55mph. On curves it still hums at 55 and at 70mph. As far as conditions that make the hum worse or better, I really hear the loud hum more when I decelerate (let off the gas) around 70 and 55.

Today i asked my friends sitting in the car if they could pinpoint where the noise was coming from. The passenger said she thinks it hums from her side. the rear passenger sitting behind the drivers side said she thinks the hum is on her side. I, the driver, always think the hum comes from my side.

[Brian R.]

When your car fell off the jack, was the wheel and tire on the car or off? Which side of the car fell (or both?) Was there any parts removed or loosened from the suspension or drivetrain when the car fell? Does it hum louder if you brake from 80 to 40 mph?