rear wheel noise issue

[Renegade57]

Hi all; new guy here. I recently bought an '02 outback sport. As I got use to the vehicle, I started noticing what I thought was road noise/loud tires. After some though and some more listening, I'm starting to rule out the tires; they are good road tires that don't have a typical "noisy tread pattern" to them, AND, the noise was only coming from the rear wheels. Last night I pulled the rear wheels off to look around. The drums are not binding up on the brake shoes, the booties on the CV joints are intact, the drive shaft and u-joint seem to be solid. Could I be hearing the sound of dry or bad wheel bearings? Also, the sound has a slight oscilation in pitch.
Any ideas would be most appreciated!

[freakray]

Oscillation in pitch points a finger to wheel bearings for sure.

[Renegade57]

Originally Posted by freakray

Oscillation in pitch points a finger to wheel bearings for sure.

Thanks for responding Freakray. Do you know if these bearings are the kind that can be inspected and repacked, or are they sealed bearings that you can't service and simply replace? Thanks in advance!

[freakray]

Unfortunately I don't know what the bearings are - fortunately I've never had a wheel bearing on any of my Subaru's fail me.