1999 Sonoma Road Hum

[dkultti]

My 1999 Sonoma (4x4) has developed a hum at normal road speed. The hum exists when driven straight or when I give it a little bit of left steer, but when I give it a bit of right steer, it goes away, then returns when I return steer to straight/neutral.

I think I have ruled out wheel bearings because it has been going on for a month or so and I believe they would have failed completely by now.

Pulled both front tires. nothing unusual on the right side, but there was evidence of grease (lots) in the area around the CV joints on the left side.

Am thinking it may be the left outside CV joint of the front drive shaft.

Only want to tear it down once, so thought maybe someone has had this problem as well.

Any help out there on this one?

[maxwedge]

Welcome to AF. Choppy tire wear can cause this. If they are ok, get all 4 wheels off the ground supported safely and run it in 4wd and listen to the ft wheels, the bearing can last a long time with the noise you describe. Compare l/s to r/s noise.

[dkultti]

Originally Posted by maxwedge

Welcome to AF. Choppy tire wear can cause this. If they are ok, get all 4 wheels off the ground supported safely and run it in 4wd and listen to the ft wheels, the bearing can last a long time with the noise you describe. Compare l/s to r/s noise.

Tires look good. replaced them about 5K miles ago and had the front end aligned at the time of installation.

The grease is what is making me think the CV joint is the culprit, along with the noise going away when I tweak the wheel to the right.

Will get all four up and see what I can hear then. Thanks for the tip.