Wheel bearing/hub?

[therapyreject]

Getting a fairly loud humming/buzzing type noise at speed. No noise below 25 or so, gets loud at about 45, gets a little quieter if I go faster. Sounds like its coming from the front. Noise goes away if I turn the wheel left. No change to the noise when turning right.

Sounds to me like the front driver bearings are going out, but to be sure are there any signs I can look for to verify?

I've read that some hubs have to be machine pressed in, so you cant do it yourself. Does the Lumina fall in that category?

Dont mind getting it done at a mechanic, but how many hours of labor are we looking at typically to replace one hub, front driver side.

2000 Lumina, 3.1L

[maxwedge]

No pressing the parts, the hub and bearing are sold as an assy, barring any issues about a 1.5 hour job. sounds like the l/s but have it checked by looking for play in that hub or listen to the wheels for noise frt jacked up ( safely supported) and run the car at 25-35 mph while an experienced tech listens.

[Airjer_]

If you jack the front of the car off the ground, put the trans in neutral, and spin the tires by hand while holding onto the strut coil you can usually feel the vibration from the bad bearing. Sounds like the Left front to me as well.

[therapyreject]

Got it up, no real play in the wheel, couldnt really feel any vibrations either. There was some noise when spinning the wheel, kinda hard to describe though. It wasnt a grinding noise or anything obvious like that, but it did sound like something was rubbing. Rubbing noise did not seem to be coming from the brakes.

Took the wheel off after that and noticed my brake pads are getting a little thin. Theyre not squealing (or grinding) yet so theyre obviously not that thin, but you guys think the brakes could be part of the problem?

Any more suggestions before I take it in and have it looked at?

[jeffcoslacker]

If it's been doing it for some time, you can sometimes see the leakage where the oil came past the seal (usual cause of death for hubs)...you'll see dark staining around the seal, and if you look closely with a bright light you may even notice fine metal shavings on top of the hub casting.

To hear the sound, it helps to push the brakes back a bit, so you aren't covering the noise with normal light pad drag sounds.

You have to spin the wheel pretty fast to hear it, usually, which can be hard if you only have one wheel off the ground. Get 'em both up, or you're fighting the diff and can't spin it very fast.

The sound will be a faint to moderate hiss or grind...exhale slowly while saying the letter "H" like you were getting ready to say "House"...that's about the sound you are looking for.

When comparing both sides, the sound will usually be pretty evident.

[therapyreject]

Replaced the hub and the sound continues. It seems a little quieter, but its probably just me imagining things.

Going to rotate the tires tonight, but aside from that I have no idea what else it could possibly be.

[McLin]

Did u have old tires?

[therapyreject]

Rotated the tires and had them balanced. Noise continues.

These tires are actually fairly new. I have maybe 8k miles on them.

I'm thinking of pulling the wheel off myself and looking at the hub. I cant think of any other reason this noise would keep going on, so my mind is starting to wander and think I might have got burned at the mechanic and it was never replaced.

[maxwedge]

Maybe it's the other one?

[therapyreject]

Noise seems to be getting louder now, and its definitely coming from the front left. But just to be sure I'm going to have both sides looked at tomorrow.

[McLin]

I had something like similar I think it comes from a worn ball joint, maybe the tire didn't fit in right angle or something.