2001 Sebring Front Right Whine

[jdorfman]

I have 2001 Sebring LX with 36000Km on it. This week I took it on a road trip up north and a medium pitch whine started to appear at the front right...
It only appears above 40kph and if you break it disappears below ~20kph...

The sound is not always present... 2 days ago it appeared when ever I was above 50kph regardless... and yesterday (the day I took it to the dealer..) it did not appear at all... therefore 'no fault found'. Today... it is again persistent..

Some more clues:
Disengaging the engine has no effect on the sound (going to neutral)..
Increased speed increases the volume and the pitch only slightly..
Decreasing speed does not decrease the volume until ~20kph and then it rapidly decreases to 0 audible volume...

Today I had a passenger in the the car.. yesterday I did not..
Today and 2 days before were very humid and yesterday was not..

As a side note... yesterday the oil was changed and 2 new tires were put on the car.. and rotated to the front.. obviously the act of removing the wheel and replacing the wheel did not stop the sound..

Please Assist...

[Oldengineer]

Check your front brakes to see if they're worn out. The sound you're hearing may be the wear indicator dragging on the rotor.

[notamechanic]

It's probably the wheel bearings going bad. Mine went bad around the same mileage on both sides.

[PashaDNN]

yep, it's the wheel bearings

[gettelsl]

It is the wheel bearings...had the smae thing happen to mine and only seems to wear out inthe front passenger side...

[jlfrench]

what if the whine sounds like a squeak, and is present when stationary and turning the wheel?

[king80vette]

I need to replace these on a friend’s car. Is this something a shade tree mechanic can do with normal tools? Do I have to get into the CV joints?
Steve

[joe8918]

It's the hub assembly...I've replaced both front sides on mine. Does it sound like there's more friction when you move your steering wheel from side-to-side at a higher speed (> 50mph)?