Prius (Gen 3) :: Distinct Rotational Noise At About 30 To 40 MPH - Wheel Bearing Failure?
Nov 16, 2014
Since the Prius is my wife's primary car, I can go a long time without driving. I recently have been driving it more, and it seems to me that it has the sounds of a failing wheel bearing. Between about 30-40 MPH there seems to be a distinct rotational noise that sounds to me like a loud wheel bearing from the front end. The sound seems to get quieter as I go faster, and at 60 mph + it seems normal.
My wife didn't notice any difference, but she drives the car everyday so maybe she didn't notice the gradual increase in noise. I know it's not tire related, because I just swapped tires. When I did, I didn't feel any play in the front bearings or feel any roughness when the wheels were rotated.
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At 46,400 miles of gentle driving, my left wheel bearing failed on my 2010 Prius, which was not covered by warranty because it is not 'drive train'. I was told there was nothing I did or could have done to cause this. I have had 4 Toyotas, two with over 200,000 miles, and never had this serious a repair (that wasn't my fault!). Am I being unreasonable to think this is unusual? I'm wondering if this car is going to continue to be a problem.
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My girlfriend owns a '92 Plymouth Acclaim. We noticed a few weeks ago that there was a clunk/rattle noise coming from one wheel, and since it mostly happened while cornering, thought it might be CV joints or maybe suspension. She brought it to her mechanic who inspected the brakes and found that the rear shocks were bad, but sent her away without fixing anything. The other day, on a long drive, the rattle suddenly intensified, morphed into a loud grinding noise, and then the wheel fell off.
I think I'm going to have to confront the mechanic. The bearings apparently hadn't been repacked in some time, and were surely the cause of the rattle noise. I'm less concerned with the fact that he might have overlooked an obvious problem as much as neglected to properly service the vehicle.
Are brake techs supposed to check, then tighten wheel bearings or repack them if needed?
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I have a 2006 Prius (150K miles) with a noise coming from the drivers left wheel. It is a hollow metallic squeak that only occurs while the vehicle is moving. It sounds like the wheel is making brief contact with something metallic at the same point on every rotation. The pitch of the squeak increases with the speed of wheel rotation. It does so while rolling, with breaks and without. The noise gets louder when turning right, and softer when turning left, though it begins to get louder again when the wheel is turned hard all the way left.
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At 37000km we put new tires on and after about 1000km started to hear a high 'woo-woo-woo', from the rear, not really loud but a new noise. Guessing it might be tire noise I checked them for wear and thought the left rear was a bit sharp sliding your hand one direction but smooth sliding across the other way. Went for an alignment....it was only slightly off and the mechanic found the right rear wheel bearing was kaput.
It was done under warranty......but, do these vehicles are subject to premature bearing failure or was this a fluke? I did not see the bearing so I don't know if it was one of two or a pressed-on type or whatever. It would be nice to know that a wheel won't come flying off or seize up when we're halfway to nowhere if a bearing goes bad again.
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I had a ripped drivers side CV boot and had my indy replace the axle with a new Raxle. ~200 miles after the replacement the wheel bearing on that side went south. I shugged it off and had it replaced. Well, after 200 miles on the new bearing, it has also failed (100 miles from home). I gotta believe the 2 bearing fails are related to the new axle, but I don't understand how!
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I have 2012 Impala and hit a pot hole blowing out the left front tire but rim was not damaged, replaced the tire. Now the shop tells me that the wheel bearing has been damaged and the hub/bearing assembly needs to be replaced. I've never seen this happen. Is it possible that the bearing got damaged?
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My girlfriend and I just bought a 2011 a few weeks ago. We test drove it a couple times ourselves, and had our mechanic take a look at it and drive it also. Everything looked and sounded good. Not sure how much it matters, but it's a Certified Used as well.
A couple days ago, returning from a 45-minute drive which included some short stretches of gravel road, I noticed an oscillating sound. It's definitely not a noise that was there when we bought the car. Unfortunately, my cell is apparently bad at capturing audio, so hopefully my description will be enough.
The noise is very faint, almost inaudible, at low speeds. Between 30 and 35 mph it gets much louder, peaking at about 33. There's some vibration through the accelerator pedal also. Above 35, it fades pretty quickly and I can't really hear it at 50. The sound itself is 3 beats on, 1 beat off, about every second. There's a slight difference in pitch between each beat.
If that isn't enough to go on, let me know and I'll give the recording another shot and upload it if the noise is audible.
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I devloped a noise in the right front wheel. I thought it was a tire going bad so I rotated the tires & still had the noise. I was told by shop it is a wheel bearing. If that is the problem is that a DIY repair ?
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I have the dreaded front wheel bearing noise front left had a monsoon last month in orlando. Went through a puddle. Did the front right 8 months ago,everythings fine I am doing uber. Can I spray some deep creep or oil in there to tempt calm the noise?
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My rear passenger tire spins easily and makes noise. Here is the link to video....
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My wife has a 2002 Hyundai Elantra that has a rotational noise coming from the left rear wheel. We just got it back from the shop where they replaced the left front wheel bearing and rear brakes/rotors, and the right/rear wheel bearing was replaced about a year ago. It's a thumping noise that speeds up proportionally to the speed of the car. Normally I'd expect a bad tire or warped rotor, but the tires are relatively new and we didn't notice the problem before we took it to the shop last week (though it's possible we weren't hearing it over the wheel bearing noise they fixed). Is it possible we got a bad rotor, or the shop did something wrong? Or could this be something new entirely (which would be entirely typical for this car).
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I have a 2007 Honda Pilot. 65K Miles.
Several months ago, when turning left, regardless of speed, my wife starting hearing a noise. It is not a knocking or harsh grinding noise, but a low grumble (I don't have a great word for it). It's definitely rotational, it doesn't get any louder as speed increases, but it obviously happens more often. It seems to come from the right side of the car, I originally thought it was from the wheel, but just now I had it jacked up and had a neighbor who works on cars look at it with me and now I'm not so sure.
When I described the problem to him, he first thought it was a CV joint, or possibly ball bearing. After a few minutes looking under the hood, he quickly ruled those out. Boots were in great condition, and he remarked that everything seems to be very solid around the wheel.
I thought that noise was a result of weight shift to the right side of the vehicle when making right-hand turns, but we had the car up on two jacks stands placed on the jack braces, turned the car on and gave it some gas with the wheels turned left, and you can definitely hear the noise with zero weight on the wheels or axles. When you straighten the wheel, the noise subsides.
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2016 LTD Ultimate, 2700 miles. First and only Hyundai for the moment.
I've experience this one twice, a few weeks apart: cold start the car, and in the first 100 yards or so I'll hear a tapping noise that's clearly rotational, varies with speed but eventually ceases. Sounds like it's coming from front passenger wheel well area, and sounds like a stick or some sort of debris is stuck in the wheel. Both times I've inspected the area and found nothing whatsoever.
I live in an apartment complex area, park in a lot always in reverse so I'm always going from park to drive. The area I live in is wooded ("Pine Barrens" region of Long Island) but the roads are paved so it's not like I'm driving thru wilderness.
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So i was cleaning my 2007 mazda miata and i noticed one wheel has some fairly deep scratched grooves inside of it. I inspected all the other tires and the other front tire has similar marks but they are way way more of a surface/barely there scratches. The rear wheels are not scratched. I am also hearing a rotational noise when i drive. It gets faster as I accelerate and slower when I brake. I don't know anything about cars.
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I have a 2013 Subaru Impreza with 23,500 miles on it; all service done at dealer, by the book. Brought car in at 22,212 miles for rotational noise in front right tire area that becomes noticeable at 35 mph and syncs with speed of wheel (especially annoying at highway speeds). tires were at 6/32, inside edge 'slightly chopped'. Alignment was done; right rear toe out of adjustment. the noise remained.
returned to dealer; manager took a ride with, said he heard the noise, said tires (the originals) might be made of softer rubber and wear faster, or it might be a wheel bearing starting to go. he did a visual check of tires and measured tread. they replaced the right bearing. Noise still there.
Returned to dealer, they road tested , heard the noise, ran car on lift and 'traced to center of transmission', ordered a Subaru remanufactured transmission and installed it. the noise remains . I was especially shocked at replacement of transmission! (car is still under warranty so it's not costing me anything but grief and aggravation at no resolution).
I have always felt the problem is at the wheel, but i'm no mechanic. they are the experts. Could it be a problem with defective brake parts that somehow are rubbing or if the lugs are tightened too far could that bend something. I am not a street racer and I drive like I plan to keep the car for a long time!
When I called (after the transmission replacement) about the driver one-touch window not working, the desk guy told me how to reset it (very easy) and said that they'd forgotten to do that. I told him that the noise is still there and he said "well, it could be coming from the roof rack" (I have non-Subaru cross bars on the roof rack and a fairing. I thought that comment was lame as the crossbars have been on since 2013 and I've heard no rotational noise from them. However, to 'rule out', I will remove them and take a drive.
I told desk guy I was going to drive the car for a week or so because conditions have not been optimal with bumpy roads and weather to be completely certain. several days have passed since that conversation; the noise is still there and once I've driven without the crossbars on, the car is going back.I am hoping for feedback on what to tell them to check next.
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My truck had devolped a whine/howl over the past coulple hundred miles. I thought it was a wheel bearing failing me. So yesterday I pulled it into the shop and jacked up the front end. Everthing checked out fine so I jacked up the rear end, started it up, put it in gear and to my surprise the noise was from the rear end.
I pulled the rear end apart and found the front pinion bearing had a defect in the race and the rollers were starting to pit out causing the noise and harshness when turning it. The truck has 130k, seal wasnt leaking and fluid looked/smelled normal. I think it was a legitimate defect not from abuse or lack of maintenance.
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I have been getting increased noise coming from the back of my car for the past month. So I jacked up the car and spun the tires and heard grinding noises in the rear right. I have a 2012 ToyotaPrius plug-in with 33,000 miles. When driving the car around 40 miles an hour there would be a howling sound coming from the back of the car regardless of the type of pavement I was driving on.
So I took it to the dealer today and they had it up on the rack in about an hour later they came to me and said it needed new tires and it would be about $700 and that this was likely causing the noise. I said that there was no way that it was the tires so I went and showed the mechanic how old the sound was coming out of the back right wheel. He listened with his stethoscope on the wheel bearings and said that he did hear some noise in there but still thought it was the tires.
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So on my girlfriends 2000 echo I get the classic bad wheel bearing noise/vibration on the front left (driver side) wheel. Worsens under load (right turn) and goes away when unloaded (left turn). I've replaced left side bearing, CV axle, brake rotors/pads and the noise still persists. My next thought is maybe the ball joint but humming/vibration tells me something out of rotational balance. Bearing in the transmission? I don't know. I'm stuck.
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I have a 2007 Prius that had a rotational noise on acceleration. I pinpointed the noise to the transmission area and suspected something was wrong with the electric motor. I took it to a local transmission shop and they disassembled the transmission to replace a bearing.
After repairs, they called me and informed me that the hybrid battery needed to be replaced. I've been driving the car for about a week with the noise and had no indication of a battery problem, or any other problem.
I had them tow the car back to my shop. The hybrid battery was discharged. The battery blocks were all between 10 and 12 volts. The vehicle would move slowly, but the ICE wouldn't start up to charge the battery. It had one DTC for hybrid battery malfunction.
I removed the battery from my own Prius and installed it in the car. The ICE fired up right away and shut off soon after, which would be completely normal in my car. But the engine never started again. I drove a short distance all on electric. The battery bars depleted quickly. Regen braking was not operating. There was a shudder every so often on acceleration. I'm not sure if it's in the transmission or the ICE is attempting to start? There are no DTCs so far.
The screen indicating where the power is going indicates that the engine is ON and delivering power even when it clearly is not. Not sure where to go with this one. It seems really odd that the ICE started once and won't start up. I tried disconnecting the battery and starting over, but the ICE still does not start up. I looked around the transmission for something disconnected, but found nothing.
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So after doing wheel bearings in the car. both front and back. I'm still getting the "wheel-bearing hum" sound if you will. Don't know how this can be possible with all brand new wheel bearings and hub in the front passenger side. other hubs were fine. I do need tires which will be ordered soon/ alignment im sure.
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