All signs point to wheel bearing but it's not

Alignment or bad wheel bearing if not properly torqued

 

It is BEST to replace bearings in pair, both front, both rear.
It could very well be the bearing you didn't replace.
Just because the tires are "fine", doesn't mean that's not the noise.
Does the sound change when you are on newer paved roads?
Is your tire pressure correct? You could rotate the tired from front to back, does the sound changed?

Sadly, I used what were supposed to be good bearings, trq. They suck! I only got 5000 miles out of them.
You used better ones, which is good. I thought the electric steering rack was bad because steering slightly
there was a growling noise, left and right. But I had decided to check the bearings, which meant I had to
pull the axel out, sure enough, one was hard to turn, and noisey.

This coudl be your noise.

 

I had a tire that was loud, probable cause could be because of a bad wheel bearing..

I suggest to swap front tires with the rear one's and see if if noise direction changes..

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It's usually the wheel bearing you didn't change. They're ventriloquists, I swear.

 

Prius wheel bearings have not proven to follow conventional wisdom for me. Usually you can narrow it down to which one is the problem but I was unable to figure out which one was bad on my car. I replaced both fronts and the noise stopped. Even during disassembly I was unable to conclusively determine which one was the probem.

That kind of noise that changes with load is either bearings or tires though. If you rotate tires and the noise doesn't travel it's the bearing.

 

I seem to recall the wheel bearing style Toyota chose is lower friction, but not as durable? Needle bearings? Apologies; I’m clueless.

 

Ball bearings

 

For me they defied all the conventional-wisdom tricks for identifying which bearing ... but a ChassisEar (multichannel stethoscope with several wireless clip-on pickups) made the ID in seconds.

It can also be helpful to note what the pitch of the sound is at different speeds (say, by having a friend ride along who has perfect pitch, or plays an instrument (that fits in a car), or has a tuner for one). Then with a little math you can rule certain things in or out.

Prof. Kelly has out a smartphone app that works on the same principle, but takes up less space than that friend with the tuba.

 

^ That's great. I had a neighborhood Subaru mechanic who was a big believer in those chassis ears kits, he said he made a lot of customers happy working out mechanical AWD problems with it. Worked for the wheel bearings in my wagon anyway.

 

The Steelman chassis ear tool is one of the best ways to isolate the source of those types of noise. I personally prefer the wired type.

IF it is a front bearing (on a FWD car like prius), here is another way to isolate the source. Safely raise and support the vehicle. Have a second person ready the the car, (turn off or disable traction control) put it in drive, and accelerate until you hear the bearing noise. CAREFULLY reach above the tire to touch the coil spring. The bad bearing will cause the spring on that corner to vibrate much more noticeably than the other side.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

"That's great. I had a neighborhood Subaru mechanic who was a big believer in those chassis ears kits"


If you work on Subarus, you kind of have to. I don't work on alot of them, but I still do more Subaru rear wheel bearings than all other brands put together.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

At a few different known speeds (say, 30, 40, and 45 mph), what pitch of sound is produced?

 

Sometimes it can be helpful to be attentive to the pitch of the noise, as well as to its volume or other quality. For one thing, it can clarify whether the pitch is following road speed, engine speed, MG1 speed .... With a little more work, it can sometimes be connected to wheel rpm, MG2 rpm, etc.

I think I've occasionally been surprised about which corner of the car I thought a sound was coming from.

 

Im over 200k with original front wheel bearings. How long do these normally last? I replaced my rears at around 160k. I love the winding roads and really push her.

 

Most of them will "work" and not fall off the car for hundreds of thousands of miles.

Many will start making new noises by 50k.

Most of them change sound very very gradually, so the driver rarely notices that they've become noisy.

So "how long" is more a question of your personal threshold for noise.

 

It is possible the left front bearing is going bad. Even though it's a toyota bearing.