Thumping noise from rear wheel

I recently replaced my tires. I was getting a thumping noise while driving that I thought was a balancing issue. I didn't investigate because I was only going to have my winter tires on a few months. But when I put my summer tires on I had them professionally balanced. I had the balancing rechecked 3 times and think I have ruled it out as an issue.

The rhythmic thumping is apparent at low speeds and increases with speed. Fairly loud. I think I have isolated it to the rear driver side wheel well. I was thinking maybe it could be the hub/bearings, and I have started hearing a squeak from the rear passenger side wheel, but not the rear driver side. I always like to get suggestions and hints before jacking the car up and mucking around. My plan is to check for and kind of looseness or abnormal play in the wheels, but if there's anything else I should be investigating it helps to know before I start.

Thank in advance.

 

Yeah, the old weights were removed. The job was done poorly at one of those cut-rate national chains. I had to take it back 3 times, then eventually just bring it somewhere more knowledgeable. Suffice to say, there was significant road vibration at first. After the last balancing, I have no road vibration. I should also specify that, though the noise increases with frequency as speed increases, it does not increase in volume and causes no driveability issues at this time. I have had the car to 80mph with no shake or vibration. Actually, at 70mph+ the noise decreases to a mild hum.

 

I'm using a Kumho Solus tire, forget the exact model. I've had good experiences with them before. I'm not entirely sure what kind of balancer they used at the shop. If they used a standard dynamic balancer, would paying to go to a different shop that uses a road force balancer be something worth looking in to?

I'm going to try that as well. I have to jack up the car and remove the wheels to check the hubs. If there is obvious damage to the hubs, I'll likely pursue that. If there's nothing I can find, I'll rotate the tires and see if the noise moves with it. Since the tires have been looked at numerous times, I'm not sure how to follow up on it if the noise moves as well. As I mentioned above, would it be worth it to bring them to a different shop and have them checked on a road force balancer, or would I pursue that some other way?

 

Update: It's the rear hub assembly going bad. Once I got the tire/brakes/rotor off, there was a distinct grinding from the rear passenger hub. If replacing it doesn't fix the problem I'll update again, but otherwise consider it solved.

 

I'm at about 140k, but I believe I started noticing the noise late last summer. Probably around 125k-130k. It became a lot more pronounced the past month or two, I imagine because the bearings were getting more worn. I don't hear any issues from the other wheels, but next time a do a rotation I'll check them with the tires off to see if I have issues anywhere else.

I'm positive they did a dynamic balance. Almost no shops do static anymore. However, I'll let you know that I have been static balancing my tires for 2 years now. I brought my car to a tire shop because I damaged my balancer taking it out of storage. Prior to that, I've been balancing my tires and my wife's tires without problem. It can take a little while, especially since I was using a cheap Harbor Freight balancer, but I never had the slightest issue with it once I was done. I'm planning on getting another static balancer after this fiasco. Took 4 d@mn trips to the shop (4+ hours) over 2 weeks to get the job done. Not to mention having to argue with the guys at the shop that the tires weren't balanced correctly. The first time I brought it in, the tires were so out of balance I couldn't drive above 60mph. It's too hard to find good mechanics around me. Anyway, static balancing (done correctly) hasn't failed me in the past, with no vibrations or irregular wear for mostly highway miles (up to 80mph).