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Trying to Locate Which Wheel Bearing is Bad, if any.

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by kevelev, Jun 22, 2018.

  1. kevelev

    kevelev Junior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 31, 2017
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    Location:
    ny
    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    I have a 2011 Prius (Gen 3) with 105,000 miles and I have what sounds like a bearing noise. I've looked at all wheels, checked the 3-9 and 12-6 o'clock for play, but found nothing. When driving it sounds like it's coming from the driver's front side. I would also jack up both front wheels, hold one tire with a log and drive up to 10 mph to allow one front wheel to spin at a time and see if there was any noticeable noise. They seemed the same, but both almost seemed to make the humming noise when heard from the inside. I know for sure that when i take an off ramp and turn right going fairly fast, that the noise decreases a lot, and once I straighten out that the noise comes back. This makes me think that it's the right side that is bad (lighten the load, the noise leaves). But the sound seems to be coming from the driver side, other passengers in the car think so too, so it's not just because it's the closest wheel to the driver. I also spun the rear wheels as fast as I could by hand, but couldn't hear any noticeable noise. The noise occurs even when the IC engine is off by the way.

    The last thing I'm going to try is spin each wheel and feel the coil spring, I read that a noticeable vibration can be felt that way. The only other thing I can think of is that the rear passenger tire could be worn. If a rear tire has slight amount of toe wear could that sound like a bad wheel bearing? I just don't know if that fits the symptoms (gets louder with speed, lessens with turning, humming, etc.).
     
  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    I had one that defied every technique I could think of to locate it until I tried a ChassisEar, and that pinpointed it right away.

    -Chap
     
    Grit likes this.
  3. Grit

    Grit Senior Member

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    Finally, someone used the search feature. #searchfeaturedeletemod
     
  4. kevelev

    kevelev Junior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 31, 2017
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    Location:
    ny
    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    So I jacked up the front two wheels and spun them by hand. I noticed that the driver side was causing a faint vibration in the coil spring, the other side was not. I changed the front driver side bearing and the noise is gone! So you can't just go by noise getting louder when turning, because it was the opposite case for me: more weight on the bad bearing made it quieter!
     
    Mendel Leisk likes this.