I believe that my driver's side rear wheel bearing is going bad...

I hear a high pitched whine from this side when driving at a constant speed. My tires are newer, so it does not appear to be tire noise. Can I do more damage by driving the car in this condition?

How can I check into it further? I have checked front wheel bearings before by pushing and pulling the tire at the top and then both sides. Or, can I do something else by jacking up the car?

If it is bad, how about an approximate Indie cost? Should I replace both sides?


Thanks.


2000 S, ~93K miles.

Quote
Tony in Whittier
I hear a high pitched whine from this side when driving at a constant speed. My tires are newer, so it does not appear to be tire noise. Can I do more damage by driving the car in this condition?

How can I check into it further? I have checked front wheel bearings before by pushing and pulling the tire at the top and then both sides. Or, can I do something else by jacking up the car?

If it is bad, how about an approximate Indie cost? Should I replace both sides?


Thanks.


2000 S, ~93K miles.

pitched whine, though. The noise was a lower pitched noise (whine? or a faint 'groan' hard to describe even at the time).

Except for the noise -- that only became apparent *after* had 4 new tires installed -- which eliminated a huge amount of tire noise -- there were no other signs the bearing was bad. No play, no visible signs of a bearing in distress.

Really, while we both drove the car and were not 100% sure our combined guess obviously guessed the right bearing for after it was replaced the noise was gone and the replacement bearing has 160K miles on it and the other 3 original bearings have 250K miles with no untoward noise or other signs of trouble.

Best advice I can offer is if you and a trusted mech suspect a bad bearing to agree on which one it is and replace it. I do not like to drive a car with a a suspected bad wheel bearing (or any other bearing) any more than I have to. I'm always concerned the bearing's condition will not grow gradually worse and give me plenty of warning but go bad quite suddenly and at a most inopportune time.

Oh, you can check for bearing play if you want. Your car may exhibit a different kind of bearing failure. Get the car safely in the air so all 4 wheels/tires are off the ground and check each wheel for any play in the vertical or horizontal axis. Of course you're looking for the wheel/bearing that has more play than the others. You might try listening with a stethescope while someone gently turns the wheel/tire for any noise that might pinpoint the bad bearing.

You can replace both bearings at the end of the car that has the suspected bad bearing or even all 4 bearings. It is your money.

The rear bearing cost around $100 (in 2004) and required a couple (less than 3?) hours labor to replace.

However, when I suggested the shop replace both rear bearings, in fact all 4 bearings, the owner talked me out of it. The rear bearing is costly enough to replace and 2 is even more costly. The shop owner told me the fronts are even *more* expensive (labor was the biggest factor) and convinced me that trying to guess the bad bearing and replacing just that bearing was the best course of action.

Which it proved to be.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

The noise was so odd that I didn't believe it was a bearing.... everyone said bad bearings are high pitched. My mechanic said to just replace the bad one but I had him replace the other side as well..... I did this because I have a long-term, drive-it-till-it-dies plan for my 2000S now at 186K miles. I don't remember the mileages, but I have now replaced the fronts and rear bearings.

Odd, I was kind of thinking I was about due for another failure and was listening for it the other day..... no symptoms though.

Just 'cause I'm a geek, I asked for the old bearings and then took them apart. You need to run a solvent over the balls and races to remove the grease. All four bearings (maybe one was fine), two each repair, showed pitting. I think there are some words of art that better describe what I saw, but all showed some degradation.

Today I safely lifted the 2 rear wheels off the ground. I did not feel any excess play in either the vertical or horizontal axis. I spun each tire as fast as I could in the normal direction of travel and I could not hear any growling. Just normal sounding tire to air friction noises.

I inspected the suspension components and did not see anything unusual.

I do not have a stethoscope to use in the diagnosis. I rotated it slowly and did not feel any roughness. I am going to try again tomorrow since the rear wheels are already off the ground.

I may have to let a pro (Mechanic) have a listen with the car on a lift.

As some have reported a noisy and bad bearing is not at all evident by the usual bad bearing tests: check for excessive play; noise; roughness. There is the hard to locate/pinpoint noise and that's that.

Sincerely,

MarcW.

i had exactly the same thing happen to me that happened to marc, i heard the noise after putting on new tires. in fact, i went back to the tire place and complained since the noise coincided perfectly with the new tires being put on.
in my case, we put the car on a lift and spun the wheels by hand as hard as we could. one side was perfectly quiet and the other side had a grinding noise. not a terribly loud or grating noise, just the noise of pieces of metal that really shouldn't be rubbing against each other.
get it fixed as soon as possible. i wouldn't drive the car in that condition as the bearing could seize since they aren't lubricated any more and the friction could probably heat them up to melting point. i imagine that it could get so bad that you'd have to replace the part that the bearing sits on and that would be lotsa $$$.

--
MY 2000 S, Ocean Blue, Metropol Blue, Savanah Beige.
Bought June 2000 - Sold May 2010

117k on mine. I usually have the radio on and don't regularly listen for irregular car noises, but since I've noticed this sound, there's nothing I can do to not hear it, and it's driving me crazy! My sound is very much like an out of balance wheel, but i hear the sound even with a different wheel and there are no vibrations. The sound is sort of a wa wa wa wa that is proportional to the speed of wheel rotation. I had a front bearing go bad many years ago and it would grind under load. My driver's rear bearing is not making that grinding sound...maybe not the bearing, maybe not that bad, or maybe just a different kind of failure. IIRC correctly my front bearing replacement was about $450 at a trusted (and full price) independent. I'll know soon....

My noisy drivers side rear bearing replacement cost my $39 for the part and $25 for the bay rental! About a year later, I did the other side while I was replacing CV boots. All set for now. Fronts seem happy for the moment.

dghii
2000 Boxster S 6speed 112k miles

I had my rear bearings replaced in Nov 11. When I bought the car, it had the noise in the rear but I did not know any better...drove around with it for about a year. Since I got it done, it is a different car...quiet... can hear the radio now! It did cost a bit...glad I did it. Bob