Vehicle: Chevy Malibu 2000, mileage ~ 70k
The noise has the same characteristics as worn brake noise - a rhythmic, speed-dependent rubbing sound that gets louder when braking. It is worse when driving downhill and much worse when braking downhill. I had mechanics examine the vehicle and they assure me the brakes are fine. They say the cause is most likely a slowly failing wheel bearing. They advise me to keep on using the car until the noise becomes bad enough that its cause can be identified. I am not happy with this idea, since at speed the noise is quite loud and sounds very much like something is wrong. The mechanics did not appear to be idiots, so it is not clear that taking the vehicle anywhere else would help. Any suggestions?

JCBill; It does sound like a wheel bearing noise from your description. While driving straight, at a safe speed, jerk the wheel to the left and right to see if the sound changes. (without applying the brakes) If you hit something, not my fault. If the sound changes, it's more than likely a bearing, but it's tough to be sure. When on a hoist, the weight of the vehicle is off of the bearings, so I can understand your mechanic's reluctance.
Loren
SW WA

In Reply To

Ah yes.... The ole "drive it til it fails, makes it easier to diagnosis" method.... Yea I'm not a huge fan of that method either but is does make life easier. . . All kidding a side, Loren has some real good suggestions that will load a bad bearing to help pinpoint where it's at. And in all fairness to the techs looking at it, if it is a bearing going, at 1st they can be real hard to pinpoint & usually this is a slow progression failure. . . . Sounds like they don't want to sell you parts you don't need so it's hard to fault them for that. . . . One last thing I'll mention since I can't hear the noise is to also take a real close look at your tires. Tires can cup in a certain way where they sound exactly like a bearing failing and it starts out light & gets worse (just like a bearing) as they cup more.... A simple thing you could do is rotate the tires & see if the noise changes at all......

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(This post was edited by Hammer Time on Jul 9, 2009, 1:06 AM)