Thread: Howling when going straight or turning slightly to the right when driving

Like the title says, I am getting a howling noise that gets louder the more I accelerate when going in a straight line or slightly turning right. It starts at around 40-50mph and completely goes away when turning left. The noise seems to be coming from the front passenger side of the car. I have replaced both front wheel bearings with timken wheel bearing with no success. What else do you guys think it could be? 2004 Grand Prix.

Originally Posted by stealthee

Yep. I chased a wheel bearing noise once. Swore it was left front. Noise would go away in right hand curves. Swapped left front, noise still there. Frustrated, I swapped right front thinking maybe I was thinking backwards on the noise disappearance. Noise still there. Even more frustrated after spending $200 and not solving the issue I took my uncle for a ride in it to help diagnose the noise. He said right rear. Went for another ride with my cousin in the back seat and he said right rear. I put a new right rear in and guess what? Noise was still there.

I jacked up the left rear and spun the wheel by hand and could easily hear the noise in it. Luckily the right rear came out in one piece so I swapped it in place of the left rear and voila, noise gone.

Interestingly enough, I started getting a howling noise from the rear about 2 years later. I figured the left rear was going bad since it was the only non-new bearing. I jacked the car up and spun the wheel and heard no noise. I grabbed it and wiggled it and felt no play. Confused I went to the right rear and the play was so bad that the wheel literally had 1/2" of play or more. Took it off, took it back in to Advance and got it replaced under the 3 year replacement warranty. The original right rear bearing is still in the left rear all these years later.

swapping the bearing from left to right, or vice versa will wear the bearing in a different pattern, likely why it's still okay.