Subtle grinding sound

[310toumad]

Sounds almost like a bad pulley to me, but I only hear the noise when the car is moving. Its relatively quiet, but becomes a lot more noticeable when the engine hits 2000 RPM. Obviously something spinning fast and sound seems co-dependent on engine RPM. However when I put it in park, rev the engine to over 2000 and I hear nothing. Bad CV joint or wheel bearing? I don't hear anything when turning, and its barely audible when cruising steadily.. just when I accelerate. I did notice some grease leaking out of the driver's side CV boot recently, but not a ton. Could that joint be going bad?

I have yet to take off the belts and spin the pulleys by hand. I have a stethoscope I can use, but if the noise isn't there when the car is being revved at idle can I rule it out being a pulley?

[Keko]

Sounds like a bad wheel bearing. You can check wheel bearings in about 3 minutes just by jacking it up and seeing how much vertical is on the wheels. Do a quick youtube search.

I have a bad CV joint that I am replacing soon and the symptom is shaking at 65+mph with light acceleration. It makes a couple odd noises every once in awhile but I don't think that's the issue you have.

[310toumad]

The only thing that makes me question if its a wheel bearing is wouldn't it be audible when I get up to speed? It only gets loud while accelerating, but once I reach a constant speed you can't really hear it. I could accelerate from 0-30, hear the noise, but once I'm cruising at 30 nothing. Same thing if I were to go from 45-65, etc. But again zero noise when I rev the engine sitting in park. I guess I'll raise it up and spin the wheels by hand and see if I hear any gritty/grinding noises.

[Keko]

Maybe someone else can chime in. Suppose it could be a bad CV, but it's weird that you would only have the noise at lower speeds? My passenger CV is bad and shakes above 65mph but only if I am accelerating. Coasting at 65 is not noticeable.