Bad Wheel Bearing?

I had to change out my passenger-front wheel bearing a couple of years back. It wasn't that cheap to do either. I had to buy a new hub spindle, because the shaft had been worn down by the bad bearing!
 
My 2012 CX-9 is making an intermittent low pitch whining noise. It has just under 36,000 miles on it. If I tap the brake or move the steering wheel a little to the right the noise stops for a short time, but then it starts up again. The noise gets louder if I move the steering wheel slightly to the left. The left rear wheel (driver's side) gets extremely hot. The pitch of the noise does not seem to change if I speed up or slow down. Could this be a wheel bearing? I wouldn't think tapping the brake would temporarily alleviate the problem if it is a wheel bearing.
 
Most likely it is a bearing. Keep in mind the rear wheel bearings are a part of an assembly of which the whole thing has to be replaced.
 
As a general rule a bad bearing do not cause thumping type noises. A bad bearing usually exhibits a grinding or squealing type noise. Thumping noises could be a unbalanced wheel (as you already suspected) an out-of-round wheel/tire, or possibly a bad CV joint. Strange noises that come from the front and change dramatically with turning of the steering wheel often indicate problems with the CV joint.

Partially agree with this because yes as a general rule it does not thump. However I have had them go bad....and due to my own knowing of what it was and how far I could push it it did begin to thump. However again this is only because I literally road the bearing 1 mile per day to and from work until I fixed it. It was so beat up by time I was done I almost lifted the wheel and hub off and out of the steering knuckle. NOT SAFE AT ALL. Do as I say and not as I do. It's a bearing pull it over and fix it.
 
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