advice on wheel bearing

I'm getting a wheel bearing hum coming from RF of my g/f's 3. She's also got a shaking at certain speeds which seems to be coming from the same side. maybe it's not a bearing thats making the hum. maybe something else causing both? not really sure. please help me out.

also, if i do replace just the bearing, would this be the way to go to avoid having to press the bearings in? https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned). i would really like to avoid having to do that. she's selling the car so im' not looking for something too crazy but we promised we'd get the bearing replaced.

thanks

Look at the tires... is the RF tire considerably cupped? It's not uncommon for a lot of people to mistake tire noise for a wheel bearing. You can rotate tires around and see if the noise moves/changes/etc etc.

First off though... did you jack the car up and make sure there is no play in the bearing?

Even if there is not play, it can still be the bearing of course making noise. Go down the road at 35mph... then turn HARD left and right and back again... if it's the bearing then the noise will get louder when you turn left, and quieter when you turn right. This is because you are adding/taking away load on the bearing as you shift directions.

ok thanks a lot. i'll try that. one thing that is weird is this car has had a weird tread wear since we have owned it. see pic. maybe someone can tell me what this means. and don't say over inflation because my tires are always set between 33 and 36psi. once i got these winter tires off her summer tires were doing the same thing. thanks.

What size are those tires? And what size rim? If it's not overinflation... it almost looks like the tires are wider than stock.

15" rim has 195/65R15s and should be set to 34psi.

16" rim has 205/55R15s and should be set to 32psi.

17" rim has 205/50R17s and should be set to 32psi.


If you have 16s/17s, you technically have them overinflated... but in my experience only 1-4 psi over is not enough to cause a wear pattern that badly... usually you can get away with about 3psi over with no ill effects.

What brand tires? Do all 4 tires wear that way down the center? Or only the front/back? Can we get a picture of the sidewall of the tire at a 3/4 view... to see how much the sidewall bulges out?

I have a Jeep with 40x16-17 tires mounted on 17x9.5" wheels and run 10psi on the street... it will still wear the centers just like yours but that's to be expected... the reason for such a wide tire is to not lose the inner bead when offroading and aired down to 4psi... the outter bead has a beadlock ring keeping it on.