Front End Noise?? Wheel Bearing? Breaks??
 

So my 2000 Box just stared this new front end noise that is driving me nuts. Sounds like the front right tire. Almost sounds like a wheel bearing, but stearing or braking doesn't seem to make it go away. Comes and go, but seems to start when holding a staedy rpm....will go away if I give it a shot of gas, but will return when I hold a steady rpm again. Argggg driving me craze.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for your help

Maybe someone else can figure this out with the information provided but I need a little more to go on...

First, with the engine off and the car stationary, pull and push on the right front wheel looking for any play or looseness. Push/pull in a top to bottom motion and also try a front to rear motion and push in and pull out. Anything?

Second, put a jack under the right front and lift the wheel up.
1. Repeat #1 push/pulls on the wheel again; any difference or anything not firm and tight?
2. Do you hear anything out of the ordinary when you rotate the wheel by hand? Mild scuffing sound of the brake pads against the rotor is normal. Turn the wheel very slowly and try to feel the vibration of any grinding or binding.
3. Check all of the front right suspension components looking for wear. Push/pull on all of the suspension components to see if any of the bushings are loose and/or worn.

Let us know what you find.

I just had the driver's side front wheel bearing replaced on my 2000S. At first I thought I flat spotted a tire (that's another story...). Had this humming noise that seemed to get better when turning right and worse when turning left. I was due for new tires anyway so I bought and had mounted four new tires. I drove off the lot of the tire place and still has same exact noise so that pretty much told me it was not a tire.

My indy repair shop called it right away and cost of repair was ~$600 parts and labor.

From your description, it sounds like same problem.

I've done the pushing and pulling of the tire, but not on a jack yet. The car was certified just a month and a half ago with not issues.

Noise don't change when stearing left or right....normally a bearing will stop when stearing one way or another (in my experience anyways)

Guess I'm going to have to make sometime and bring it in :(

Dre

Before you take it in lookup "suspension squeak" and you will see how to fix it. I had an issue last week that was similar and I tried this fix and it's all gone now. Quiet as ever.

It was started by newjerseydave

97 Boxster thanks for the link.....I;m starting to think it's a heat shield or something! But I will try your link and see if it works, as I'm willing to try anything!!

Cheers,

Dre

Observations on the wheel bearing possibility:

I just, a few months back, replaced my right front wheel bearing. With mine, I heard it when moving fairly slowly, through first gear and maybe part way through second. Faster than that and the other sounds sort of drowned it out. It WAS consistently heard in those situations (did not "come and go"). It also did get more noticeable when negotiating a sweeping left turn at, say, fairly slow speed in second gear. Then it would again become less noticeable (but still there) when the steering was straightening out. Braking didn't seem to affect it one way or the other, other than the fact that (as the brakes slowed the vehicle) the frequency of the noise, of course, became lower pitched.

I was unable to find any issues with the push-pull test, on the upper/lower or left/right aspects of the tire...it felt tight and normal to me, whether the tire was on the pavement or jacked up off the ground. Spinning the wheel, slowly or fast, seemed normal as well.

I think I may have caught it pretty early---if I had let it go awhile, some of these 'tests' might have given me a different result.

I say all this while acknowledging that your problem may well be something entirely unrelated to the wheel bearing---loose heat shield or whatever. In fact, if you are driving at a constant speed NOT hearing the noise and then, out of the blue, start hearing it (not having changed speed), I would suspect that maybe it's NOT the bearing.