Started getting a rhythmic vibration/grumble from my front end yesterday. Put the car up on stands, put it in gear, and found the left front wheel making the sound once per revolution. My first guess was the wheel/hub getting ready to fail, since I expect more of a clicking from a bad CV joint, but after a diagnostic drive, I'm wondering...

As expected, it gets worse on a right-hand curve, and nearly goes away on a left-hander (I believe this would be common to hub and CV issues). The interesting thing I noticed is that it's worse when coasting - if I apply even a little throttle, the audible noise and the vibration (felt through the steering wheel) drop off noticeably. Seems to me this would indicate the CV joint (I wouldn't think torque being applied would make a difference if it was the hub).

Anybody have any suggestions for how to diagnose this with a little more certainty?

 

Good news is, they're both pretty easy to replace. I just put new bearings on both of my front wheels. I had to do a CV boot on the passenger side, so that was a little more work. But for the driver's side, I didn't even have to undo the ball joint or tie rod end to get the old bearing out and the new one on.

When my bearings started to go, it was more of a hum at certain speeds. I thought it was tire noise, but it didn't go away or change when I rotated the tires. So when a mechanic had to test-drive it for an unrelated issue and reported noisy bearings, I knew exactly what noise he was talking about.

I'm really happy so far with the Detroit Axle bearings I put on. Granted, I only did one test drive on them so far, but they appear to be identical in fit and finish to the bearings I took off the car, which were presumably the originals. Much quieter now! I got the pair of them on Amazon for well under $100 (yup, for TWO). The "OE" bearings will be more than twice as much, and for the age and residual value of the car, I can live with saving on parts where it makes sense.

The usual cause of death for a CV axle seems to be a torn boot leading to loss of lubrication and introduction of dirt/water. If your boots are in good shape, and there's not any weird slop or rattling or anything in the joints, well, I'm no pro, but I'd suspect the bearings more than the axle. But that left-side axle doesn't look like it would be very difficult at all to remove and replace, especially if you're doing bearings, too.

Good luck! I feel for you!

 

Thanks, but I certainly can't complain....108,000 miles on the car, and if I ever had either replaced it was back in the last decade.

 

Were the boots torn on the axles? In my experience with bad cv joints they only made noise on tight turns, and only did so when the boot was torn.

My Camry winter beater from a few years ago was really bad. I stuffed grease into the boot just to get through January and February , it never vibrated or grumbled while going straight though.

While on jack stands grab the tire and see if there is any play. Pay attention to movement from the steering being locked though. The tire will move a little bit it pushing the left and right side.

Check the ball joints and tie rod ends. If the control arm bushings haven't been done yet they are almost assuredly bad. Google lca if you don't know about them.

Don't know what might be clicking. Something from the brakes would be my guess. I would take the tire off to inspect everything