brandonrob

Hello all, I just purchased an older 2002 ES300 with 140k miles from an older couple in Chicago. They were the original owners and had it service at Lexus of Orland Park it's entire life. Fantastic shape! Love it! So anyways, when driving it home I noticed a slight humming/howling sound coming from what I thought was the rear driver side but only after 40mph. it gets quieter up around 70-75mph. It needed new tires, so I put a set of Kuhmo Solus on her yesterday thinking it may just be a tire/balancing issue. I took it for a spin last night to see if that was the issue, much quieter but I still can feel a slight pulsation in the steering wheel and slightly in the gas pedal along with the hum/howl after 40mph. Next thought it's probably a wheel bearing somewhere so I took it on a "S" curve at 40mph to see if it was better/worse turning a certain direction and it seems to just be consistent!!! I do not want to just start replacing one bearing at a time because that's an expensive guessing game. I'm pretty handy and do most maintenance items myself but I've heard the rear bearing can be difficult if the bearing fused to the brake backing plate! Anyways, any direction would be helpful, I want to get this handled asap. Thank you in advanced!

Brandon

brandonrob

no help at all?

LeX2K

Wheel bearing noise may not change on sharp turns/when loading the bearing I've had this happen. I'd lift the car up and spin the hub you suspect is bad, for this test to be effective the brake caliper should be removed. The vibration could be due to a bad/damaged wheel.

speedkar9

The vibration makes me think its either a tire out of balanced, or a CV shaft that is out of balance.

But the whirring sound is definitely the bearings. Score out the front bearings by lifting up the front and running the car in drive. Listen as the wheels spin, it'll be easy to pinpoint the bad bearing, as I did on my dad's Sienna: