Hi everyone,

I’ve been chasing a gremlin somewhere in the drivetrain lately. When driving, a noise becomes audible around 30-35mph and increases with the speed of the car. I’ve taken it up to around 50mph or so, and the noise persists. It also seems to intensify a bit when I let off the gas, and the car coasts while in gear.

This car was sitting for 6-7 years prior to my working on it. In the course of recent maintenance, I’ve done the following:

- motor mounts
- transmission mount
- new tires
- balanced wheels
- rear struts (fronts are next)
- new rotors
- new brake pads
- flushed rear end oil
- partially flushed transmission oil
- replaced driveshaft bearing

I’m attaching a video to hopefully help with understanding the noise going on. I tried a separate set of wheels, and it didn’t change anything. The max upload size for the forum meant that I had to shorten it significantly, but hopefully it’s long enough.

Additionally, the passenger rear wheel seems to have a slight wobble. I’ll add a video in the next post.

Lastly, I put the rear wheels on jack stands, and took the engine up gradually to 50mph. There is some noise, but it’s not the same intensity, so I’m assuming it either A. has to be under load or B. it’s in the front end.

TIA!

EDIT - I can't seem to get the forum to accept any of the files types listed, so I've created links for them instead.

Driving video HERE, tire wobble HERE.

 

Rear passenger tire wobble video attached above, via Googledoc.

 

You need to make the files public.

 

Thanks @LeX2K - updated.

 

Different wheels and tires, correct? There was no change at all, exactly the same? Noise is sorta like a bad wheel bearing except it also pulses instead of a steady noise. Maybe bad differential? Axle?

Try jacking up each wheel and rotate the tire by hand with your hand on the coil spring, compare the amount of vibration.

 

I will check this out. Do you think the wobble in the rear tire could be from a bad axle? I also considered wheel bearings, but I assumed not, since it’s not constant.

 

No, the hub/bearing is a rigid structure it won't move like that via bad axle.* I've never seen any Lexus/Toyota with a bad wheel bearing have play, not saying it doesn't happen but I have worked on quite a few. They all had the same issue, "helicopter" humming noise, constant. Sometimes gets worse with steering wheel angle other times no.

Now that I think about it, remove the wheel/tire that wobbles and run the engine at low speed (both wheels raised of course) see if the hub wobbles. Line something up with the hub edge if necessary like a ruler. Look for wobble.

*unless the axle and hub/bearing are both bad

 

It does seem to be more noticeable when banking to the right at speed, yes.

 

That is classic wheel bearing failure. If you run the car jacked up at low speed you should be able to hear the bad bearing. Be careful of course putting the car in gear with the wheels raised can go very wrong.

 

Ok got it! I will give these a try this week. Thanks for the info! Hopefully this will solve the problem.

 

yep wheel bearing

 

Circling back - I can confirm that the passenger rear hub had very noticeable wobble. I've ordered a new hub and bear and will update with pics when I get it removed.