The thumping sound comes from the rear passenger side and increases with speed. The noise decreases in volume when I go into a right curve, but starts right back up after that.

I originally though the sound was coming from uneven tire wear, but those have been replaced with 4 new michelin's and the noise is still there. Also have new front struts.

Any ideas? I already checked to see if someone is locked in my trunk.

 

Well, I jacked the car up and spun the wheel and could hear the sound. From what I can tell it's the brake pads rubbing on the disk. Any ideas on how to fix that?

 

The fix would be a new rotor if it's actually a warped rotor causing the problem. First I would remove the caliper and rotor to see if it's actually the wheel bearing causing the noise. I have to say that bad wheel bearings usually make a grinding noise though. Thumping is usually reserved for a broken shock or missing rubber bushing allowing metal to metal contact. Have you tried pushing down on the rear corner of the car to watch the rebound? It should only bounce once with no noise.

 

The noise comes only occurs when the wheel is turning and there is no noise when I push down on the corner.
It's definitely not a grinding noise, more of a thump that increases as the wheel turns.

 

Ok, pull the caliper out of the way and see if the noise is still there when you spin the hub.

Does the noise change when you apply the brakes?

 

When I spin the hub w/o the caliper and rotor it makes the noise. Must be the bearing, right?

 

It does sound as if that's it. You don't have the T5 all wheel drive version?

 

It's an 2006 S40 T5 FWD.

Is this the part that I need?

TIMKEN HA590322 Rear Wheel Hub & Bearing | eBay

 

The dealership quoted me $468 (plus tax and supplies) so basically $500.00 for this repair. The OEM part is $250, and Autozone is $175.

However, I spoke to someone from craiglist that would only charge me $50 to put it one....that sounds like a deal IF they did the job correctly.

Does anyone have any experience or have a link that they could share of how to replace the rear wheel hub assembly? I would really like to do this myself as it seems pretty simple. Thanks

 

Do a search on here and the other Volvo forums. Hopefully someone documented it. I know I've read threads discussing it, just can't remember a how-to thread.