Hello! I have a 2002 S60 AWD with 105k km, and have this droning noise in the (seems like) front when the car is in motion. The noise is constant with an occasional wub-wub-wub, and progressively gets louder until it get drowned out by wind noise at freeway speeds. I've checked for play when the wheels are jacked up, and there's none. The pitch or intensity of the noise does not change when turning either way, which makes me doubt the wheel bearing hub, maybe. How can I check if the carrier bearing in the front passenger axle is bad? Can it be fixed, or I have to replace the entire front passenger axle assembly? Or, how can I know for sure if it's the wheel bearing hubs?

I appreciate your thoughts and input.

 

Just need a little guidance......difference between wheel hub noise and carrier bearing (in the axle) noise. Any takers?

 

What kind of shape are your tires in? Getting low on tread? Been a while since they were rotated and balanced? I've noticed that typical "high mileage" tires (those with, say, 80,000 mile tread wear warranty) tend to make a noise that sounds much like the beginnings of a wheel bearing failure as they start to get sort of long in the tooth, so to speak. The Goodrich Long Trail (OEM) tires on my '11 Nissan Frontier are starting to do the same thing at almost 50k. I'll rotate them next week and get them balanced, and the noise probably will go away.

If your tires are okay, I'm thinking wheel bearings.

Lynn B.