The noise increases with speed and is reminiscent of the road noise that the clunky snow tires of fifty years ago made. It is unaffected by engine load or by braking, the pads are thick and the rotors are smooth. A road test reveals that swerves to the left increase the noise, while swerves to the right decrease it a bit.

Traditional wisdom would lead me to suspect the right front hub but there is no evidence of heat buildup, at least on short trips. Turning the unloaded tires manually reveals nothing unusual and there is no evidence of bearing looseness on either side.

The only item of interest that turned up in a visual inspection is that the inboard end of the left drive axle has more radial play inside of the transmission than I have observed on V70 models. It is probably unrelated, but I thought that I would mention it anyway.

 

Any ideas on this yet? I recently bought a 2005 V50, and I am getting that exact same noise. I just had it safetied here after purchase, so it has all new brakes and a wheel alignment, but I get this road noise that sounds like winter tires in summer.
We tested it and the sound is not so noticeable from outside at speeds of about 60km/h, but inside, once you get above about 50, it is very noticeable and really annoying around 110km/h.

 

The hot right front hub after a long drive was the tip off: right wheel bearing/hub assembly. Unfortunately, I wasn't even able to get the ball joint out of the spindle because my tool doesn't fit in the space provided and an hour of rapping with the two-hammer method failed to make it pop.

Perhaps someone knows whether or not the OTC 6297 will work on this vehicle. (OTC doesn't.)