We have a 1998 SL2 with 105,000 miles. We put snow tires on it last fall for our kid's year at college. Now it's back and has summer tires on it.
But now it sounds like there are coarse tread tires, it rumbles, with pitch going up as speed goes up. Any ideas? It is loud enough to need earplugs at highway speeds.
Thanks!
Have you had the alignment checked on all four wheels? Other possibility is that it's a wheel bearing or CV joint that's going. Same noise when in neutral and coasting? Any different on a right or left turn?
Who changed the winter to summer tires? Loose lugnuts?
It quiets down on left turns and is louder on right turns.
Neutral/coasting doesn't make a difference.
I will check the CV jo>Have you had the alignment checked on all four wheels? Other possibility is
It sounds like a left-hand wheel bearing. Check to see if it pulls to the left on a level road, with properly-inflated tires.
snip to correct top posting
Conventional wisdom suggests left wheel bearing if noise increases during right turns, but YMMV. I recently had a bad wheel bearing where noise increased when turning towards the bad side. After removing the wheel and brakes there was no noise or looseness/play. Diagnosis was made by elimination after replacing the other side first and confirmed only after replacing the second side. Search Google groups for my complete repair report posting.
Good luck, YMMV
It doesn't look to difficult and the part is cheap enough:
You are right -- I misread the problem. Yes -- a noisy left wheel bearing should get noisier on right turns; a bad right wheel bearing should make noise on left turns. The car should also pull toward the bad wheel on a straight, level road, with no crosswind.
It's the driver's side front wheel bearing. You can get it replaced at a place like Les Schwab or Midas.
Not necessarily. My experience is that the driver's side lasts about twice as long as the passenger side, probably because most of the miles are with only a driver. The Saturn front wheel bearings seem to wear out a little sooner than on most cars...probably because the design puts a lot of stress on them. I get about 80,000 miles on the driver's side and 160,000 miles on the passenger side front bearings. I've never had to replace the rear wheel bearings so maybe that's compensation.
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I suspect that you were and are correct that it is most likely a bad left wheel bearing. The Saturn wheel bearing is a double row ball bearing and I suspect it is normally the outer row which is the most heavily loaded in an opposite turn so will both wear and sound louder when turned away from the bad side bearing and often quieter when turned toward the bad side of the car.. On my most recent failure (left side wheel), I suspect that it was the inside ball row which failed which resulted in it being noisier when turned left (towards the bad wheel). I did not cut the old bearing apart to see.
JMHE and .02, YMMV
If the OP is considering a DIY repair I recommend reading my earlier reports of this job.
Just my .02, Good luck, YMMV
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