Howling, humming noise from the front right side

Oct 16, 2006 1 Replies

My 2006 Lexus ES 330 makes low-level howling, humming noise from the front right side. It's not loud but it's there. I just want to get some knowledge on this issue before bringing the car to a dealer to have them look at it.



Here's a list of things that I found about the noise.



  1. It doesn't seem to change the pitch or loudness regardless of the driving speed.
  2. The noise starts to appear at a speed higher than 20mph. I don't hear it at a speed higher than 60mph. But I'm not sure if the noise is gone at a higher speed or if I just cannot hear it due to wind noise.


It is likely a wheel bearing in the early stages of failure. As it progresses, it will start getting louder with speed and eventually it will get really loud before it fails completely (and tears up the hub).

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