I have a 2003 Sonata GLS V6 Auto Trans.
I'm getting a bearing noise of some sort in the front end. Sound seems centered and doesn't appear to be related to one side or the other. The noise is first audible around 10mph and increases as the speed increases. At 70 the noise sounds about like a weedeater. I've tried the following so far:

- Put car in neutral and coasted, sound remains constant with the level of speed.
- Tried different gears. Shifting is smooth and the sound is still constant with the level of speed no matter which gear I'm in.
- Rotated tires, still no joy.
- Checked all cv joint boots. No tears.
- No unusual play in the wheel bearings. Sound does not deviate when brakes are applied or car is turned sharply or road surface changes.

Have noticed some minute play in the inner cv joints on both sides. Not sure if that is normal or my problem. However, I don't get any clunking when I engage drive, just this loud bearing noise as I accelerate and while I drive.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated at this point. Next step will be to support the front end and try to listen from outside the car. I'd rather someone had a better idea first though. Thanks Much....

 

It's real hard to troubleshoot off the internet...

I recommend you jack it up and look at it. It's either tires, wheel bearings, or axles. If you jack it up and there is no noise, then it's probably tires. But if you have a noise, then it should be real obvious if it's wheel bearings or if it's axles.

 

Thanks for the quick response. I've pretty much ruled out the tires by rotating them. I also forgot to mention that the noise is there coasting in neutral with the engine off so I've ruled out an engine problem and most of the transaxle.

The sound is exactly like you're driving over a steel bridge grate and the faster you go the louder and faster the sound becomes - not at all like what I'm used to for a wheel bearing problem, but I'm still not ruling that out. Also not ruling out anything in the half shafts or the output of the transaxle.

I know it's hard to diag over the internet, just hoping someone else might have run into this before and had a suggestion. Thanks!

 

Don't be so quick as to rule out tires. How many miles do you have on the tires?

 

And what make and brand tires?

 

Tires are new - less than 3k on them.

Went ahead and ruled them out by jacking up front end of car. Noise still there. Cannot be heard on either side of the car on the outside, but can be heard very well inside car - centered as mentioned before. I'm sure if I crawled under it with it jacked up I could isolate the noise further, but I'm not quite that desperate or crazy.

The car was jacked up on the frame so there was no load on the suspension. No load on the wheel bearings also, so I'm shying away from that theory. Starting to lean toward inner cv joint(s) because with the load off the suspension there's more load on the inner joints and the noise does seem quite louder.

Sanity check that theory for me and tell me what you think. Going to the dealership in the morning to get their opinion before I move forward. Will post their findings...Thanks again

 

Huh... that's really weird. I don't have a good answer for you. I'll be really curious to hear what the dealer says. Maybe it's transmission???

 

Skipped the dealer idea. Got it up on a lift and took another look. Ended up being right (passenger side) wheel bearing. Inside the car the noise sounded centered, but once I was able to get it up on a lift, the noise was easily isolated to that bearing. Replaced it and all is well.

 

Hurray for you! Good going.