'98 SE "growling" .....hub or CV joint maybe ???
 

My '98 has a faint growl as I drive down the road, it's just not as smooth and quiet as it should be. I would best describe the symptom as a growl or vibration that seems to radiate thruout the body in a way that you can't tell where it's coming from.

A year ago I replaced one front hub, and since I just replaced the front brakes and rotated the tires, I had the chance to roll the rear wheels while off the ground. The rear hubs rolled smoothly and quietly, so I think that it must be in the front. It's not too obnoxious at this point but it's the wifes car and I don't want to take a chance on a breakdown. A woman without a car is an ugly thing....I've expereienced it, it's bad!

What should I be looking for as far as diagnosing this problem. The car has 112K on it, it has a drivers side new front hub, a new motor, the rear seems OK, and I checked the CV boots. Any suggestions?

If the growl starts roughly around 30 MPH, that would indicate a bad hub. It is not unusual for the hubs to go within a year or so of each other. Sometimes, if you jack up the car, and give the wheel on the suspect side a shake side to side, it will be a bit sloppy when the hub goes.

Some say that you can place a finger on the strut spring while you spin the wheel with the car off the ground and properly supported. Supposedly, you can feel a grinding or vibration transmitted from the rough bearing to the spring. Bad wheel bearings (hubs) are notoriously difficult to diagnose, especially when they are just starting to make noise. You would think that the LF bearing would make noise on a hard right turn, as that puts an increased load on the left side, but, some make noise when the bearing is loaded, others when unloaded. It is easy to hear the noise and change the wrong one. Hopefully, since you already have a new one, your odds of picking the bad side will be better.

Great minds think alike.... I thought about the left turn-right turn thing, then I woke up abruptly and realized that it wouldn't load or unload, it will just load inward or load outward....LOL. I'm not sure that will tell me anything. I do have a new drivers side hub, but what keeps it from being a CV and not a hub at all???

Not saying it can't be either, or something else!

It's just that the typical symptoms for a bad CV are a clicking or snapping sound when accelerating with the wheel turned sharply. Take it to a parking lot and try it. Growling, grumbling, low frequency vibration is more typical of a hub going bad. A bad hub will often change sound when you turn the wheel right or left slightly at about 20-30 mph as if you were doing a slow slalom.

Bill....thatnk for the words of wisdom. Based on your description, I'm thinking hub. It does change slightly on turns and I have no clicking.