I have a 2004 AWD Infinity FX35 with 68k miles. Recently on a road trip the front end started whirring/grinding and has gotten progressively worse over the last 3k miles. The whirring occurs at all speeds over 20mph but is not affected by turning, braking, bumpy roads, or acceleration. It changes only with wheel speed and not with engine speed.
The noise is on the driver’s side. The wheel has no play when checked for a bad wheel bearing. I’m thinking it might be a CV joint, but the fact that the noise doesn’t change when I corner or hit a bump makes me wonder if it might be deeper into the driveline.
Your help is greatly appreciated.
with over 45000 miles, you might still have that bearing going, if that survice was never done, but the cv is more like to click in turns, not some muck whirring, and is the side of the trie wearing odd, if so stouts might be the couse, of the whirring how ever its a warning, get me looked at…
It turns out that this actually was the wheel bearing. The hub assembly was “welded” into place with rust and had to be heated and beaten with a ball peen hammer and various cold chisels for an hour to remove. The wheel speed sensor, which is $170 I might add, was also welded into place with rust. The bolt holding the wheel speed sensor was basically all rust. Both were destroyed by removal. So this repair was both very expensive and reveals, in my opinion, a real problem for a 2004 model vehicle with 68k miles. . .extensive rust. I own 3 other vehicles with more miles and 2-7 years older without rust. . .they also cost 1/3rd of the price of this vehicle.
Just as a note, the wheel had no play when checked for a bad bearing, but the bearing was still bad.
It doesn’t surprise me that the wheel may not show play - you can grind up the surface of the bearing so that it makes noise but isn’t actually loose yet. I did this to my 97 Taurus when I slid on black ice once and clipped a curb. The bearing was nice and tight, but it made a horrid hum at 70 mph. Replacing the bearing eliminated all the noise. Fortunately for me, It was pretty straightforward - the manual said I needed to disconnect the ball joint and the tie rod, but I found if you compressed the strut just slightly, you could still get to the bolts holding the bearing in without disconnecting any of the rest of the suspension.