2008 Toyota Yaris - Whirrs

I recently bought a 2008 Toyota Yaris hatchback. I hit an “unavoidable” pothole. Since then the vehicle has made a loud whirring noise once I make it past 20mph. The car is manual, and makes the noise regardless of what gear I am in. The noise gets louder as I go faster, and seems to be coming from the front passenger side. I have put the car up on a stand and checked out the under side, and sure enough there are “points-of-contact” trailing from protective plastic beneath the front skirt (scraped), to the oil pan (dented), to the passenger side wheel assembly mounting bracket (scraped and bent). I managed to bend the mounting bracket back into place, however the sound persists. The whirring does subsided when turning right. Does anyone have thoughts / recommendations about the cause?

You may have damaged the wheel bearing. Starts as a whirr, becomes a growl. Remove the brake caliper and bracket, remove the brake rotor and turn the bearing by hand. If there is any roughness, it is damaged.

It is a pretty serious problem not to be ignored.

Thanks Mustangman! I figured this might be the case - I’ll check it out.

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