Growling noise from front of car

What’s odd about your symptoms is that the growling noise changes only when you veer to the right. But that direction of veer puts more pressure on the left wheel bearing, not the right. So if anything that would point to the left wheel bearing as the problem. But you’ve recently replaced the left wheel bearing. hmm … I’m thinking these guesses

  • left wheel bearing is still bad, perhaps damaged during the install … was this the first time you’ve installed a wheel bearing? If so, don’t discount the possibility that you made a mistake somewhere along the line. It’s very easy to damage the bearing during the install process.
  • a transmission differential component has failed … check the differential fluid level … some transmissions have a separate fill point for the differential part of the transmission
  • left cv half shaft is still bad … or wrong length. It’s not that uncommon to hear of reports here of aftermarket half shaft problems.

Are the tires worned? Try rotating the tires front to back the see if the noise quiets down.Sometimes people confuse tire noise vs wheel bearing noise.

1 Like

I just did both wheel bearings on a Malibu Classic yesterday. The noise was coming from the left bearing while driving, but no play at all, and spinning the wheel showed no signs on a bad bearing on the left. The right bearing had a little play so I changed that out too. Both bearings were hard to get out of the bore from corrosion, but you can drive the old seal straight through towards the axle shaft. I think I spent more time cleaning the bores than the rest of the work took.

Yosemite

Did you ever find out the problem? This same exact thing is happened to me. Even when I turn right I don’t hear it anymore. Same exact issues! Please help