I have a 2000 Chrysler Town and Country —problem is about a month ago I noticed a low pitched rumbling noise coming from the front of the van --more noticable when turning right --nearly gone when turning left —jacked up the car and checked for bearing play —both tires and didnt seem to have any play either vertical or horizontal—I did notice however a slight cupping of the inside of the passenger tire—tires had been rotated about 6 months prior —and I checked the rear tire for cupping and found none —however that tire also was more noticablly worn than the other side had been ----I figured bearings—but the cupping tire had me stumped --maybe I have 2 problems ???----also van tracks straight at both highway and slow speeds and tires seem well balanced --no shimmy at any speed
Cupping usually means a bad strut. They are also the upper control of the suspension, so a bad strut could cause alignment issues. The rumbling could be the tire, since it is now cupped. Right turns shift more pressure on the inside edge of the tread of the tire. Left turns shift pressure to the outside edge of the tread. Try swapping tires front to rear to see if the rumbling moves with the tire. Then consider replacing the front struts, always in pairs.
I tried swappping tires front to back----same results ----however upon closer examination of the wheels —both back wheels would rotate about 4 revolutions with a good spin —passanger front would rotate about twice —and drivers side front would barely rotate once —and had a very slight noise when rotated ----the other three were silent --checked again for play in all four wheels ----still didnt have any —even with a tire iron under them to try an move them ----rotated each tire 90 degrees at a time when checking for play ------drivers side bearing going bad ??? thanks for the quick reply
I don’t think that you can go much my the # of revolutions since when you spin the front wheels they have to drag the axles along with them when they spin.
Are you saying that the noise remains the same after moving the cupped tire to rear? If so then I’d probably just go ahead and do that driver’s side bearing. I recently had a bad one on a Caravan and drove myself crazy trying to verify it beforehand. The problem is that I heard nothing unusual while spinning the wheel. I felt nothing unusual while holding the strut spring and spinning the wheel. I also had no play (that I could detect). But, of course, all of that is done with the weight off of the bearing. Anyway, the sound was so distinctively bearing noise that I finally just replaced it and that small airplane that was following me around finally went away.
You’d still need to figure out what cupped the tire though.