Windstar sounds like an airplane on takeoff

My 2002 Windstar sounds like an airplane. The faster I accelerate the lowder it gets. Sounds like it’s coming from underneath the front of the car. What could it be?

The two most likely things would be a tire problem or a bad wheel bearing. If the sound disappears when you turn the steering wheel suspect a bad wheel bearing.

Thanks - the sound doesn’t stop when I turn the steering wheel. When I’m driving 50+ mph the noise is deafening. I have four new tires and a recent alignment. Any chance it’s related the exhaust.

Anytime the sound is described as an “airplane” it just very often turns out to be a bad wheel bearing or two. You should have them checked.

When you have them checked someone can drive it - yes all sorts of noise can come from an exhaust system but its unlikely to be something that is a simple function of the vehicle’s speed. The exhaust noise will go with what the engine is doing and the engine’s speed (rpms) rises and falls as the car shifts & you vary in speed.

Does the noise change as the gears shift, that would be exhaust, constant change in noise related to speed is not exhaust.