I couldn’t see any obvious wear patterns on the tires in the light today.
I will report back with updates when I’ve got them.
Don’t worry VDC - I will certainly rotate them regularly in the future. This is the result of probably equal parts negligence and ignorance, and now the ignorance is gone.
Jonahz, in my opinion, rotation at this point will not help, the depth differences are already too large. You need four new tires.
Sorry I should have been more clear: I meant that I will rotate my tires regularly from now on as a car owner for the rest of my days. I’ll still get new ones.
Got new tires on Monday. Noise was worse.
Brought it to a mechanic this morning before work. Got a call an hour later saying that the problem was the left front wheel bearing. I’ll pick it up tonight and see how it sounds.
A tip of the hat to @GeorgeSanJose !
Glad you got the problem narrowed down OP. Hopefully a replacement bearing will do the trick.
Thanks @“MY 2 CENTS” for the nice compliment … seems with enough tries I may have finally got a good “guess” .
Hey, I should have played the lotto!
Holy macaroni the car is so much quieter! The bearing must have been making noise all the time, not just when turning. I guess it blended in with normal road noise at first and as it got worse, it got louder slowly enough that I never noticed. I only noticed the distinct wowwow noise when turning.
Thanks to everyone for your help! And 10 points for GeorgeSanJose!
I will just add this seeing as how you mentioned the front and rear differentials being serviced.
I’m assuming this car has an automatic transmission.
The automatics have 2 dipsticks; one for the differential which uses hypoid oil and the other for the auto transmission part of the transaxle. The latter of course uses ATF.
Sometimes a botched engine oil change leads to the front differential being drained by mistake. In some cases there is confusion over the 2 dipsticks on a transaxle fluid change. This can lead to the engine being overfilled with oil or the auto trans overfilled while leaving the differential empty. Over time this can lead to catastrophic destruction of the transaxle after a period of whining or rumbling leading up to a Big Bang.
I would suggest monitoring the hypoid oil level and the ATF level in the transaxle now and then; especially after an engine oil change or front diff. service.
The ATF stick is on the drivers side and clearly noticeable. The hypoid oil stick is down low on the passenger side and kind of tucked away out of sight near the right side inner DOJ on the drive axle.