2006 Camry Bearing Noise
 

Greetings all- my name is Tom- just joined the forum. Apologies in advance for just registering and then begging for help! I'll get pictures up of our Camry soon!

My wife and I picked up a 2006 Camry with only 150,000 miles. We wanted a "beater" that was dead reliable and got good fuel economy. Aside from our current problem... the car has been great with the several thousand miles we've put on it.

Once of the reasons were able to buy the car so cheap ($1,400) was it needed wheel bearings... one front and one rear. I replaced all four with TRQ-branded parts from 1Aauto.com. I've had good luck with them in the past.

Within the past 1,000 or so miles, the car has picked up another loud cyclical sound that is identical to the sound a bad wheel bearing makes. It goes away when turning hard to the left, so I looked to the right bearings. I was so confident it was the rear right that I got one under warranty. Nope, not it. I actually took both rear bearings off and spun them by hand. No play, grinding, or anything. I did replace the rear right just to be safe.

Yesterday I pressed a new bearing into the front passenger hub. The old one definitely had a different feel to the front left bearing. I took both front hubs off to check. The passenger side spun a little more freely, and it looked like some grease had worked its way out of the seal. Figuring I had found the issue, I put everything back together, torqued the axle nut to 217 ft. lbs (really, Toyota?), and drove the car. Nope... The sound is still there. You can hear it around 20mph and it gets louder as you accelerate. It is definitely related to speed.

The only thing I know that sounds like a bad bearing is... well, a bad bearing. The tires look fine. I can't imagine the CV axle making that sound, unless there is a carrier bearing or something I haven't checked for. I've never read about the output shaft bearing going bad on these, but I'm not sure where else to check.

Any ideas or suggestions? LOVE the car... but my wife is the one that primarily drives it, and I'm feeling less comfortable with her going anywhere with it until I figure this out.

Thank all!

~Tom

Did the noise go away after replacing the bearings for that 1000 miles?

Yes, the sound was gone. We put about 4,000-4,500 miles on the car before this noise started to creep it. It's gotten progressively louder.

I did see there was a carrier bearing in the passenger CV axle, so I took that apart to find no play in the bearing. (I ended up replacing the axle anyways since it was apart).

I've tried putting the full size-spare on both passenger wheels to see if I had an issue with the tire... nada.

I am completely at a loss!

Is it possible the bearing was damaged when it or the hub was pressed in?

Any change in noise when accelerating or decelerating?

Make 360 sharp turns left and right at low speed listening for any change in noise, popping, clicking.