Bad wheel bearing or tire?

Whenever I get up to a speed of 35 m.p.h. or more with my 98' Accord, a
vibration and corresponding bumping noise begins. This noise is very rapid
sounding even at slower speeds. I can get on up to roughly 65 m.p.h. and the
noise continues. If I slightly turn the wheel to the left at pretty much any
speed over 35 m.p.h. the noise completely stops temporarily until I
straighten the wheel back out or turn to the right; which makes it even
worse. At least it seems that way.

The tires are almost new Bridgestone Turanza LS-Hs. They only have about 600
miles on them now. If it were a bad tire that is causing the problem, I
don't understand why the noise will completely stop when I slightly turn the
vehicle at cruising speed. This is why I would lean towards a diagnosis of a
bad wheel bearing. It appears to be coming from the left front wheel area of
the car.

Lastly, can a bad CV joint produce this same type of noise with these
particular types of Honda cars?

Ron M.

 

It sounds to me like it could be a bend in the rim or the wheel
bearing. You could jack up the front left of the car and run the engine
to spin the wheel.

 

Here are a couple of links to two of my old posts where I describe how to
check the wheel bearing, ball joints, and front suspension for loose and
worn parts, http://tinyurl.com/nbord and http://tinyurl.com/m45r8. Follow
the procedures I've described and then let us know what you find.

Eric

 

bearing is a good candidate, but is usually accompanied by a rumbling
noise. jack the wheel off the ground and check for play.

 

For what it's worth, I'm on my second set of Turanza LS-Ts. Both sets have
worked great for me and my last set lasted about 65-70K mi. Moreover, many
other users of this tire that I know of have not had any problems. Though
that doesn't exclude the possibility of one bad apple in the bunch, it just
lowers the odds somewhat.

Eric

 

I would rotate the tires and see if the symptom changes.
While you have it up, check the CV joints.

 

As it turns out, the guy at the tire shop where I purchased the tires a few
weeks ago obviously didn't get the lug nuts tight enough on the left front
wheel and they had all four worked themselves extremely loose. You couldn't
tell it by just looking at it. But when you jacked the car up and grabbed
the top and bottom of the tire it was immediately obvious what was causing
the previously described problem. I would have never dreamed that this
particular tire shop would have done this to my wheel. :-(

Needless to say that this particular mistake of theirs could have ended up
costing me my life. Or at least screwed up my car in a major kind of way.
The lesson learned here is that I am now going to invest in my own torque
wrench and go behind these people whenever I have a new set of tires put on,
or have them rotated, etc. This is pretty sad to me...

Ron M.

 

As it turns out, the guy at the tire shop where I purchased the tires a few
weeks ago obviously didn't get the lug nuts tight enough on the left front
wheel and they had all four worked themselves extremely loose. You couldn't
tell it by just looking at it. But when you jacked the car up and grabbed
the top and bottom of the tire it was immediately obvious what was causing
the previously described problem. I would have never dreamed that this
particular tire shop would have done this to my wheel. :-(

Needless to say that this particular mistake of theirs could have ended up
costing me my life. Or at least screwed up my car in a major kind of way.
The lesson learned here is that I am now going to invest in my own torque
wrench and go behind these people whenever I have a new set of tires put on,
or have them rotated, etc. This is pretty sad to me...

Ron M.

 

I had that happen once. Take a close look at each lug nut seat on the wheel
to ensure the wheel isn't cracking. I had to replace the wheel and all the
lugs.

Mike