Upon talking to a few people they are suggesting that the CV joint is failing. I do not recall hearing any clicking coming from the drivers side so I never considered this. Do CV joints "whir" when turning as they fail? Is there a good test to definatly determine if this is the root cause?

 

How're the u-joints? How's the shift from D to R?

 

I last checked the play in the U-joints about 6 months ago. They seemed OK. I am aware that when the U-joint fails typically it clicks like the CV joint but it seems odd that it would cause the "whir" on one side.

 

Last year I had plenty of whir, plus hard shift D->R, plus poor performance on acceleration, all attributable to u-joints.

 

Here's one to bear in mind for anyone who thinks that a bearing is failing.
I had a rythmic "thrumming" sound coming from my right rear wheel ever since I bought the truck last December. Never got any worse but always assumed that a rear bearing was failing. So - I bought a new bearing & seal but hadn't yet got round to doing the job. Last week I had 2 new rear tires fitted & guess what I noticed when driving home?....the noise had gone! I just couldn't believe it! I now have a bearing and seal that I don't need - still i'll keep it as I might need it one day. Would never had believed that a tire could make so much noise!

 

My 2002 Blazer has 132,000. I replaced the front hubs at 50-some thousand and they have been fine since. It takes about an hour to do each one, no biggie... I had to buy the socket for the axle nut (36mm, IIRC) and an 18mm combination wrench.

I believe that overtorqueing the axle nut does contribute to premature failure. The driver's side bearing was the noisy one on mine, and I remember that the axle nut on that side was really hard to loosen. Had to put a long pipe on the wrench to break it free. I bought the vehicle used, so I have no idea how it got tightened so much. Replaced both sides.

I used an aftermarket brand "Falcon" from a local parts house I trust (not AutoZone). 70,000+ miles and they are still quiet.

peace

 

This has crossed my mind. I owe it to myself to rotate the tires and see if the sound goes away. I'm curious though....you say you had a "thrumming" sound. Would you consider it a "whir" like I described? Did it get worse upon turning? The best way I could describe the sound I'm hearing is it sounds like I'm running a really aggressive snow tire.

 

Yeah that's the exact noise I had - just like I had a really knobbly snow tire. Made no difference whichever way I cornered. I only had road tires & still had the noise. Always seemed to be worse between 30-50mph for some reason. Could be worth at least rotating them to see if the noise moves anywhere else. Mine is like a new vehicle since I replaced the rear tires, couldn't believe the difference driving home. I would have been pretty pissed if i'd changed out the rear bearing & found things were still noisy!
I did have a front hub bearing fail last year but strangely enough it didn't make much noise. I kept getting the ABS cutting in when slowing down even though I wasn't skidding. When I jacked up the truck to check things out I had so much play in the bearing it was affecting the air gap under the ABS sensor. Fitted a new hub & ABS went back to normal - new hub also came with a new sensor which was good.
Hope you get to the bottom of your problem.

 

Jacked up the front end and spun both wheels. After all this time it was the passenger side that had failed. I had numerous people confirm that they heard the whiring on the drivers side. For whatever reason the sound must have been resonating to the opposite side. Hopefully this will help someone else in the same predicament!

 

As a rule of thumb - 99% of the time - the front wheel that gets "unloaded" is the one that will make the noise in the front end. In other words - turning to the right, if you hear the noise, it will be the right bearing that is bad. It is because the left wheel has the most load on it. The same is true for the other wheel.

The easiest way that I keep up with it when I change bearings for people is that I ask them which direction they are turning whin it makes the sound - if they say they are turning to the right, I replace the right bearing. If they are turning left - I replace the left bearing.

Haven't been wrong yet...