Got a 2000 S10 4wd Blazer. Started to hear a noise the other day that concerned me. its a fairly loud and constant almost metal on metal sound that starts when i get up to speed, and increases in pace when i accelerate and decreases when i slow down. ive heard either warped rotors or bad wheel bearings. thought id see if anyone had any other suggestion. Oh after putting her up on the jack stands I noticed that my front passenger tire is at a 80 to 85 degree angle toward the truck. there is no play in the wheel like they say there would be if it was bearings.... Also, and I hate admitting this, but the same tire has had a slow leak for a few months and I have yet to fix or replace... sometime I forget to air it up and drive on it while its pretty low. . dumb i know... anyway any help would be appreciated. thanks guys.

 

could be something rubbing, check stuff like the stone guard for the brakes, make sure its not bent and touching the brake disc

 

cool didnt think of that. there is some decent vibration felt on the floor, which is why everyone is thinking its something bigger but ill check that out.

 

Doesn't sound like wheel bearing/ hub assembly to me. Usually if that's bad you will get a change in intensity of the noise when the weiht shifts to or away from the side of the bad bearing. Like when going around curves. Also a bad bearing doesn't really make a metal on metal noise, it's more of a growl. I know it's hard to translate noises to written word though. As for the passenger tire, maybe time of an alignment.

 

Yeah its more of a grinding. no noise when i turn.

 

So i pulled the tires off. nothing seems to be rubbing on anything however drivers side rotor has some decent grooving on the outer half, where as passenger side rotor is almost pristine. . drove it around again and I guess its more of a whirring sound? idk something is rubbing on something and it follows the speed of the vehicle, but no sounds when turning.

 

My blazer did the same thing. I ended up replacing the hub, CV axle, and ball joints and it went away. I am pretty sure it was the hub making noise, but the rubber boot on the CV axle was torn as well. I couldn't feel any play in it when jacked up and it drove normal aside from the noise. I even had a shop check it out and they could not tell me what it was, they told me to keep driving it until it got worse.... So I just replaced everything that looked worn out and it went away.

 

Ive heard bearings can be bad even without some of the obvious signs.. its only happened a few times since ive had the truck but I have heard that horrible sound you hear when you take a turn that is linked with the cv. . Already ordered bearing, rotor and pad package, but if cv and ball joints aren't too much might as well do that while im down there.. thanks.

 

i had a bad bearing like that once. the only play i could get out of it was to lift the front end put a stand(carefully) under the lower arm and use a good long pry bar and pry using the stand if you understand what i mean really hard to explain. but i did that one day had maybe 1/8-1/4" of play and i drove 100 more km and the bearing fell apart on me and my tire almost fell off wile i was driving. so be careful and keep a close eye on those things.

 

Jack it up, grab the tire at 12 and 6 o clock move it back and forth while some one looks at the axle. If the axle moves up and down its your hub. You`ll feel the play