2002 Chevrolet Avalanche front end noise

JERRYNCOLLEEN

MEMBER
2002 CHEVROLET AVALANCHE
120,000 MILES

When driving straight or turn to the left, howling noise coming from left front end. This is a 1/2 ton 4 wheel drive. Turn left noise stops. I jacked it up and spun wheel, makes little noise, grabbed tire and tried to see if any play, there was none, so my first thought of it being a wheel bearing may not be the problem, I would think I would hear grinding and wheel would be loose. Any ideas?
also what is the correct engine idle speed? There is a vibration at idle, especially in gear and A/C unit comes on, but rev it up about 100 rpm and it quits.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,741 POSTS

The noise from wheel bearings occurs LONG before they develop play or looseness. Raise the wheels off the ground, run it in gear, then listen next to each bearing with a stethoscope. One will be real loud. It could be either bearing. You can't tell by where the sound seems to come from or by turning. The good news is while it's a relatively expensive assembly, you don't destroy it by removing it, so if you change the wrong one you can put it on the other side.