1996 Acura RL Humming - think it may be the bearings.

RSEED11

MEMBER
1996 ACURA RL
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
202,000 MILES

I just bought my first car -- 1996 Acura 3.5 RL. I love Acura's and having one for my first car makes me so happy. Unfortunately, it came with a few problems. One of which seems to be a humming noise coming from the rear end of the car. The man I bought it from said that he was pretty sure that the bearings needed to be replaced. I live in Mass, and I was wondering if someone could A. Tell me if this humming sound is actually the bearings needing to be replaced and B. How much it generally costs to fix the bearings.

1 Reply

SATURNTECH9

MECHANIC
30,870 POSTS

I can tell you the best way to tell if it is the bearing.What your going to want to do is raise up the back of the car block the front wheel's blocked level ground on jack stand's.First run your hand over the surface of the tire's make sure you don't have high spot's or uneveness,That way you know it's not the tire's.Then put your hand on each strut and spin the tire as fast as you can with your other hand.If the bearing is bad you should be able to feel it in the strut and if it's bad enough you can some time's hear them.Also make sure what your feeling or hearing it's just the rotor scraping or some rust build up.Come one side to the other.I also posted a replacement procedure so you can get an idea of what's involved in replacing it.The bearing hub assembly is about 129.00 plus tax.I couldn't find a labor time for the rear bearing but i would estimate maybe 2hr's time's what ever the shop rate is 80-100 per hr.