Wheel Bearing? No.

[MolaKule]

From another thread:

I was on the highway and noticed a roar that was identical to having faulty wheel bearings. When I slowed down the sound would fade, but the pitch did not. The funny part is that when I resumed the cruise control, it would not come back right away, rather it would get louder for every 30 sec that went by. It caused me great distress thinking that I either have some kind of front or rear bearing failure starting. I spent quite some time changing speeds trying to diagnose it, but got more baffled as time went on...

The same thing happened to me the other day with the Frontier as what sounded like a left front hub bearing getting louder.

It turned out to be the Kelly tires, as these aggressive tread truck tires tend to cup or get flat spots.

Since they have sufficient tread depth, it looks like next spring a new set of tires is warranted.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Years back, I had brand new tires that made noise like a wheel bearing going bad. I won't mention the brand, but it rhymes with Wirephone.

 

[Silver]

I've got a set of house brand tires on my Taurus that do the same thing. Smooth summer tread pattern that are worn out.

 

[gathermewool]

I think I might be having the same issue with our Forester. Unfortunately, my mechanic and I were so sure it was a bearing that I decided to have it replaced. Some of you may remember the thread. The noise remained but was better after the bearing was replaced. Soon after, the noise was back to how it was when we thought it was the bearing. It hasn't gotten worse, though...

The tires are otherwise great and I don't have $500-1000 extra to spend on tires at the moment, so they'll get used up before new tires are on the docket. I also don't want to replace the bearing again or replace the opposite side at the moment. I'll wait until it gets worse and just live with the noise for now.

 

[Hyundai Respecter]

Years back, I had brand new tires that made noise like a wheel bearing going bad. I won't mention the brand, but it rhymes with Wirephone.

I had a set of Wirephone Affinity tires on my old Elantra, I liked them and convinced my dad to get them for his car too. A year later the tires on the Elantra started sounding like a monster truck going down the road. Same thing happened to my dads shortly later. They also started to turn brown.

 

[CharBaby]

My daughter's 06 Mazda3i would cause tire to wear on the inside edges due to the alignment spec; too much negative camber & toe-in. I've never had any vehicle aligned so many time just to keep this in check.

This would cause the tire to roar all the time in short order making one think that the front wheel bearing were in need of replacement. Worst I've ever heard and sorta turned me away from Mazda for that reason alone even though I believe they have remedied the alignment issue. Not every Mazda of that generation had this issue however there were plenty of complaints along with their rust problems.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

I had a set of Wirephone Affinity tires on my old Elantra, I liked them and convinced my dad to get them for his car too. A year later the tires on the Elantra started sounding like a monster truck going down the road. Same thing happened to my dads shortly later. They also started to turn brown.

Started to turn brown because they were fecal matter, maybe?

 

[Rob_Roy]

I just had the opposite issue. We run studded tires on the Expedition, and my wife told me it seemed like the tires were getting louder. I drove it and agreed that the tires were just noisy due to wear. A week later it finally became obvious what the noise was when the LF wheel bearing started to howl on turns.