How to tell if wheel bearing or ball joint is bad?, Updated! Options

[GriffGirl]

There are bad, evil, rubbing/grinding noises (sounds dirty heh heh) coming from my rear passenger wheel. Actually it sounds like the backing plate is rubbing against the rotor, but I'm pretty certain that's not what's going on. The sound is definitely related to the rotation of the wheel; it's louder when I go slower too although that could just be because there's less road noise to drown out the sound. The noise sounds not unlike when brake pads are completely worn and it's metal on metal - it's that grinding noise, not a squealing or high pitched noise at all. It's really loud from the driver's side though, I can only imagine what it sounds like outside the car!

I'm leaning toward bad wheel bearing but I wanted to check with you guys first to get some tips and ideas before I go buying the wrong part.

This post has been edited by GriffGirl: Feb 2, 2009 - 12:11 PM

[_john_]

You'd be surprised how many times those rattles are caused by either:

a) the jack in the trunk

b) the screw thing holding in the spare wheel in the trunk

I removed both of these and now the rear is near enough completely silent!

[lingham]

You'd be surprised how many times those rattles are caused by either:

a) the jack in the trunk

b) the screw thing holding in the spare wheel in the trunk

I removed both of these and now the rear is near enough completely silent!

Thanks for the suggestion, even with the jack, spare tire, tire cover, wrench, and tire hold down removed the rattle is still there. It's like a vibration rattle, it is there when I hit a bump or pot hole but it is also present on a less then smooth road without bumps or potholes present. All it takes is a slight vibration to get it rattling.