Thumping noise.. wheel dependent.. what is it?

Hello,

So I have a thumping noise that becomes more rapid as the car goes faster. It sounds similar to a flat tire/unbalanced tire. The noise will get louder if i turn my car to the left or the right. It's not as loud when going straight but still loud enough!!! Doesn't matter if I'm under load, in neutral, or driving a constant speed. I'm not sure what side it's coming from.

Here's what I've done

The rims had cracks and weld from the guy before me that I never noticed so I changed the rims and tires.

The sway bar was broken so I replaced that.

Front drivers side wheel had play in all directions so I replaced the bearing.. no play in tire now but thumping noise is still there.

The rotors looked like records so I replaced the pads and rotors.

Saw some grease by cv axles, couldn't locate a rip but I replaced them both anyway.

So at this point I'd like to say that I just got the car, I don't like to ignore problems like the brakes/rims/sway bar.

Now what is left? The passengers side bearing? The wheel has no play and there's no grinding noise. It's a thumping noise. But it does increase when I turn the wheel either way. Should I go ahead and replace this bearing? pretty soon I'm going to have a new car from replacing all these parts. Any ideas what else it could be? I don't think it's ball joints or anything because it sounds like it's affected by the rotation of the tire.

I did a lot of research and haven't found someone with the exact same problem so maybe if we can find the answer this will be the thread that helps the next guy. So any help would be appreciated and hopefully the next guy with this issue won't struggle and replace everything on his car.

Cupped tires?

nope i replaced the tires with new ones when I replaced the rims.

Replacing my front bearings got rid of my random crunch thump sound. It wasn't as bad as the sound you described but worth fresh bearings anyways. If not that someone put a big zip tie on your axel to mess with you because you covered everything that could make that noise besides a piece of plastic constantly hitting your new tires?

lol yeah i covered everything except that passenger side bearing. i would think it had to be that bearing but i've replaced so much stuff with no results i don't want to do anything else that isn't going to fix it.. but i really can't think of anything else besides that bearing that could be making this noise.

i wonder if it could be control arm bushings.. what do those sound like when they're bad?

Not speed relative though. We have that sound on our impala, it's relative to speed. It's probably the bearings too but upon spinning them by hand they don't make any noise. Maybe jack the front end up and put it in D and watch them spin. Heck my car makes a high pitched noise whenever making turns, it's getting worse too. Why did GM make such unreliable wheel bearings?

i have no idea why the bearings go all the time.. i replaced all of them on my other grand prix due to that growling noise.. this one doesn't have that growling noise but I guess a bearing is still possible.. I'm about to go ahead and replace it

Control arm bushing wear made my tires wear funny and when going over any kinda bump it would sound like a hammer hitting the engine cradle. Don't think thats your issue but again worth replacing for peace of mind.

yeah i agree with you.. i don't think it's the control arm bushings but i'm running out of parts to replace! lol I just ordered the bearing.. I'm going to go pick it up and get something to eat.. i'll be back soon to post an update.

Yup it was the passengers side bearing... FIXED!

Nice! Finding and fixing noises is almost like flipping to the cool side of the pillow on a hot night.

Is it really like this? I should probably get on with replacing mine anyhow.

Exactly what I'm talking about!