A buzzing noise that sounds like an airplane engine is commonly caused by a noisy front wheel bearing assembly. Toyota still uses the pressed-in design. With those, you will usually find you can figure out which side is noisy by turning slightly to one side while driving, as in when changing lanes. If, for example, the left bearing is noisy, the sound will get louder when you turn slightly to the right. Doing so transfers more of the vehicle's weight onto the left bearing.
My preferred method for finding the noisy bearing is to run the engine, in gear, on a hoist, then listen next to each one with a stethoscope. One will make a little noise, but it will be obvious which one is louder.
Another way is to raise the front tires off the ground, shift to neutral, then reach over the top of a tire and lightly wrap your fingertips around part of the coil spring. Now use your other hand to rotate the wheel / tire. The bad bearing will cause a very noticeable vibration that you will feel in the spring.
The place where most competent do-it-yourselfers caused the new bearing to instantly become noisy is they set the car back down on the ground so the tire will hold the axle from spinning so they can tighten the axle nut. By that time it's too late. That nut must be tightened to specs before any vehicle weight is placed on the bearing. Simply sticking a punch or screwdriver into one of the cooling slots in the brake rotor is all that's needed to hold the axle from spinning. The nut must be tightened with a click-type torque wrench. The spec for your car is 166 foot / pounds.
Nov 10, 2019 at 4:58 PM
