What are the symptoms of wheels bearings that are going out?

if the wheel has radial runout, and you can clearly see the extra play in the wheel isnt from tie rods or ball joints.

it will usually have a rhythmic grinding noise that may increase with speed. it can be quite loud.

Depends on how it's failed. Often there will be no perceptible play in them even though they are quite loud. Sometimes there will be quite a bit. Just depends on the type of bearing and how it's gone bad.

 

They can make a humming sound, grinding at lower speeds, and sometimes they can make really aweful thumping noises that sounds like differential or axle failure. In some situations it's obvious that a wheel bearing is the culprit because the noise will vanish or dimish when you side load the bearing (turning). If turning the wheel slightly to one side or the other causes the noise to change or vanish then it's most probably a bearing.

 

GD

Another common symptom is a "drumming"

 

Mine did just this, for 5-10 minutes every time you got into the car int he morning. After 5-10 minutes, the noise would stop. But sooner or later, the noise didnt stop, and it changed as I used the brakes. Quite often the noise would seem to go away when I used the brakes.

 

Better yet, the hub showed NO strange play, when checking for play by wiggling the tire.

 

Regardless, when I pulled the rear bearings out, there was some pretty nasty gouging in the bearings themselves, and some scoring on the races.