Is this my wheel bearing?

[dssenne]

My '92 legacy wagon (FWD,auto) has started making a noise and after checking things out and searching here, I'm not sure if it's the wheel bearing or not.

I first noticed it while making hard left turns. It's a scrapping/grinding sound coming from the pass. rear wheel. It sometimes makes it during hard right turns but not as much as left. It doesn't do it while driving straight & doesn't seem to do it when going over bumps. Rapid straight line acceleration doesn't cause it to happen either.

I tried applying the breaks (including the parking break) while turning to see if that made a difference, but it didn't seem to.

When I jack up the car and spin the wheel I get some rubbing from the brakes, but doesn't seem excessive, nothing like what you hear turning. Nothing with the brake assembly seems loose.

Also when jacked up, there's no looseness when I grab the tire & try to wiggle it. No clunking or other noise when doing that.

When it happens it sounds like something with the brakes/caliper rubbing on the rotor, but as I say it only happens on hard turns. It's that kind of metal on metal sound.

At first I thought it was the wheel bearing, but before I spend the time/money replacing that I'd like to be fairly sure that's the problem. I've been getting hit with a lot of repairs lately on both our cars.

What does it actually sound like when a bearing is beginning to fail?

I assume if that's the problem it will get progressivly worse/louder. If that's it will it begin to be noticable while driving straight too?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[soobmater]

That sounds like exactly what my car was doing when the wheel bearing went out. I let mine get pretty bad, everytime i touched the throttle a little bit, it would do it.. I'm pretty sure that your wheel bearing is going out though, because thats how mine started, then a couple months later i replaced it, should of faster but i didnt..