Hi,

My mother owns a 1999 JXi (or LXi? Whichever is convertible) and lately it's had a symptom that sounded like the wheel bearings. Has about 100k miles. The sound sounds exactly like the speed sensor is hitting the gear on the axle. But it's not. That's also the kind of vibration it gives. The vibration is relative to vehicle speed, not engine speed. Maybe it was just me, but it felt like the vibration went away in the floorboards (sounded like it was on driver's side) when you swerved left or right which made me think wheel bearings. The longer you drive, the louder it gets until you think you might want to park it before something breaks. You almost can't hear it when you first start driving. It's most noticeable around 25-35 MPH.

I've only completely ripped apart drivers side, now I'm onto the passenger side after work this evening. How can I tell whether the CV joints are bad? When I lifted the vehicle's front end up, I put it in gear and couldn't hear the noise all the way up to 55 MPH. I slowed it down to 20 MPH and cocked it full left and full right and still no change. I took the seals off the wheel bearings and the ball bearings are still silver and do not look heated. The axle spline inside the hub did look blued, but I figured that was probably from when the part was forged? So I threw some extra grease in the bearings and put them back together. I hope this isn't anything in the transmission...

Give me some places to look and I'll check them out tonight and tomorrow. Thanks in advance!

 

The CV joints usually vibrate under load when they start to go, like when you are accelerating or going up a hill. Just because the wheel bearings look shiny is no reason to assume that they are not causing the noise. What you describe seems to implicate the wheel bearings more than anything else. Let us know what you find.