knocking/rumbling noise from right front wheel
 

It's like a fast paced rotational noise. It happens mainly when I hit bumps at speeds of 35+ (mainly 55+) and on wide right turns. I am thinking it is a bad front wheel bearing or u-joints. What do you guys think?

Wheel bearings.

Could be the bearing going out - what does the tire wear pattern look like?

There's a certain amount of pre-load on the wheel bearings which is set when the bearings are installed (and then re-checked after 100mi or so), and it may just be an adjustment to tighten up the pre-load now that the bearings have worn down somewhat. The FSM breaks this down pretty easily, as the front wheel bearings should not just spin freely with the tire and wheel - it should have a bit of friction to ensure smooth even running and prevent overheating of one part of the bearing race.

Edited to add: you can jack up the front wheel which you think is a problem and with the suspension on that side in the air, grab the tire on the outside edge and push in and out - as if you were trying to remove the wheel/tire from the spindle - if you hear a clunking when you push/pull, then you have too much play in the bearing. Also, try to 'turn' the tire by hand and if you get a lot of play doing this, you shouldn't. The tire wear question from above was to see if the tire is wearing excessively on the inside or outside edge vs. the other - as this would be an indicator of bad toe-in or toe-out adjustment due to the play in the bearings affecting the alignment.

To be honest, the best fix for this is to replace both inner and outter wheel bearings and races, and you'll probably not have to worry about it ever again. For the price of new bearings and races, do both sides at the same time. Also, might be a good time to put on new brake rotors, as you'll have the whole thing apart at that point, anyway.

Good luck,

+1, do what the duck says.

Thank you so much. I had new tires installed a little over 3,000 miles ago by Discount Tire (I bought them online, they mounted them). They never said a thing about needing adjustments later (and I am still kind of new) so it's starting to sound like that may be it.

I am unemployed at the moment so if I can just adjust and add new grease I will. Other wise I will definitely do both at once. Thanks for the nice long write up, you've been a huge help.

*edit* in my tired haze I thought you said after tires are installed, not bearings. It probably wasn't the tire place then.

Idler Arm bushings are worn.

Rumbling is typically a bearing.

Knocking could be the lower ball joint is loose or sloppy. Or the Strut top nut loose. Or the idler arm.

It turns out it was something quite dumb. When I had new flanges welded on the exhaust they set the muffler too far to the left and in my haste I didn't check. The noise was from the exhaust slapping the shield.

I had a similar problem but it was that I had no brake clips and the rotor was warped so the pads were moving back and forth a bit.