I generally think of bearings as making a roar or grinding noise, but I couldnt think of anything else this could be.

When I am braking I hear from the front a pop pop pop pop that varies with speed, it is pretty quiet so I dont hear it over the other road noises until I am going pretty slow. I also hear it when making hard left turns but it is a bit louder then so I can hear it when I am going faster. If I didnt know better I would swear I have a fwd with a bad CV joint at the right front wheel.

Has anybody experienced bearings going out and showing this symptom? The only other thing that even seemed remotely reasonable would be a brake disk but I cannot find any cracks. The wheels have no play that I can feel up/down, side/side I get a little but I have isloated that movement to a bad tie-rod end.

Any ideas what it could be? thanks

 

RX-7's dont have CV-joints in the front, only rear -- it is possibly a bearing or even one of your brakes. I had a bolt work itself out one time in my old Thunderbird and was bouncing the caliper off the rotor.... it would grind against the wheel when I turned making a similar noise.

How many miles are on the car?

~Kris

 

I'd suspect a front ball joint for the popping when first hitting the brakes, but if it varies with wheel speed it has to be the bearing or something scraping the rotor.

 

I have a new set of rotors to put on, I guess I will pull it all apart this weekend to replace the rotors and see if I cant figure it out then. I know my old rotors are in need of replacement, maybe there is something in there that I wasnt able to spot with just the wheels off.
On the other hand this keeps me from driving it, less than 800 more miles until the magic 100k mark.