Hey everyone. I took my 85 300sd with 230,000 miles on it up to new hampshire for a weekend vacation and noticed something new and weird. As soon as i left my house, i noticed and large increase in road noise, or at least that's what it sounds like. It has never done this before, and i went 400 miles with it this weekend with no problems except for the loud humming. Anyway it sounds like the right front tire is making tons of road noise. It starts at about 40mph and gets louder and louder the faster i go. The weird thing though, is that i don't think it's the tire because although it's a little old, it's still in good shape, it had the right pressure in it, and its the same tire as the other three. So i guess i'm asking everyone if this has ever happened to them before and what you guys think it might be. Thanks alot

My experience has been that whenever this happens. it is almost always the wheel bearings. You wight want to take care of any brake work while you are at it. If you are the preventive maintenance type, you may wish to do the other wheels as well.

To be sure that it is not the tire making the noise, swap the wheel to the other side or with the spare.

spazmoid:

What cracker928 said. Notice any change in the volume of the humming in cornering? I have had my share of wheel bearing failures due to poorly adjusted wheel bearing end play.

When you have yours reset, be sure the mechanic understands and follows the end play procedure. They really need to be set using the MB specifications and measured with a dial indicator.

-Scott