A year ago I ran over some large traffic dividing bumps in the road that blew out the left side tires and wheels and also caused some suspension damage. The left front wheel bearing was replaced but the dealer swore that the back one was fine. My gas mileage has never been the same since (43-44 highway at best). It drives perfectly normal under 55 and over 65. Is this a damaged wheel bearing problem or possibly a sign that the transmission or something else is failing? I'm still within my 100k powertrain warranty so I want to be sure it's taken care of by the dealer if it's a problem with the transmission. If another wheel bearing, I will probably wait until the problem gets worse. Thanks.
they cannot invoke warranty unless you have dash trouble lights. try rotating the tires to see if the sound changes.
I just had them rotated and it didn't change at all. The Prius is on Michelin MXM4's for what it's worth so I'm pretty confident it's not tire noise. Anything else it might be besides another wheel bearing?
only other things i can think of is bent axle or cv joint, but the dealer being wrong about bad bearings is a strong possibility
With that heavy an impact on the left side, I would also consider that either front or rear left wheel is out of alignment. Have you considered a 4-wheel alignment? Are you having the beginning of ANY type of abnormal wear pattern on any of your tires? (In my experience of alignment problems , inner or outer tire edges had either abnormally high wear, or even an odd “scalloped” pattern of wear.) Good luck, sir!
