2012 Prius 3 with approx 105k miles Starting in late 2020, I noticed a sound coming from the front left when I would brake and turn to the right, a very fast ticking noise. What I read about it was that it could be a CV axle going bad. I took it to a highly rated Toyota mechanic who put it up on his lift, checked out the car, said everything looked in good shape and couldn’t reproduce the sound. This sound did not worsen since then, but is still present when braking and turning to the right. In Fall 2022, the car sat since I was out of state, only being driven very infrequently when I would return. I hear a new sound. A louder clicking noise that begins to be audible with the windows down at above 25 mph and is definitely noticeable above 33 or 35. When I have the driver’s side window down, I can hear it clearly. When I have only the passenger side window down, it’s very difficult to hear. Additionally, the steering feels much heavier than I remember it feeling and I am hearing what sounds like a howling noise. This has got to be a wheel bearing, right? I took the car to a different highly rated Toyota mechanic in my area. They put it up on the lift, checked out the car, drove it, heard the louder clicking noise but not the faster ticking noise when braking, and said nothing to me about the howling noise. Noted that there was some rust on the rotors, but otherwise said that the car looked great mechanically. I asked about the bearing and they said they didn’t think it was that. What could be causing these sounds? Just the bearing/hub assembly? The CV axle? Something else? Tie rods? Ball joints? I’ll try to get a recording of it later today. I need to get this figured out as I need to start commuting with the car from DC to Durham every weekend and it’s giving me anxiety despite getting the supposed all-clear from two different, highly rated Toyota mechanics.
To Durham North Carolina oh you'll be fine That's a nice little commute and nothing's getting hot and all that kind of stuff pretty much be uneventful . All these people driving the car though I would think at some point it would make this noise I've got a noise in a 13 right now that nobody can figure out sounds like a dog growling at you no kidding but it is what it is I believe it's in the transmission maybe the main motors bearing or some kind of nonsense It just doesn't that weird times whatever sounds like you've got similar noises could be a bearing going bad hub bearing all of that usually it takes a lot for them to completely fail I can smoke coming from the area and it overheated the bearing flopping around or the hubs flopping around on what's left of the spindle All that sort of thing Make a good run with the car and see if anything is hotter than normal like in one of my cars a 2010 the passenger side would get really hot You touch the alloy wheel and it was 140° and of course it's 90° outside but still the other side was noticeably cooler by about 30° turns out the brakes were sticking just enough to run the temperature up on that wheel.
