Hello everyone,

I had recently gotten (a few months back) a manual 2006 Chevy Cobalt with a 2.2L Ecotec engine and 86k miles on it. Lately, there has been a lot of noise coming from what seems to be the drivers side of the car (kind of sounds like tire noise, but tires are completely checked and fine) whenever the car is in motion. It gets worse/louder as speed increases, and the sound has absolutely worsened since I had bought the car (didn't even notice the sound when buying, now it's all I hear if my music isn't loud enough). Has anyone else had any similar experiences with this? From what I'm told, it's either wheel bearings or half shaft. I'm not too familiar with any knowledge about cars whatsoever, but my friends dad is helping me out with everything I need.

My apologies if I skip any important information/details. I'm kind of writing this in a hurry. Any help would be very much appreciated, but please try to go a little easy on this new guy.

Thanks!
Josh

 

Jack the front of the car up
Take the tires off

And turn each hub by hand, slow/fast jerky motions. My guess is you will find the wheel bearing is gone.
Its easy to change too, all thats needed is a 1 1/8 socket iirc, a basic socket set and a hammer to give the old one a wack out of there. Than a wire brush to clean it up, ad some grease so the old one slides in nice n easy.

Theres a vid on youtube, just google 06 cobalt wheel bearing. Mine gave me the same issues at same miles. Sounded like a god damn semi on the highway. Only rrally made noise from 40km/h + and hot loudet

 

If you arent getting clunks or rattles and other misc probalems i would rule out the half shaft. Or if you do the bearing and the problem is still there.

wheel bearing are good to do anyways, at that many miles. they will go sooner or later regardless. Our cars are on the cheap side.

 

I was definitely leaning towards wheel bearing as well. And seeing that I couldn't have explained the sound of it any better myself put by you, I'm almost certain that's the problem. I'll be heading out there right now to see what I can find. Thanks for the help!