After hearing/feeling the traditional wheel bearing growl, I went ahead and replaced driver side because that's where I believe it was coming from. After replacement I still hear the growl. The wheel bearing I took out was not loose nor was there any wiggle in the wheel. However, when i removed the bearing it did not spin without a signs of it binding up with every 1/2 inch rotation. I'm aware both don't usually go at once, I was hearing the noise get progressively worse for a few weeks.

My question is: Even if wheel bearing has no wiggle in it, has anyone experienced a bad wheel bearing that just binds up when spinning? Assuming both bearings are bad, going to have to replace passenger side now.

 

Grab another driver so you can hang your head out the window to listen to compare sides and assure front/rear etc.

 

I never do one bearing at a time. Like with most suspension things, it's better to do the whole axle than just one wheel. You don't change one tire, you change both on the axle, you don't change one brake rotor/pad, you change them on the axle, you don't change one shock, you change them both.

 

That is absolutely not the case for Honda wheel bearings. Wheel bearings are not like brakes at all. That's a preference thing at best and maybe a maintenance item with track use. Crazy wheel offsets can wear bearings faster, but other than that changing one bearing at a time as noise occurs is just fine.

 

For the price of parts and labor(most of us don't own a shop press) I will change the hub/bearings on as-needed basis

 

Thanks for all the info guys. Swapped out the passenger side bearing last night and it resolved the issue. Both must of went bad within weeks of each other. Passenger side happened to just be a lot worse. No wiggle at all in the wheel and could not tell for sure until the bearing was off the car. Could barely spin it with my hand. Just another example as to how all bad wheel bearings will not show a wobbly wheel during inspection.