I have an '04 TL, and I don't use it in the winter here in upstate NY. Anyway, I started using it in April, and had no problems. I started to hear what I thought was tire hum, saw that the tires were almost down to the wear bars, and replaced them. Now with the new set, I still have the noise. I've jacked it up, checked each wheel and determined the noise is coming from the right rear wheel. I cleaned what little rust there was off the rotor, when I pull on the wheel, there is no movement, it spins freely. Could the bearing be shot?

The only other thing I can think of is, I once was pulling something off the passenger floor and it caught on, and pulled on the emergency brake handle while driving, but only a little way just for a couple seconds. It was not enough to even feel any drag. Could that have done something to the brakes?

 

the park brake is actually a mini set of drum brakes located inside the center hub of the rear rotors
Those can get stuck partially on- especially in winter situation- a rubber boot gets torn and water enters the hub, freezes, defrost-rust

you removed rotor surface rust how? by driving and using them?
What about the pads- check for surface glaze or caliper sticking

With a mechanics stethasope you can listen to the rear bearing- some have failed and reported here
Is the car lowered? that puts extra wear on some parts

 

Yes any bearing can fail!
Pulling the parking brake just a little while driving will hurt nothing.

The description you are giving me sounds like a bad wheel bearing. When I had my Accord a wheel bearing started to go bad. It started with a slight whine/humm sound then eventually got louder and louder to the point where you could actually feel a roughness. I ended up replacing it myself it was a fairly easy job the sound is 100% gone.
A way to sometimes tell if its a bearing is when driving when you hear the whine/humm at its loudest swerve the car back and forth. This puts more load on the bearings on one side of the car and relieves the load on the opposite side. Try swerving and if the whine goes away when swerving one way then you know its a bearing (and also identified which side bearing is bad to).

 

JTS79Z28,
I forgot to mention in my origional post that yes it does quiet down when I turn to the right.

01tl4tl,
The pads are good at 75k, I have a 6 speed, so I'm not tough on brakes. The rotors are real clean compared to my winter car, 2000 Saab 95, I have to chip off the rust on that after I let it sit for a while.

A friend who is a heavy duty truck mechanic would give me an assist in replacing the bearing, is there anything we could screw up, sensors etc, in the hub?

Thanks in advance!

 

Yes, bad bearing. Had a Camry and left rear would only hum while turning in one direction.

 

In checking for parts today at two different places, I found that they (NAPA & Advance Auto) only sell the rear bearing in a kit along with the hub. Is this anyone else's experience? I assumed that the bearing could be purchased seperately. I supposed this makes it more fool proof...

 

A happy ending to the story, the whole job took about 30 minutes, the old hub/bearing just sliped right off, and a new one back in it's place. Now I can hear the engine again...