I handle the technical end of warranty claims for wheel bearings in our company. I've seen hundreds of customer and dealer narratives relating to bad bearings. The common complaints customers have when a bearing goes bad is that they hear a noise that is described as grinding, roaring, whining at 30 mph to highway speeds. I've never heard a customer describe a valid complaint as noise coming through the steering wheel. So I say look elsewhere for your noise, perhaps in the tires as oceanview suggested.

I've personally only experienced a bad bearing once while diagnosing a colleague's car. The noise was unmistakable and could easily give someone a migraine. The cause was a 2 mm spall on the race and the wheel was tight. If you find looseness when manhandling the wheel during your check, then the damage is far advanced and you should have heard noise long time ago.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 169K