Automotive Forums

At first I thought it might be a tire. But I hear the same noise with winter tires and new summer ones. The noise seems to come from the front right when I turn the steering wheel, even ever do slightly. I don't hear it, or rather, it goes away, when I turn left, because I can still hear when going straight. It's louder when I turn right. I hear it most clearly on smooth pavement at least 15-20 MPH. Even when going straight I can hear it, but when I turn the wheel even a millimiter...the noise appears. And the noise is what I would call "rotational" because its frequency is proportional to the speed of the car. Also, it makes no difference whether the car is in neutral (it's an automatic) or in gear... I visited two VW dealers and they seem reluctant to even check the the CV joint or bearings... But before I get tough with them, I would like to know more about how such a noise could appear in the first place. Any ideas?  

I had an almost identical problem with my Civic.  I don't know if I would have called the noise "dull", but everything else you've described matches perfectly.

When I had it checked out, it turned out that the brake caliper on my left-rear wheel had completely seized and basically frozen in place so that the pads were just barely in contact with the rotors, but not enough to cause any noticable drag while driving.  But when I turned to the right, I guess it put enough lateral force on the wheel to cause just enough deflection of the wheel to cause the grinding noise that I heard.  I had to have the caliper replaced, as well as the pads and rotor because all of the heat that built up from the pads rubbing had ruined them.

The same problem with the caliper was also developing on the right-rear wheel, and consequently I was getting almost no braking power out of my rear brakes.  My front brakes had to compensate, and because of that, they were squeeking.  I had thought I needed new pads on the front because of the squeeking, but they had plenty of life left.  And as another related problem, my parking brake wasn't working hardly at all because (I guess) it operates through the rear brakes.

So if this isn't your problem, then I'm not sure what it is.  I've driven on a bad bearing before, and it does get louder when you turn to one side, but you can still hear it when driving straight.