Howling noise from the rear of our 2002 Altima 3.5l

[swaampy]

I have a howling noise coming from the rear of our 02 Altima. Its loudest aroung 50 mph. I brought it in to a shop and they told me it might be the rear hub assembly. I changed the right rear hub and the noise is still there, although it may be a bit quieter? This car has 66500 miles on it and it is driven in Florida. I don't want to change the other hub unless I'm sure it is the problem, especially at a 100 bucks a side. The old hub appeared good to me, but I really can't test it at a high speed being its front wheel drive. Any imput here would be great.

- R Tampa

[Ramius83]

In what condition are the tires? We usually have newer (02+) Altimas that have extreme tire cupping problems due to bad alignments and bad tire inflation. This causes your same symptoms of a bad howling noise at crusing speeds.

To check it, rub your hands flat on the tread of the tire. If you can feel, or even see, the front patch/part of tread is lower than the rear part of the tread, then the tires are cupped and will be the cause of the howling noise. If not, then we can proceed to something else.......