born to race

I signed up here a long time ago but I haven't been on since I signed up. I have never posted and I'm relatively new to forums so I'm sorry if this is already posted. I'm posting this to help others if they have the same problem I had.
The Problem:
I had a loud humming/roaring sound from the rear of my car that grew with speed starting around 25 mph. When I say loud, i mean very loud! My car is straight piped and gutted and the roaring was so loud over the exhaust that I needed to wear earplugs.
The Test:
First I checked my tires because the are a little tired but didnt seem suspicious. So while driving I coasted in neutral with no change in sound. So that thankfully eliminated drivetrain. Then I started to swerve left to right. Turn left, no change. Turn right, definite change in sound. That led me to obviously think left rear wheel bearing. I lifted the rear of the car up so I could see if there was any play in the wheels....none but bad bearings dont always wobble if caught early enough.
The Solution:
It took some work having 15 years of road grime fuzing the bearing housing to the upright but I got the driver side rear wheel bearing changed in a couple hours. Took it for a drive, same issue. When I got back home the entire wheel was insanely hot so I'm thinking that the new bearing was bad. I started tearing it apart to find that the brake caliper seized. I fixed the brake but the problem was still there. I started thinking maybe it is the tire so I put a different one on still with no change. By this time I'm starting to think that the only thing left was the driver side carrier bearing in the diff. Trying to decide what to do next because I didnt want to just throw money at it, I decided to change the passenger side rear bearing. The bearings I bought came as a pair because if one side goes bad the next isnt far behind so I already had one. I was just putting it off till the weekend because I had to work the next day. Anyways, the passenger side bearing was the issue the entire time!
If you suspect your rear wheel bearing is failing I recommend doing what I should have done and take the day and just change both. Ive never come in contact with a car that wont tell you what side the bad bearing is on by swerving but my car definitely had me confused and worried about having to shell out money for a new rear end. Since I work 12 hr shifts and had to have my car driveable the next day all of this happened over a week. I cant even count the number of times I took the driver side rear wheel off lol. Plus side, I got really quick at jacking the rear of the car up and getting the wheels off.
I am posting this to help everyone save time, frustration, and the headache by avoiding my mistake.

dkmura

iTrader: (64)

Welcome and good on ya for posting a problem AND a solution on your first post. One question is how many miles were on your Z when this sound began? That info could be helpful for others to know when this problem could occur.

born to race

Until a month ago it has always been parked outside as I was in apartments. It is now finally garage kept. I have just under 160k. I first heard it a few months ago and honestly had forgotten about it since it was barely noticeable.
We had several days of hard steady rain that washed dirt over a road in the middle of a corner near my house. I was enjoying some spirited driving when I hit the dirt. It wasn't much but with spirited driving thru the twists and turns it exaggerated the weight transfer and wheel lift going over it. The tone of the humm immediately changed and became a roaring. Unfortunately I was on my way to work so I nursed it to work then home. I almost stopped and had it towed home.
One more recommendation is I put a very generous amount of anti-seize lubricant on the lip of the bearing where it mates to the upright. Hopefully it will keep all the road grime out so I dont have to beat these off with a 2.5 pound hammer like I did with the factory ones.