I looked at a Z today at a used car dealer. When I test drove it at about 50miles/hr I started to hear a roaring noise from the front left driver’s side.
I threw it in neutral and let it cost and still the noise was there. The slower I went until I got below 50miles per hr. the slower the noise got. The faster I went the faster the noise got. I got worried right away and started to think to myself, great another Z with the front end problem, right.
Then I thought to change lanes (kinda hard/fast) to take the weight off of the driver’s front side. So I turned the wheel to the right to go to the right lane and the noise went away. Ohh yeah and it was vibrating when I could hear the noise. The vibrations went away along with the noise when I made the lane change. When I cut back over to the left lane (putting more weight on the driver’s side wheel) the noise got louder / vibrations got worse then when I was running the car straight down the road.

Anyway long story short, I’m thinking this is a wheel bearing problem and not the front end tire roaring issue that allot of Z owners have been having. But with the description above do you guys think I'm right saying "wheel bearing" or wrong and say "don’t take your chances" on a possible front end issue?

The dealership will replace the wheel bearing before I buy the car (if I do) so it would be taken care of.

By the way its an 03' Z with 42k miles. Givin it to me for $19,500 OTD. Is this a good price. I'm thinkin I could do better if I waited it out longer. Maybe find another car but this thing is clean. Opinions welcome.

Thanks

 

03 for 20k? you could spend 3 to 5k more for an 05 with 1/4 the miles. my $0.02

 

if you want the car, make them fix it. If they won't, it's not like the Z is a particularly hard to car to find used....they are as abundant as dogs