So the rear wheel on the passenger side of the MR2 has started a scraping, grinding noise. It sounds kinda like what you would expect bearings with no grease to sound like. Which leads me to believe that my bearings have no grease. (probably the original 1985 units wearing out finally, go Toyota!)
The weird thing is that the sounds goes away completely when I turn the wheel to the right. At a certain angle of the steering wheel, the sound shuts off like a switch had been flipped. Happens at all speeds too, weather I am unloading the rear wheel or not.
I'll be going over it this weekend, but I'd love some suspects to check out.
Duke
SuperDork
4/26/11 1:25 p.m.
That's pretty common bad-wheelbearing behaviour in my experience. The side load from the cornering (even gentle weaves in your own lane) is enough to deflect the balls up into a clean part of the race, and it shuts up. And it is not necessarily to both sides, either - some times it only hushes on direction and not the other.
Someone popped the tire off, dumped in a bunch of large ball bearings, and put the tire back on. As you go down the road, the bearings are bouncing around, making a ruckus and causing all kinds of havoc. Now, when you corner, the bearing all load up and plaster themselves on the side of the tire and stop rolling, hence no more noise.
Demount the tire, empty out the ball bearings, and you should be OK, or you could fill the tire with fix-a-flat, which will stop the noise. 
Yeah, wheel bearings are shot. I don't know, but, if the races in the hubs are captive, you may have to have the old ones pressed out and new ones pressed in. Check the shop manual, or others here may chime in with hands-on experience with this problem.
tuna55
SuperDork
4/26/11 1:45 p.m.
Exact wheel bearing symptoms. They were $6 for my Camaro.
If I remember right it comes as an assembly with the hub, bearing, and retainer. Replace it with a name brand set like Timken or a new Toyota piece. I have had three parts store brands, One from Advanced and two from NAPA all fail on me within 35,000 miles.
+1 on bearings. Been there before. Hub assy from Timken or Yoda.
yup been there, done that.. got grease on the Teeshirt
