my 2010 Prius (165K) seems to be a lot louder once it gets to about 40MPH. This has been going on for quite some time now and I have probably driven at least a thousand miles the way it is. It is my work car so it is just me driving it to and from work. I have not noticed any mileage change, no lights on the dash and no shaking, pulling or anything else in regard to handling. On the freeway I can take my foot off the gas when it is at 70 or so and the noise still is there as the car decelerates so that leads me to believe it isn't the engine. I wonder if a bearing is going or something like that in the front end. I looked under the front end of the car and the plastic protection thing on the under carriage at the front of the engine had a plastic "rivet" missing causing the front corner to hang about a half inch. I took a zip tie and snugged it back up, but that really didn't make a difference. The noise isn't deafening, but I can tell it isn't as quiet as it once was. Any ideas?
I'll go with the wheel bearing too bad tires could make a noise also but in this vehicle wheel bearings are real common and they grown they can tick they can make all kinds of wild noises sometimes you can jack the front end up off the ground and run the tires around by hand and hear it A lot of times not once you get the hub off the car a lot of times you'll hear it just with the drive axle out and you holding a wheel stud and turning and going backwards and turning you'll hear the slop or the noise or the ticking or the dinking and well then of course you're replacing the bearing
