[Ecky]

Over the past year I had thought I needed to replace one of the hubs on my car. The wear pattern from the brakes looked like that of a warped hub, and I had vibration while slowing down. My gas mileage has also been creeping down over the past few months for no reason I could discover (have been getting under 30 consistently in city driving).

A week ago I developed some "wheel noise", what sounded like a high pitch oscillating whine that changed in frequency while driving. I asked a tech at an auto shop, he test-drove it and suggested that I get my tires checked/reseated. I jacked the car up and couldn't see anything obviously wrong with the tires (but also there was no play in the wheel when I shook it) but some internet reading suggested that it could still be a bad bearing.

I took the car into tire kingdom and had them replace that wheel bearing. As I pulled out of the parking lot I discovered my hunch was right, no more whine. Also, no more vibration while braking! I'm halfway through a tank since then and it's looking like I'm going to average 33-35 city.

There was no grinding noise and no play in the tire, but the bearing was still killing my mileage.

Just thought I'd share.