Vibration at high speed, squealing noise at low
 

There's a squealing noise when I brake at a certain level while reversing. It's only when reversing and only squeals at a certain range of brake pedal pressed and at a certain (low) speed. No noise while going forward and braking. There's also a noise of some metal rubbing (circular motion, fairly certain somewhere from the wheels) which I can only hear when the windows are down and there's something on the side of the road to reflect the noise, like barricading.

Yesterday, I noticed if I am going on the highway over 100kmph, there was vibration in the vehicle in general, not specifically the steering wheel or anything and also at some point, I had to focus more to keep the car in the same lane, hard to explain. I wouldn't say that it was dragging to any particular direction but someone mentioned "it's like it has a mind of it's own" in terms of direction.

I think it could be the wheel bearing, or the other possibility from my research is the rotors. I would say that the noise was there since a few months and I did check for dust or anything visible between the brake pads and rotors but saw nothing out of place.

Any idea or anything that I can do myself to pinpoint the issue here?

Oh I do hope you meant 100 KPH not 100k MPH! If doing 100K MPH your bearings are melting.

Sounds to me like your parking brake may be dragging a bit. That is often more noticeable in reverse and can give you a brushing noise at speed. I would at least start there.

I'm concerned that it may be a wheel bearing in VERY bad shape, like don't-drive-it condition.

The low speed reverse squeal would be an odd symptom for a bearing but certainly wouldn't rule it out.

Actually if it is causing difficulties staying in a lane then the car should not be driven until investigated no matter what the cause. That is an invitation for catastrophic failure and would not be fun.

If it's so loose that alignment is affected, yikes! I've never seen it go that far but understand the possibility.

I'll try to check that, first thing.

It's really subtle. If I keep my hands of the steering wheel, it'll still drive in the line. It's only in some areas, it's just more "focus" to keep it in the lane than actually physically steering to keep it in the lane. Not my best described sentences.

Well, it's just a not so educated guess on the wheel bearing. It's kind of similar to the time when I took it to the mechanic for the similar "not staying in the lane" issue (no noise), and it was the ball joint going, which I did get replaced, both of them.

My concern here is more about vibrating at 100KPH or more, and the subtle swaying. The noise was there before, but the vibration and swaying was observed a month or so after I got my tires switched (and balanced).

Take it to your shop. They'll be able to tell you in a couple minutes if there's any danger.

What you are describing in those sentences is a typical wheel bearing about to go out. Considering your vehicle is a 2015 and I'm assuming you're well over 60K miles (100K KM), this would be a normal maintenance item, not normal per se, but something that does come up over time. Squeaking on the brakes while reversing could mean your parking brake is also about to go out.



Faulty wheel bearings will steer your car in either direction even when your steering wheel might be straight. Vibrations can also mean, even if the steering is straight, that your wheels are out of balance also.



Refrain from doing long drives or high speeds and take it to your local shop.

Thank you. I'll check the bearing then, and prep for the bill.

After the tire change, we the lugs properly torqued?

Well I did pull over immediately and checked that they weren't loose. I'll go to a shop and get them retorqued.

*a whole month* after you got your tires changed is kind of inconclusive on that part, but it's not impossible that while you had the tire change and the wheel was off the hub, some rust (Your location: Canada) can fall between the hub and rotor if it's moved, making the rotor run as if warped once the wheel is put back on, which would also run with a slight wobble.

Again: Your location being Canada (or anyplace above the US rust best really) a rust ridge at the inner outside edge of the rotor is a common cause of cyclic metallic rubbing noises coming from wheel and brake area if that ridge is large enough to contact the backing plate, which itself might have gotten pushed towards the rotor by rust over the years. A rust ridge can also cause brake squeal, as instead of running on a flat rotor, your pads now run in a V groove (with a really wide and flat bottom) which can cause them to squeal like a V belt.

Of course your brakes could just be at the wear limit and the squeal you hear is the wear indicator doing it's job.

Also, that doesn't explain your handling concern, but it doesn't have to: Your car is a 2015, a worn suspension component isn't out of the question. "A mind of it's own" handling, in my experience, is often caused by REAR components being worn, you may have a worn joint on a toe link or control arm. I usually test for this on a flat piece of highway that has nice ruts from heavy truck traffic. On a slow lane change, the ruts will load the suspension side to side and the rear will feel like it wants to change lanes faster than the front.

A little update. My mechanic appointment isn't until next week, so I tried a little diagnosing on my own. To figure out which wheel bearing it might be, I jacked the car up and looked for a metal rubbing noise. One of the wheels had a very faint such noise, so I tried to wiggle the wheel. No movement at all.
The front passenger wheel, no noise, no wiggle but turns a little stiff, comparatively. Nothing at the rear.
Can I pin point or remove the wheel bearing as the problem with these observations? I thought the wiggle in the wheel when jacked up would be conclusive of a bad bearing but I noticed no wiggle in any of the tires. The slight noise at the front left tire, could be just the backing plate and shouldn't cause the wobble while driving at high speed, I would imagine.