Wheel Bearing

[ben swann]

Do these cars - the 200 20V tqs have a higher incidence of premature
bearing failure?  Mine seems to be exhibiting what appears to be a
bearing noise and only has 107k mi.  In other VAG cars I've owned, I
didn't see time to replace bearings 'til well over 150k mi.

On mine the noise tends to become more pronounced when making a left
turn.  Sometimes at highway speeds, it sounds like a helicopter.  I
plan to replace the bearings in the near future, but at 107000 miles,
should I be suspect of possible transmission failure?  Don't see any
fluid leaks.

Ben

[I'm getting a "howling" sound from the right rear of my car.  It
definitely is wheel/tire related and starts at about 40 mph.  I suspect
passenger side wheel bearing.  My questions are; Could the problem be
something else...axle???  Is there a way to definitively determine if
it is indeed the bearing??  If it is the axle, I'm inclined to taking
the bearing housing out and bringing it to a machine shop to have a new
bearing pressed in,...I'm told this is a fairly easy job to remove the
bearing housing, anything I need to be concerned with when doing
this???   Thanks for you help.]