I have an 02 LX sedan with 67,000 miles. For a few months now, it's been making a buzzing/grinding noise from the right rear wheel. It can be heard only during certain vibration conditions (i.e. rough pavement). The noise gets worse after extended periods of highway driving. I suspect that it's a wheel bearing since the noise started right after the car came off an auto transport.

I've taken the car to two SF bay area honda dealers. The first one said they couldn't hear anything and wanted to "clean the throttle body and fuel injectors" for $300. The second one said they couldn't hear anything and wanted to change the timing belt for $700. I just politely asked for my car back from both of them.

I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions on what may be causing the noise.

 

The bearing is a possibility.

You might want to jack the car up in the back (with the emergency break off) and see if the wheel spins smoothly. It could be locked up brakes.

 

x2 on the bearing or brakes ..... also could be that the ebrake cable is frozen .... how cold is it there and do you use the ebrake? slotted rotors?

 

LX has rear drum brakes, right? Remove wheel, then you can pull off the brake drum. You may have to wiggle & pound on it a little bit. Theres also a couple threaded holes to insert screws to push the drum off the hub.

When the drum is off, you can spin the HUB to get a much better feel for the wheel bearings.