While I agree wheel bearings can make strange noises, and change
dramatically under load, the description (doesn't make noise in reverse)
makes me want to point at the C/V joint.
As they wear, the coast and drive sides are completely different, and my
experience is that you can make very strange growls, hums, etc. from the
wear on the drive side. Only when they are about to spit out balls and
fail catastrophically do you get ticking, etc.
You can swap them from left to right, changing the drive and coast sides.
Cheapskates often do this to stretch out the life of the joints. I buy new
CV joints because of the work swapping them.
Diagnosing wheel bearings in the front drive car is very tricky. Even
figuring out which side is making the noise can be difficult. Try driving
up close to walls with the windows down, listen carefully with walls on
left, walls in right.
My $0.02,
John Fox
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