I had a wheel bearing go out on my contour, sounded like a grinding/moaning noise when I turned. happened when I hit a pothole and went south from there. (this was on the front pass. side) Took it in for alignment, didn't fix it, and found it was the wheel bearing. I had it replaced and my mechanic said to avoid potholes because it is very easy to flatten one side of the bearing on these cars and cause it to wear pre-maturely. To add to the nightmare, the whole frame was knocked out of place and that was the cause for the alignment being off. Once all put back together properly, it drove like nothing had ever happened. hehe
