So recently iv come across a grinding noise coming from the front of my car, and I have no idea what it is but when the car is moving I can hear it. sometimes it is really loud, other times not so loud... I have had the front end jacked up, checked the wheels for any play thinking it could be a bearing but there is no play.  I recently had both rear wheels bearings changed and had new disks and pads on the front under 500 miles ago. Could it possibly be the disks? Thanks for any replies.

although it does not happen often, I had a noise from one of mine, more scraping than grinding, it was a small stone stuck between the caliper and the disc. if you jack it up and turn the wheel can you hear it? or only when driving at faster speed, you probably need to get the wheel off and have a good look.

56 minutes ago, Fiestamk6owner said:

checked the wheels for any play thinking it could be a bearing but there is no play. 

It is quite possible to have a noisy bearing with absolutely no sign of it with the car jacked up. No play and no noise. I had this for about 2000 miles. It stated as a faint drone at about 50mph, and over that distance it slowly got louder, and became apparent from about 25mph to over 70mph. But still no play or roughness. Also no appreciable change on bends, until right at the end, when it was a deeper note when turning left.

However, the noise I had was a tone, or drone, or humming noise. Not what I would call a rumble or grinding, and not a squeal. I guess you have tried dropping into neutral while driving, to make double sure it is not engine related.

So, as Isetta says, check the brakes first. I had to proceed by elimination: tyres, gearbox, rear wheels, driveshafts, driveshaft intermediate bearing. Swapping tyres & listening with a microphone, checking and testing things. Only after that annoying 2000 miles was I fairly sure it was front wheel bearing, and more probably driver's side. And it was.

Our 57 plate, after being parked up for a few days, when setting off yesterday, sounded like a really bad grinding noise and the car was hardly driveable, as it sounded as if we might do more damage.

Anybody had anything like this happen?

It’s quite common after the snow we’ve had and the associated grit on the roads, that little bits of grit or stones get stuck between the calliper and disc, or disc and back plate. Also if the car has been sitting for a while and the brakes have been wet, that a film of basically rust deposits build up on the discs. It then sounds like a metal on metal grinding noise until the disc surface is smoothed over by the brakes. My first port of call would be a good high pressure hose on all the brake parts to flush out any deposits. If that doesn’t work, I would jack up the car and rotate the wheel by hand as @isettasaid above. If you hear the grinding noise with only hand pressure rotation of the wheel, then it’s very likely a small stone is stuck somewhere and you just have to look in all directions with a bright light on the opposite side to where you are looking to identify where. A wheel bearing is much harder to identify by close inspection unless there is a bit of free play in the hub, although generally there is no grinding noise from a wheel bearing unless it is exceptionally bad, but you would have had a drone noise long before grinding. It’s normally a humming or groaning noise and can change when the bearing is under load or not when cornering left or right. I would stick to the simple stuff first as I would doubt it’s a bearing from what you describe.