Pin-pointing wheel bearing noise

[BrianG]

Help! I have this persistent problem:

I am convinced I have a front wheel bearing going. My car has nearly 130K on the clock .
As has been noted in other posts, wheel bearing noise can be difficult to pin down as it echoes around the car. I was convinced it was the offside front (driver's side); it starts at low speed as a sort of wobbly "woo-woo" singing sound inside the car, rising in pitch with road speed until it is quite pronounced at 30 mph, especially on smooth tarmac. Its pitch becomes higher until it becomes lost in the general noise at higher speed. It's pitch at a given speed is unaffected by engine rpm or gear selection related.

It's louder at the front that the back when you open the right front window at 25-30 mph and indistinct if you open the right rear window. If you open either of the the left windows you can't really hear it above the tyre noise. I took the car to my main dealer and they said there was no play in the bearing so no problem to worry about.

I have checked it again myself and agree there is no play (usual grasp at top and bottom wiggle test). The wheel makes no noise other than a slight scraping noise from the disc and pads even when I spin it as fast as possible by hand when the car is jacked up.

Could it be tyre noise? I have been running sets of Pirelli P-Zero 235/50 x 17 for several years now and have recently put on a new set all round, but it was doing this with the old set.

My question is can a bearing make a noise when loaded with the weight of the car without showing wear as play when tested? Should I get it changed anyway?