Thumping sound from my 98 forester

[JonathanMichaelCosgrove]

Well here is all the background and I hope to God one of you may be
able to help diagnose:

Well I set off to move from Oregon to Texas for school, I filled my car
with an tremendous amount of odds and ends and drove off. About 1,500
miles into the trip the thumping sound appeared. For the last 500 or so
miles the car has made a distinct thumping sound. It appears the sound
occurs most frequently when accelerating from a stop and seems to
dissappear when reaching full speed. This sound doesnt seem to occur
when accelerating from a stop in reverse though? The sound appears to
be comming from the right rear wheel region. Trying to diagnose the
problem myself I have noticed that the sound is much louder inside the
car than when standing next to the car while someone else drives
it..although it is still audible that way too. Please any ideas?

 

[The Other Dave]

Check the tire for ply separation/out of round.

 

[JonathanMichaelCosgrove]

I am unsure of exactly how and what to look for for these..I took the
tire off and visually inspected the tread and found it to look to be in
good shape..the tires themselves are 40k mile bridgestones with maybe
8k on them...i put on the spare and drove it around and the noise
seemed to occur less loud, but it still occured and seemed to come from
the same area on the vehicle????still confused

 

[golfermatt]

I had a similar issue and found through various Forester news groups
that the problem could be the wheel bearings (common problem with 98-00
Foresters). I had the Subaru dealer replace them and this fixed the
problem. Just my experience but a place to start...