Jay, welcome to the family and congrats on your "new" VX. Make sure to post pictures when you get a chance so we can all revel in the VX glow.
You didn't post anything about the year or milage of your VX so it might be a little difficult for us to diagnose what's going on, but I'll give it a shot. If the grinding feel/sound only happens intermitantly it may be a bearing going out. Depending on how long the boots have been torn, and if they are the boots down by the wheel, even though they still have grease in the CV joints the boot may be allowing water and other debris to get down in there and ruin the bearing.
I would think that if the passenger side bearing was going out it would make more noise as you turned left (and loaded the passenger side wheel) so I may be way off here.
"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."
-Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless