Would a bad wheel bearing cause uneven tire wear? Or just alignment/camber out of spec? My passenger front tire became worn on the first two inches on the inner side. There is a "tread" noise coming from front when driving straight, get louder when steering left, goes away completely when steering right. It also is barely noticable when at highway speed. Seems more noticable at slower speeds.
Bad Wheel Bearing
- Thread starter Fla02LS
- Start date
Telco
Dedicated LVC Member
Before you drive again, check your lugnuts. When I was in Germany for the military I bought a car for 50 bucks that supposedly needed a new CV axle. The car was acting in the same manner, road noise in all conditions except when turning the wheel in one direction. Before I made it home the wheel had come off. I was only going about 20MPH, but that wheel took off like it had been shot from a cannon and almost hit a full size van in the windshield. It also left a pretty good dent in the back of the front passenger wheelwell. I was going around a hard left turn when it came off. It turns out that the guy I bought the car from was having problems with one of the other residents in his base housing unit, and that other person had loosened the lug nuts on the car. He had also been driving it like that for several weeks. The real pisser was, he'd taken it to the base AAFES repair shop and they'd quoted him 2000 dollars to replace the axle which goes to show that they didn't even examine the car. They were probably going to charge him the 2000 dollars and just tighten the lugnuts. I just installed new lugnuts and made a killing off the car. Not saying this is what you have, but it's a quick thing to check.
A bad wheel bearing could cause this, and there's usually a lot of grinding noise when a bearing is going bad. You can jack up the wheel and spin it by hand, if you can hear a gravelly grinding noise then the wheel bearing is bad.
A bad wheel bearing could cause this, and there's usually a lot of grinding noise when a bearing is going bad. You can jack up the wheel and spin it by hand, if you can hear a gravelly grinding noise then the wheel bearing is bad.
Ok so after some reading up on the issue i did the two recommended tests... jacking up the car and spinning the wheel and rocking the wheel side to side. Passed both tests, wheel is silent when spun and is solid as a rock when rocked. Alignment?
Telco
Dedicated LVC Member
There's only so much we can do remotely. I suggest taking it by an alignment shop. They can go a diagnostic and let you know what's up. Wish there was more but sometimes there's no choice but take it by a pro shop.
milehighmikey
Dedicated LVC Member
Sounds like it's toed out, alignment.