Front wheel bearings.

D

Dave 88 LSC

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After replacing most of the front end bushings with OEM parts, I am hearing a very faint humm coming from a driver side front wheel. I am not sure if it is normal or out of spec. It could be a bad tire for all I know. I've had cars that had a bad tire that sounded like a bad wheel bearing. I did not do wheel alignment since changing all those parts since the car rides well and tracks straight.
How can I check if the bearing is good or bad? There is no play while checking the wheel on that particular side. I don't want to wait till the wheel falls off.

How hard or expensive is it to change a front wheel bearing.


Thank you for your inputs.

Dave
 
It's not hard to replace at all. Pull the wheel and caliper, remove the rotor, dust cap and the nut. Slide the hub off, replace in reverse order.
They normally offer two versions in diff grades. One with a pre crushed sleeve you just tighten down and one that is torque to spec. 200+ ftlbs I can't remember off the top of my head.
 
When you get the tire up off the ground, rotate it by hand and if you feel or hear a noise like a bicycle chain then the bearing is shot.
 
Yes get an alignment!

With wheel off ground, grab tire at 6 and 12 o'clock, and push/pull, they are a 0 tolerance bearing...so there should be NO wiggle, then grab either the lower control arm near the ball joint or the strut and spin the wheel with other hand...you can feel vibration
In a bad bearing
 
Sapperfire said:
Yes get an alignment!

With wheel off ground, grab tire at 6 and 12 o'clock, and push/pull, they are a 0 tolerance bearing...so there should be NO wiggle, then grab either the lower control arm near the ball joint or the strut and spin the wheel with other hand...you can feel vibration
In a bad bearing
Click to expand...

Did that today, and i feel no vibration in the wheel, no noise either.

On the road the noise does not get worse with speed, and at 70 you can not hear it at all, its mostly 30-40. But its definitely not there when stoped or going 70+ mph. I am thinking tire?
 
just had to do front bearings on my car. you can tell when they go bad. they make the worst nose ever.
 
Another way to test, not sure why it was not mentioned, is to drive the car straight then take a soft left or right on the highway. The sound will get louder or disappear. I think its the quickest way to check. Sometimes bearing can go bad yet its still hard to feel any wiggle by hand when pulling the wheel.

By the way, I think I replaced mine 3 times. First was after impact tools were used from a new tire install. Literally drove off and could hear them. Before I could not. They were Potenza RE950 tires, so I knew it could not be them. Then I put on a cheap set. Bad idea, they failed within 6 months. NTP I think was the brand to look for... or avoid? I forget.
 
Yep, it was making noise going straight, but making a left it would go away.
 
unity said:
Another way to test, not sure why it was not mentioned, is to drive the car straight then take a soft left or right on the highway. The sound will get louder or disappear. I think its the quickest way to check. Sometimes bearing can go bad yet its still hard to feel any wiggle by hand when pulling the wheel.

By the way, I think I replaced mine 3 times. First was after impact tools were used from a new tire install. Literally drove off and could hear them. Before I could not. They were Potenza RE950 tires, so I knew it could not be them. Then I put on a cheap set. Bad idea, they failed within 6 months. NTP I think was the brand to look for... or avoid? I forget.
Click to expand...

There's no need to even touch the bearing nut when installing wheels...wtf

And no, it's not recommended to DRIVE a vehicle to test it for a bad bearing...if the bearing IS bad..and you drive it and the bearing fails... Cmon man!
 
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