Noise while driving, wheel bearing?

Hello,

These noises can be a bit of a trick to get figured out, even more so over the internet. Which wheel bearing did you replace? If I recall, these have a unitized hub setup.

When you are hearing the noise, does it get better/worse or change pitch when you are turning left or right? A bad bearing will typically get worse as you load them up. I.E. Left front bearing will get louder when turning right vs. Turning left.

Another way to check is to jack the vehicle up and spin the suspect wheel manually to see if you hear any strange grinding/growling or even excessive movement.

Hi guys. Please allow me to butt in and add a comment of value. A lot of competent do-it-yourselfers cause a new bearing assembly to become noisy due to improper installation procedures. Specifically, there must never be any vehicle weight on the bearing unless the axle nut is fully torqued to specs. A common torque spec is 180 foot pounds, but some GM models call for as much as 240 foot pounds. The problem is to get the nut that tight, many people will install the wheel / tire and set it on the ground to hold the axle from spinning. By that time the damage has been done. A far better way to hold it from spinning is to stick a punch or screwdriver into one of the cooling slots in the rotor.

Years ago at a very nice Chrysler dealership, I had to align a GM front-wheel-drive car that was just repaired in the body shop. They had the engine and transmission out to work on the body, and during that time, they put the wheels on and pushed the car outside while waiting for parts. Pushing it out 50 feet and back in later was all it took to make both bearings noisy. There was only a few hundred pounds on the bearings with the drivetrain out, but that didn't matter. Where I was, in the repair shop, we had saved up a bunch of outer CV joint housings to use as stub shafts to hold the bearings together when the half shafts were out for some other service, and we had to move the cars around.

MONSTERTRUCKDADDY is right about a noisy bearing getting louder when you turn away from it. The perfect time to notice it is when changing lanes. Turning to the right puts more vehicle weight on the left front wheel, but that increased noise applies much more so to pressed-in bearings that Chrysler used up to 1990 models, and Toyota still uses. The bolt-on assemblies that Chrysler uses now, and GM has always used can be a little tricky. It's very common for them to have no change in volume when turning, and it is just as common to have a noisy bearing on the right, for example, but the sound seems to come from the left. The noise can transfer to the other side.

Pressed-in bearings have to be destroyed to replace them, but there's never a need to replace them unless they're defective. The good news is they are very low cost. Bolt-on bearings cost a lot more, but the good news here is if you replace the wrong one, you can reinstall the old one on the other side.

When you're ready to replace a wheel bearing, there's two ways I like to verify it's really noisy. I used to run the engine, in gear, on a hoist, then listen next to each one with a stethoscope. One will make you think you're hearing the noise, but then the other one will be a real lot louder, and obvious.

One of our other experts taught me a better way to identify the noisy bearing, and it really works. That is to raise the tire off the ground, then reach over the top and lightly place your fingertips around part of the coil spring. Rotate that wheel with your other hand, and you'll feel the vibration in the spring. You'll feel that long before the bearing gets bad enough to hear it when spinning the wheel by hand. If you feel any looseness in the bearing, it has been noisy for a real long time. In more than 35 years as a suspension and alignment specialist, I only ran into one bearing that had looseness, and it was so bad we refused to do any other work on the car. The owner was a young kid, and he refused to believe that wasn't normal. That tire moved in and out on top a good three inches!

I'll go sit in my corner in case you need more of my wondrous wisdom. I want to know the solution too and how you found it.

A couple of months ago I would have said the 118 foot pounds was wrong, but in fact, I did run across one model that was listed that low. That really surprised me. The better alternative is to go by what is specified on the instruction sheet that comes with the new bearing assembly. Typically they will call for the same as for the original dealership bearing, but sometimes an aftermarket supplier will have one already in production for other models that will work on a newer one that calls for a lower value. In that case you have to go by what the bearing needs, not what the manufacturer specified for that model year.

As for camber, that is one of the three main alignment angles and it has the biggest say for pulling to one side. Caster is the other, for mismatched cater has practically no effect on front-wheel-drive vehicles, so it's usually not even adjustable.

Beside pulling, camber must be in specs for best tire wear, and when set close to 0.00 degrees, (perfectly straight up and down), or slightly positive, (tipped out on top), it places the vehicle's weight directly over the wheel bearing. On older cars with tapered inner and outer bearings that we used to have to repack occasionally, camber placed the weight directly over the larger inner bearing. The smaller outer one was just meant to hold the wheel straight. It wasn't meant to support any weight.

If you're replacing multiple suspension and steering parts that require an alignment, but you're trying to avoid that alignment, a trick is to start out with a straight steering wheel when you're driving on a straight road, replace the parts, (think tie rod ends), on just one side, then test-drive the car and tweak the toe until you get back to a straight steering wheel. That will ensure you have toe close enough to make the car drivable to the alignment shop. Now replace the parts on the other side of the car, then do the same thing.

When doing this trick with ball joints, it depends on the type of joint. Chrysler uses mostly a ball and stud that sits in a centered hole in a socket that sits in a round hole in the lower control arm. You can't help but get that stud back in the same orientation the old one was in before it became sloppy, so, in theory, no alignment should be needed if that's the only part that was replaced. A lot of GM vehicles use a design that has a wing on the joint's housing, and three or four rivets were holding it to the control arm. With that style, there's no way to ensure they're the same as the old one, so the alignment has to be checked. Even if the car goes straight, GM cars can be rather forgiving for incorrect camber, but the clue will be the steering wheel is off-center. When camber changed, the steering arm on the spindle moves in or out a little. When the tie rod ends haven't been readjusted to accommodate that, it turns that wheel one way. You have to bring it back so both front wheels are off-center equally to make the car go straight. The result is that off-center steering wheel.

I forgot to mention that a lot of axle nuts are "torque-to-yield", meaning they're a one-time-use nut. The threads stretch when the nuts are tightened, so they're supposed to be replaced each time they're removed. When that style is used, a new nut usually comes with the new bearing or half shaft.

I didn't mean to take over your conversation. I'll let you guys continue and just jump in if you need me.

Hi,

I felt the need to jump in too. LOL The axle nut torque specs for your vehicle is 107 ft lbs. I looked several times and didn't notice that mentioned. (See pic below).

Next, it may be the bearing itself that is faulty. So many parts are coming from overseas. If I had a nickel for every faulty aftermarket part I've gotten, I would be rich!

Also, unless the camber is seriously out, I don't feel it would do this. Even then I would question it.

Take care and let us know.

Joe

See pic below.

Hi,

You are very welcome. I believe you are experiencing what many Americans are experiencing at this time. It will get better.

Take care of yourself and feel free to let us know if we can help in any way.

Joe