Wheel Bearing diagnosis
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 233
Likes: 1
From: Acworth GA
Wheel Bearing diagnosis
Looking for a wheel bearing diagnosis trick. Any good ones? On a front wheel drive, I have had the best luck jacking the car up and spinning the wheel while holding on to the spring. You can feel the grinding in the spring.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 41,062
Likes: 9,825
From: Charlotte, NC (formerly Endicott, NY)
Driving the car and swerving back and forth. Increased growl/noise on right hand swerve means problem on left side and left hand swerve means problem on right side. Also lift car and with hands in 12 and 6 O'Clock positions rock tire up and down to see if there is excess movement. Finally, pull bearing and turn in your hand to feel if there is any roughness. I had one that was making noise on my 97 and the only way it was found was to remove the bearings and use both hands to turn them.
Bill
Bill
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 960
Likes: 1
From: Trussville AL
I bought a cheap mechanics scope, put the car in the air, had a friend put it in gear and listened until I was satisfied my bearing was bad. Just don't let a wheel weight hit the tube. My ears rang for a week.
Heel & Toe
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 23
Likes: 0
From: Canton GA
I used the swerve test and determined the problem was with the right side bearing on my 2001 coupe. Right side swerve was a slight increase in noise, but the noise went away on a left hand swerve.
Less than two hours to remove and replace the wheel bearing and no noise.
I was concerned there was a problem with the differential and I started with draining and replacing the fluid with no change in the noise. When I read this post and others, it was easy to check out and a fairly easy job to replace the bearing.
Thanks
Less than two hours to remove and replace the wheel bearing and no noise.
I was concerned there was a problem with the differential and I started with draining and replacing the fluid with no change in the noise. When I read this post and others, it was easy to check out and a fairly easy job to replace the bearing.
Thanks
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 10,962
Likes: 29
From: Van Buren Arkansas
Wounded Warrior Escort '11
If you can feel grinding when the wheel is turning off the ground, its simple, you've got a bad bearing. If I remember correctly, using a straight edge on the vertical length of the tire...at the top of the tire, moving the bottom of it in/out, you should see no more than "1/16th inch of deflection at the top of the straight edge.
