Haven't had this problem in years or heard of it on the forum. Just finished cross country trip and noticed a whining sound at speed when in New Mexico. Sounded like I had a snow tire on. Right rear wheel bearing had to be replaced. :) Got car in July and just hit 11,500 miles awesome


[Modified by jimman, 12:30 AM 9/14/2002]

 

Was it replaced under warranty?

 

Know of 3 cars with early rear wheel bearing failure-All under 20,000 miles,2 are street cars and other a Track Day car.

 

yes under warranty

 

Check to make sure your front rotors aren't reversed. The fins should be pointing backwards so the air is coming from the hubs out, not from the fins flowing into the hubs. The other thing that will do it is a very hard impact. I ruined one when I spun on the track and dug in hard enough to collapse a bead.


[Modified by Richin Chicago, 12:07 PM 9/16/2002]

 

Nice ride, Jim. Keep putting on those miles of fun.

Dawson :seeya

 

it was a rear and the front rotors are ok but were just tuned do to being .006" out of round, standard problem.

 

Same deal with the rears. Make sure the fins in the middle of the rotors are facing backwards so the air is coming from the center of the rotor and moving outwards. If the fins are facing forward and scooping air down towards the hub, the bearings will get very hot.

 

Don't know about rear bearings, but my fronts both started to growl a little at about 21K miles. You could only hear it if you spun the bearing by hand with the rotors removed - I was getting new rotors. Speculation is that the brake heat and high cornering loads from track use can cook the grease out of the bearing and then it wears out quickly.

 

I do have some high pitch howling during highway driving. I thought it was my tires. WHat tests can I peform to find out if it's the bearings.

Thanks

 

swerve the car on a quiet surface and see if it changes pitch. that's how they found mine.

 

Jim,

I have a whine on the highway too. I can put my race tires on and still get the whine so I know it's not my tires. Did you get any ABS or Vehicle speed sensor DTC's? I would think with a bad bearing you might get these codes since the sensor could be beyond limits reading the reluctor ring.

So, any codes with your bad bearing?

 

Just as an added data point I got no indication via any DTC's. I found it is easily detectable if you are on smooth asphalt and load the bearing by turning left and right like going between lanes on an expressway. If the pitch changes or goes away while you are turning it is a pretty good bet you have a bearing problem.
OOOPS! I see Jim said the same thing above!




[Modified by Richin Chicago, 1:55 PM 10/2/2002]

 

To check for a bad bearing, just jack the car up and check for movement on the wheel. Hold the top and bottom of the wheel and pull on one and push on the other. If there is play then you have a bad bearing.

Mine just went bad on the front driver side.

 

Thanks Rich,

The noise doesn't change a bit when I make a lane change. I'll probably pull the wheels this winter and do the dial indicator/bearing play inspection.

 

I think C5 rear wheel bearing failure is pretty common, especially for people who drive their car hard in an AutoX or Roadracing environment.. I know my passenger side rear wheel bearing went last year, and now my driver side rear is on its way out as well. If you turn left and the sound goes away then it is your driver side wheel bearing... If you turn right and the sound goes away, then it is the passenger side..

Too bad these things are soo expensive because they come with the ABS speed sensor! :(


[Modified by MattG, 9:58 AM 10/3/2002]

 

My right rear wheel bearing failed at about 12,000 miles, and my left rear failed a few weeks ago at about 15000 miles. The rear bearings are very expensive as already stated at about $674.00. My rear bearing failures may have occurred because of a earlier mishap at the drag track.

 

The front is 7470569 which costs $400.80 delivered and the rear part is 7470571 which costs $404.81 delivered from:

http://www.gmpartsdirect.com





[Modified by Richin Chicago, 3:31 AM 10/4/2002]

 

Bearing P/N rear = 7470571 GM Partsdirect.com shows $337.34
front = 7470569 $334.00

Now what is weird is only for the 00 model year it looks like you can get just the front bearing which is P/N 457232. $18.69 Something doesn't seem right with this.

Can anybody shed more light on this? :confused:


[Modified by best_vette_yet, 12:18 AM 10/4/2002]

 

The right rear wheel bearing in my 2000 C5 is going bad as well.

I thought it was the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires that are on it, but it turns
out that it's the right rear bearing. I currently have about 54,000 miles on it.

I'm going to replace the unit myself, so I called several places to get a
range of prices.

The most expensive is the dealership ($595), and the cheapest is
AutoZone ($126). The AutoZone part is manufactured by Timken,
which is a very well known name in the bearing industry. I honestly
don't think that there will be any difference in quality between the
AutoZone bearing assembly and a bearing assembly offered at the
dealership. Heck, we know the GM bearing assembly wears out, right?
Why would I buy the bearing from GM?

So, I'm gonna try my luck w/ the Timken bearing assembly. Since
AutoZone is so much cheaper, I'm going to replace both rear bearing
assemblies while I'm at it.

The methods mentioned above for determining if the bearing is actually bad, works well. When I turn right, the sound TOTALLY goes away (hence,
it's a right rear bearing failure). Plus, I jacked the rear of the car up (on level ground), released the emergency brakes, and found about an 1/8" play at the top/bottom of the tire.

Just thought I'd let you guys know about the prices I found.
:D

I'll reply back and let you know how the surgery goes.