When to replace wheel bearing???
 

How do you know if you need a new wheel bearing? After I installed new wheels and tires last summer I noticed on the highway that I get a pulsating vibration at around 60mph. The vibration is constant, it comes in pulses, Ex: Driving @60mph vibration/pulse happens every 3 seconds intervals (if that makes any sense). I don't feel it as much driving slower, and if I remember correctly, at higher speeds the intervals quicken then go away.

Has anyone experienced this phenomenon? I'm going to get the car re-aligned, but wondering if road force balancing may help my issue. I just don't want to start throwing money around at problems if it's not needed.

Thanks.

Don't think that your problem is a bearing. Bearings usually will make noise in direct relation to the car speed - higher = more noise. The noise will be constant and not pulsating. You can also detect a bad bearing by jacking the car up grabbing the wheel and rocking it top to bottom to check for lateral movement. Anything more than a very small movement = bearing wear. Unfortunately, can't help on further diagnosis - an on - off again pulsation is a tough one without actually driving the car to see what is happening.

I agree. Either wheel balance and/or alignment. Get a "load Force" balance done. Have them also check to insure you don't have a damaged wheel.

Possible your rotor is warped and lightly rubbing the brake pads? That would account for the pulsation but should be evident at lower speeds too. I would take a high speed run, and then do a quick pit stop, and check to see if one of your rotors is hotter then the others. If one rotor is significantly hotter, then that would indicate the problem area.

Its your rear outter tie rods! I have been having the same exact problem, took it to get an alignment done and the tech showed me that both of my rear tie rod bushing are worn out. You can check this by jacking up your car and grabbing your tire at 9 and 3 and see if theres any play. If you grab at 12 and 6 and theres play then its your bearing like mentioned above. I ordered my tie rod ends from ecklers and they should be here friday and can give you an update if it solves my problem.

i had the exact same problem from a bent wheel. jack it up and give it a spin to check the circularity. if bent, its most likely on the inner lip. this can be repaired pretty easily.

I have the same problem going on, and I too was told it was my wheel bearing and that I should wait for it to get worse to know for sure. I have been driving it like that daily for 3 or 4 months now and it hasn't changed at all. I currently have no clue was is causing this.

Some issue with the tire or rim being in balance would be my guess.. Bearing would be constant.

time to replace is when it wobbles ( vibration) whines or grinds....

Thanks for the feedback...

Is it possible that a spindle can cause this issue?

Tie rods solved my vibration problem!

These aren't what you are thinking as a traditional spindle rather a hub assembly which contains the bearing/spindle/sensor and so on and its a sealed unit/assembly. Got to Autozone for the Tiemkin brand as they appear to be the OEM but not sure...very good item for the price.

lol, that's what I meant:thumbs:

Have had this issue for about a year now and have had 2 different sets of wheels on. That didn't help in my case. Wouldn't think I could get 2 sets of wheels with the exact same issue but you never know. I was told about a different remedy. It could be the ring and pinion that has a little slop in it. I am going to check my tie rods this week as that would be easier to fix than the rear diff r&r. Thanks for the info guys.:thumbs:

Just a quick question. How many miles does everyone have on their car that has this issue? Mine has about 83K on it. But the problem started when it had roughly 75K or so.

Mine happened after I went with after market wheels and new tires...approx 90K

Just turned over 80k! I have had the issue for a while and I have went through two sets of tires on the back and one on the front, an alignment, upgraded some stuff like, clutch, built diff. with 4.10 gears and hardened output shafts, metal end links and pfadt trans brace and none of those helped the issue (I wasnt trying to fix it) but the $44 tie rods took the cake! BTW if you determine that it is in fact the tie rods don't buy the ones from autozone (duralast I believe) because they were to short! Hope that helps!

Thanks for the info. I think I might just change them anyway. For that little money it couldn't hurt to do. So are you saying go to GM to get the tie rod or O'Reillys or Pepboys?

Well I ordered mine from http://www.ecklers.com/ but I'm sure you can get them from http://www.partstaxi.com/ or http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/ it is up to you. Since your in there you might want to upgrade to metal sway bar end links (if you haven't already) and plan on getting an alignment after and then you should be good to go. Here is some alignment specs I found after hours of research, might save you some time! I went close to the pfadt street setup, supposedly this will have less inside tire wear but we will see.

http://www.pfadtracing.com/docs/camb...t-settings.pdf

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...ifications.jpg

Stallion did you get this resolved? Looking into the same issue with mine. Checked for play in the 12-6 for bearing and 3-9 for tie rods neither of which have any play on either side. I do know for a fact that one of my wheels is every so slightly bent (like in the thousandths of an inch) but a Hunter machine picked up on it. So one course of action is to have that worked on. Funny though I did not notice this intermittne pulsation/vibration whatever you want to call it until I had new tires put on this spring and an alignment done.