Front Wheel/possibly rotter problems...

[$ilv3rado]

I have two separate problems here and they're both equally annoying so here it goes.

1994 Saturn SL2

Problems:

(1) The front passenger's side wheel has been rattling around for a while now. My first thought is it was the axle going bad so I replaced it a little while ago, but the rattling is still there. I believe it is getting worse too, since you can hear it rolling anywhere from 0~35mph now. I jacked it up a little while ago and you can press on either side of the wheel and it will wiggle around a bit (all of the lug nuts are tightened) -- I tried doing the same with the driver's side but it's fine and has no movement when pressing on the sides. Could this problem be the wheel hub that the axle slides into?

(2) When I apply the breaks my car usually jerks coming to a stop. I'll get a smooth stop out of it every once in a while, but the majority of the time it will have this jolt/jerk. Could this be due to bad roters? (I do not have anti-lock breaks -- just the standard power brakes)


Any help, suggestions, and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[wrparks]

Problem 1 I would say is bad wheel bearings, pretty easy to fix. Did you do the axles yourself? Any mechanic should have checked the wheel bearings.

Problem 2 is most likely warped rotors, and while not necessarily cheap, pretty easy to fix. It's normally caused by morons at a lube shop using an air gun to tigheten lugs and it won't appear for a while afterwards so it's hard to prove.

[$ilv3rado]

Thanks for the reply, wrparks.

Yes, I replaced the axle myself -- After replacing it, I thought it may be the wheel bearing but wasn't sure. Yep, it definitely feels like warped roters. I'll get these replaced as soon as possible and let y'all know if either one of the problems still exist.

Thanks for the input.

[$ilv3rado]

For references...

Problem 1 wasn't due to a bad wheel bearing after all. This was obvious after replacing it and having no improvement. So after noticing the outer tie rod had some wear on it, we replaced it and the movement and rattling are no longer a problem. Who would'a thought..


Problem 2 was due to worn roters -- when we took them off they didn't look bad, but after replacing the roters & brakes slowing down and coming to a stop is much smoother.