99 Lumina front left tire acting weird.

[tarheel0]

Let me just say I'm a complete novice when it comes to cars, I can change the oil, check fluids and tire pressure just the very basic stuff.

Anyway, when the car goes into reverse its almost like the front left tire is getting caught up or locking up preventing the car from moving. It will go a couple of feet and I will hear a loud roaring/thumping sound coming from the front left tire. It seems to fine going forward, but since I haven't driven it on the road since this happened, I can only go maybe 10 feet forward in my driveway with no noticeable problems. I really haven't had the money to let a mechanic look at it, but I've been in reverse with someone looking at the tire, and they tell me it looks like its about to come off the car.

Hopefully, I can get some help to find whats wrong, and I can do this as a DIY learning experience with some help from online tutorials. My problem is I just don't even know where to look to find the problem. I've taken the tire off, and nothing to my novice eyes seems broken or out of place, and the caliper doesn't appear to be seized up. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[gmtech1]

Can you get both tires off the ground? It sounds like a seizing L/F hub bearing. With both wheels in the air and trans in neutral, can you spin the L/F in both directions? Grab ahold of the top and bottom of the L/F tire and check for play in the bearing (pulling out at the top and in at the bottom) try and shake it in and out like that. There should not be any movement.

[jeffcoslacker]

Yeah I'd guess the hub bearing is bad or the outer CV joint busted a ball or something.

Could even be as severe as something awful like the subframe already had a couple of broken mounts, and now is crabbing the entire assembly into a bind when put in reverse. Is the tire moving fore/aft in the wheelwell when you back up, did they say? Or wobbling?