Help with wheel bearings

eclipsed at 3am · #1 10-20-2006, 05:10 PM

First of all, I know I posted something about this before. Its just that nobody replied before, so i figured I'd give it one last chance, maybe nobody saw the last one.

The situation has really been bothering me. I ~think~ my wheel bearings are going, but Im not sure. Something is humming like crazy though. I dont hear anything until about 35mph. If Im driving at 40 mph, its not so bad, but at 50mph, its really loud, and 55 its head splitting humming, but then at 60 or so its normal, no hum at all. Its even worse when I have the windows up. I know that one way to diagnose the wheel bearings is to turn left or right, and if the humming goes away it that direction's bearing. Well Ive tried that, and it still hums. I dont know how sharp i have to turn though. My question is this, is it possible that it could be something else besides the wheel bearings that is making the humming sound at those speeds? I've thought that maybe it might just be road noise from my tires. but ive never heard road noise like that. Please give me some input!

rock0134 · #2 10-20-2006, 06:13 PM

Sounds like it could be alignment... but you should be able to know for sure if it is since your wheels would look wobbly. You could pay 20 or 30 bucks to get an alignment and they will either fix it or determine why they cant fix it, whichwill tell you whether or not its the bearings.

My wheel bearings went on the drivers side front and rear and it was humming and shit like you described really bad so that could definately be it. Have you hit curbs or anything?

ALSO this should probly be in the problem diagnosis not performance.

mike8818 · #3 10-20-2006, 06:16 PM

Just jack the car up and see if the tire shakes. It should be able to shakeall over. Even if only a little it needs to be replaced if your going to put a new one it i wouldnt drive it for very long because you would end up spending more. Just look in a junk yard thats where i got mine and its perfect.

eclipsed at 3am · #4 10-20-2006, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike8818

Just jack the car up and see if the tire shakes. It should be able to shakeall over. Even if only a little it needs to be replaced if your going to put a new one it i wouldnt drive it for very long because you would end up spending more. Just look in a junk yard thats where i got mine and its perfect.

i dont mean to sound mean but could you repeat that a little bit better please? Or did I read it right? it should be able to shake all over, if it shakes a little replace what? control arm? ill tell you one thing nothing is vibrating anymore than usual. it vibrates a little bit at stopped idle, and its the same vibration at different speeds, just add a little bit of road bumps and such. on my 91 eclipse the control arm went bad, the ball joint was bad or something, and it vibrated really bad, especially the passenger side floor. if i kick the wheel, it moves a tiny bit, but not very bad at all.

as far as alignment goes, would it cause it to hum like that? I looked all over the tires, front and back and inside and outside, and there doesnt seem to be any uneven wear on them. i figure that would be a sign of bad alignment.

maybe i should just replace the wheel bearings. couldnt hurt. sorry about putting this in the wrong forum.

MT-2500 · #5 10-20-2006, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eclipsed at 3am

First of all, I know I posted something about this before. Its just that nobody replied before, so i figured I'd give it one last chance, maybe nobody saw the last one.

The situation has really been bothering me. I ~think~ my wheel bearings are going, but Im not sure. Something is humming like crazy though. I dont hear anything until about 35mph. If Im driving at 40 mph, its not so bad, but at 50mph, its really loud, and 55 its head splitting humming, but then at 60 or so its normal, no hum at all. Its even worse when I have the windows up. I know that one way to diagnose the wheel bearings is to turn left or right, and if the humming goes away it that direction's bearing. Well Ive tried that, and it still hums. I dont know how sharp i have to turn though. My question is this, is it possible that it could be something else besides the wheel bearings that is making the humming sound at those speeds? I've thought that maybe it might just be road noise from my tires. but ive never heard road noise like that. Please give me some input!

I asume it is ftont wheel drive with sealed wheel bearings.
Jack it up and put it on stands or blocks.
and see if any play in bearings by shaking the wheel.
Then start engine and put it i gear and listen and feel for noise in wheel bearing area.
A long bar or pipe or is good for picking up noise.
Also do not rule out a rear wheel bearing since turning wheel on the road sid not make any differance.
So ckeck all 4 wheel bearings.
Good luck MT

mike8818 · #6 10-21-2006, 12:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eclipsed at 3am

i dont mean to sound mean but could you repeat that a little bit better please? Or did I read it right? it should be able to shake all over, if it shakes a little replace what? control arm? ill tell you one thing nothing is vibrating anymore than usual. it vibrates a little bit at stopped idle, and its the same vibration at different speeds, just add a little bit of road bumps and such. on my 91 eclipse the control arm went bad, the ball joint was bad or something, and it vibrated really bad, especially the passenger side floor. if i kick the wheel, it moves a tiny bit, but not very bad at all.

as far as alignment goes, would it cause it to hum like that? I looked all over the tires, front and back and inside and outside, and there doesnt seem to be any uneven wear on them. i figure that would be a sign of bad alignment.

maybe i should just replace the wheel bearings. couldnt hurt. sorry about putting this in the wrong forum.

If it is the wheel bearing you should be able to shake it while looking at the back of the tire if the tierod, balljoint,controlarm are not moving then its most likely the wheel bearing. If it only shakes left to right its the tierod, top and bottem lower balljoint. But neither of those should make a humming noise if bad. If you have the time i would suggest to pull the whole spindle assembly off and check it that way that would be easier to tell if if was the wheel bearing but take more time to do. Oh yeah it may sound stupid but are the breakpads good. My dads car had bad pads and made a humming sould and it was not the high pitched one.

mike8818 · #7 10-21-2006, 01:00 AM

Oh is the car lowered? If so do you have the Chamber/Caster kit on it? That might kill wheelbearings also.

eclipsed at 3am · #8 10-21-2006, 01:01 AM

actually, the pads are kind of old, AND i have drilled rotors. i always wondered if the pad scraping over the holes in the rotor at higher speeds could make a noise like that. Ill try getting on the brakes when Im going 45mph and see if the sound goes away. thanks for the tips guys, i really appreciate it

eclipsed at 3am · #9 10-21-2006, 01:03 AM

The car was lowered when i bought it. i dont know if it has a camber kit, and honestly, i dont know what to look for. ive never dealt with anything like that before, so i have no idea. i do know that the passenger side sits about a 1/2 inch lower than the driver side.

mike8818 · #10 10-21-2006, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eclipsed at 3am

The car was lowered when i bought it. i dont know if it has a camber kit, and honestly, i dont know what to look for. ive never dealt with anything like that before, so i have no idea. i do know that the passenger side sits about a 1/2 inch lower than the driver side.

Well you can tell if it needs the chamber/caster kit if you stand behind the car and look down the side at the tires if they lean out then you dont have the kit. Sometimes you dont need them it depends how much its lowered. Im not sure if that would make the sound but it would hurt the bearing more. As for the one side being lower than the other, if it has coilover you can adjust them if not,if you have to have the hight the same you can try the auto parts store for something that streches te springs. I dont know what their called, but they work.

eclipsed at 3am · #11 10-21-2006, 01:13 AM

hmm...i might be in luck then. Ive looked at the wheels from that exact position you mention, and the front wheels look straight up and down and the rear wheels are cambered just as much as they would be on a stock suspension setup, just verrry slightly pointed in at the top.

oh by the way you can look at the picture in my sig. i know its not a good one, but the front wheels are straight up and down and the rear are about the same.

gthompson97 · #12 10-21-2006, 03:46 AM

Check all 4 wheel bearings, I'm guessing it's at least one, if not more than one, bearing that's bad. A lowered car KILLS bearings (and for the record, your wheels will slant inward at the top, not outwards) and from that picture they look like they're ok. Also what kind of tires are you running? I have a set of Cooper Zeonz on my car and the roadnoise is KILLER, almost so bad that I want to get new tires, but these have less than 2,000 miles on them. I think I may also have a wheel bearing out too but I haven't driven the damn thing in like a year and a half. But my guess is that it's either the wheel bearings going out, or a combination of the wheel bearings and roadnoise/uneven alignment.

EDIT: After reading your last post, you say the rear ones are slanted just very slightly? That's normal. You'd notice it if they were out of alignment, and it would wear the hell out of the inside edge of the tires. And I don't think that you're car being unlevel could be very good for anything either. What kind of suspension are you running....just springs or a coilover?

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