1999 front wheel bearings?

[dpilot83]

When I'm driving at pretty much any speed above 15 mph I hear a noise from the front end that's really hard to describe. Imagine driving a truck with mud tires on it down the highway. It sounds something like that noise. whawhawhawha. I would say howling or whining but those words imply a really bad sound and it doesn't sound awful or dangerous, just like something is worn.

I've had two suggestions. One is that the universal joints are going out. The second is that the wheel bearings are just old. The car has 171,000 miles on it and as far as I'm aware neither have ever been replaced.

When I replaced the front brakes I attempted to wiggle all the shafts to see if there was much play in the CV joints and there really wasn't much. Also, while I had it jacked up with the wheels still on I pushed and pulled on the top and bottom of the tire, attempting to wiggle it to see if there was any play in the bearings. It didn't appear that there was.

Somewhere I read that to replace the bearings on the Malibu you had to replace the entire hub and that it was something like $200 per side. If it was just $30 per side or something for the bearings and seals I'd do it as preventative maintenance just for peace of mind but if it's $200 per side I want to know that I'm doing the right thing. Any suggestions? Anything else I can do to diagnose where the noise is coming from? Thanks

[Johnny R]

The wheel bearings are an integral part of the hub. A couple of cheapie ways to diagnose. 1. If, for example, the right wheel bearing is suspect, making a left turn at normal driving speed will likely increase the noise level. 2. Jack up the front end, spin the wheel. If the bearing really needs replacing, the wheel will resists easy rotation by hand. Is it possible that the problem is not mechanical, but that the tires need replacing?

[dpilot83]

Thanks for the quick reply. The tires are in good shape with even wear patterns. I just recently rotated them and the noise level did not change any.

As far as spinning the wheel, that's what I would do on the rear end as well but since it's connected to the transmission will this not provide false feedback? Thanks

[Johnny R]

With transmission in neutral, if one bearing is worse than the other, which is generally the case, you will notice the difference if resistance to spinning.

[dpilot83]

Alright. I'll give it a shot then. Am I going to need to have the entire front end off the ground for this? I've never really payed attention so I don't know if I were to spin the left wheel forward if the right wheel would want to spin backwards like with a differential.

The reason I ask is that due to the nature of my job (currently moving frequently) I don't have room for more than a basic toolbox. Hence for all these repairs I've been resorting to my lone scissor jack that came with the car. I don't like it for safety reasons and have thus been EXTREMELY careful but I know it's not good and would be doing something else if there were any way around it.

[NocturnalCreations]

lock up the e-brake, jack up the whole front end, support car with jack stands and put the car in gear. Rev or fwd should be the same result. Listen to each wheel hub and u can hear the bearings if they're bad. Or with the front end still in the air u can rotate a wheel by hand.

The whole front end MUST be off the ground to spin a front wheel by hand or put it in gear.

ALWAYS USE JACKSTANDS, DONT BE STUPID

[bearcatdon]

My defective bearing would get quiet when it was on the inside of a sharp turn. When my LH bearing was bad it would quiet down when I did a sharp left turn on a highway ramp. The RH did the same with a RH turn.

[richtazz]

Malibus are infamous for eating hub bearings. Almost all front end noises (grinding/humming) and abs light issues on these cars are attributed to a bad front hub bearings. Make sure you buy a quality replacement, and don't use an impact wrench on the axle nut or you'll be replacing it again in about 3 months. Also, if he hub has instructions indicating a different torque spec than a manual suggests, use the spec in the box. Variations of design may require a new torque spec.

[dpilot83]

Thanks for all the good advice guys. Based on the listening while turning, the right one is much worse than the left one. It may be the only one causing any noise. I think I'll replace the right one and then do the turning test again and see if it sounds like the left one needs it too.

[lambo1223]

Originally Posted by NocturnalCreations

lock up the e-brake, jack up the whole front end, support car with jack stands and put the car in gear. Rev or fwd should be the same result. Listen to each wheel hub and u can hear the bearings if they're bad. Or with the front end still in the air u can rotate a wheel by hand.

The whole front end MUST be off the ground to spin a front wheel by hand or put it in gear.

ALWAYS USE JACKSTANDS, DONT BE STUPID

Ihave the same problem. I have a 2001 malibu. I jacked the front end up and put it in gear. Should both tires be spinning ,because the left would spin slow then stop and the right would spin the whole time. When they did spin at the same time it seemed the right was noisy and I noticed the middle of the tread on the right tire was worn down alot more then the left. could something else be causing the problem beside the wheel bearings. thanks for the help.