98 Stratus Grinding Noise

[pcjunkie7]

Hi everyone, My 98 Status has pretty high miles 176k and has been creaking when turning the wheel at low speeds, but now it has started making a loud grinding noise when turning the wheel sharply to the left or right. Any ideas about what this might me and how difficult/expensive to fix? I can do some work myself, but nothing too complicated. Thanks for any help!

[hundahunta]

possibly all joints, upper strut mounts

[pcjunkie7]

Thanks for the reply. I've been doing some reading around the Internet and a lot of people seem to think the grinding noise might be the wheel bearing. Anyone know how hard that is to replace on a 98 Stratus? Thanks

[bigj-dog]

In my experience the front driver's side bearing goes out first. Usually you can tell which front bearing is the problem by going around a gradual curve in either direction. If the noise gets louder as you're curving to the right, it's the driver's side, if it's louder as you're curving to the left, the passenger. Changing out the bearing is pretty straight forward, remove the wheel, brake caliper and pads, brake rotor and then there are (or at least in my '98) there were 3 bolts with reverse torx heads (E12 I think) coming from the inside of the spindle assembly, remove them, then remove the big nut on the end of the axle (I think around 32mm or so). Using a slide hammer it's usually not too tough to jerk the bearing assembly out of the spindle and off of the cv axle. Installation is the reverse. Just make sure to torque the axle nut to the correct spec, as not doing so seriously increases the chance of decreased bearing life.

[pcjunkie7]

Originally Posted by bigj-dog

In my experience the front driver's side bearing goes out first. Usually you can tell which front bearing is the problem by going around a gradual curve in either direction. If the noise gets louder as you're curving to the right, it's the driver's side, if it's louder as you're curving to the left, the passenger. Changing out the bearing is pretty straight forward, remove the wheel, brake caliper and pads, brake rotor and then there are (or at least in my '98) there were 3 bolts with reverse torx heads (E12 I think) coming from the inside of the spindle assembly, remove them, then remove the big nut on the end of the axle (I think around 32mm or so). Using a slide hammer it's usually not too tough to jerk the bearing assembly out of the spindle and off of the cv axle. Installation is the reverse. Just make sure to torque the axle nut to the correct spec, as not doing so seriously increases the chance of decreased bearing life.

Thanks for this good info. Hopefully it won't be too hard.