ZEUS+

I have seen wheel bearings with no play howl like a good friend of mine. Except she needs some play first.

alex70

It sounds like someone did some alignment recently and then you started to feel vibration? Probably not the case, but for what it is, I had alignment completed, then apparently one of the adjustment bolts were left a tad too loose which eventually grenaded the bearing. Had to replace the alignment bolt from the wiggle jiggle, in addition to the bearing and all is well now - wallet's lighter too.

Note - they first replaced the adjustment bolt - didn't correct the problem, the vibration was a definite growl from the rear, and the grind was audible - very noticeable.

rich

greg928GTS

No alignment work since I've owned it, 5000 miles. I don't notice any alignment issues.

I don't hear any noises, I just feel a vibration.

Recent work that could have caused the vibration is the change to the 18" wheels with massive rubber, and the rear wheel bearings being changed.

I had a very noticeable wheel vibration just after installing the new tires and wheels, even though these came factory balanced. I drove about 90 miles at no more than 70 mph to get to the tire balancer. Afterwards, I remember thinking how smoothly it went down the road.

worf928

I know that it's been written before... but it would be a really good idea to figure out some way to get another set of wheels on there...

alex70

Again, good idea worf

Mind me not looking at the WSM, if they replaced the bearings, wouldn't they have to remove the tire alignment bolts to remove/replace the bearing? I thought the whole assbly needed to come apart to facilitate replacement... Just a guess.

rich

worf928

If you use the Sir Tools bearing tool you do not have to remove the hub per the WSM and you do not have to mess with alignment.

If you don't, and remove the hub, then yes, perhaps, you need to re-align.

ZEUS+

Worf is correct, I have a similiar tool called "the bearing buddy" what a timesaver. It is really called the Hub Shark, how approppriate.

SharkSkin

Don't rule out tire balance yet -- you could have lost a weight. That's easy to check, and you can see if the bearing feels smooth while it's off the ground. If the mechanic didn't heat/freeze the appropriate parts and instead used the BFH method(or any other hammering) then your bearings could be shot already. Hammering can dent the race or flatten a roller or ball on the best of bearings, causing them to fail very quickly.

My bet would be on a lost wheel weight or improperly torqued wheel.

Vilhuer

Doesn't WSM require heating hub in oven to 100 or 120 celsius before bearing is installed? Very difficult to do without damaging anything. I'm sure very few mechanics actually do this in real life.

lorenolson888

Start from grabbing the wheel and giving it a shake...

If thereis any play then find out where it comes from. A rear bearing would have to be total mooched and installed wrong to wear out in 500 miles...

Check all your rear suspension components... I after a rear end job the wheel carrier pins on my car loosened... I thought it was bearing but in the end it was two nuts that were not torqued properly...

In general wheel play is unacceptable so jack the car up and start there... then follow it to the source...

If there is no wheel play then balance may be the next best place to look...

Sab

The wheel bearing will make lots of noise and the noise will change when changing directions.

Get the tires rebalanced from a good shop and watch them do it. Most of them are too lazy to get the tires balanced perfectly because most people won't go fast enough to notice minor imperfections...

worf928

Yup. The WSM calls for the hub to be removed and heated. I can't say how 'mechanics' do the job only how I've done it - and that's to heat the hub with a heat gun (not to 100 C) and to cool the bearing. With the kit you can press-in the bearing. No BFH is used. Nothing is damaged. My '91 has about 25k miles on the RWB installed with this method.

Here's a ref to the kit, and it ain't cheap. That's why I borrowed it:

B90 Bearing Removal Kit

greg928GTS

I know, but I don't have a way of doing that right now, unless I drive down to your neck of the woods.



I hear ya, but I had the tires balanced very recently and still had the vibration immediately after it was done. I always take my own wheels off and put them back on. I hand torque them on initially, and check the torque back at my shop afterwards. There is a guy that works at my local Tire Warehouse and he's the only one that I have do the balancing. I watch him carefully balance the tires each time on the Hunter Road Force machine. I don't know how it could be done better, except if it was done on the car, but we don't have that capability here in Central Maine. I won't rule out trying again though.

Several people have noted that bad wheel bearings make noise, and I don't really notice any odd noises, just the vibration. Because of this, I'm not sure it's the wheel bearings now.

I'll be doing some investigative work this weekend. Thanks to everyone for all the help.

greg928GTS

I don't think so. I'm exactly 2 hours from Portsmouth, and I think about 2-1/2 hours from Manchester. That's at 75mph.

ZEUS+

I had google earthed you it looked far. I just got a tranny shipped from brewer and they said they were 4 hours from portsmouth.