Drone from rear, changed tyres still there, bearing?

[wobblybox]

Hi folks, I have an 11 mondeo 2.2 titanium x sport Estate with 64k. Noticed a bit of a drone/ road noise from the rear end last week and it's starting to get a bit annoying. I changed the tyres which were dead anyway and thought that was it for sure but it's no different.

Drone starts at about 20 and doesn't really get any louder the faster you go but it's definitely worse on r/h bends. I jacked it up today and the wheel has no play and it doesn't rumble when it's turned. The wheel is free and sounds/looks normal. Is there something I could be missing or do you reckon it's the bearing?

On that subject.... Local factors doing a hub/bearing kit for £80 plus vat. EBay have a pair for £80...! Am I right in thinking the ebay ones would be awful or has anyone any experience? They are German and I'm aware there's a massive mark up in parts.

[Little Pete]

When you say you’ve jacked it up and the wheel has no play and doesn’t rumble, which wheel? If the noise is worse on right hand bends, it’s the left side bearings that you are increasing the load on.
Also, it’s not always possible to hear/feel a worn bearing by hand spinning the wheel with no load on it. You may have to take the hub off and look at the bearing.

Edited by Little Pete on Saturday 2nd December 21:07

[wobblybox]

I tried the rear left. I'm pretty sure that's where it's coming from. By a bizarre coincidence my friends girlfriend was saying that she has a weird noise in her car (insignia) I drove it tonight and it's the exact noise I have.. He's getting his checked out on Wednesday so I'll wait for the diagnosis. The bearing is part of the hub assembly, is it visible when it's removed. I'm pretty green where mechanics are concerned but changing the hub looks fairly simple so I'm willing to save near £50 a side doing it myself. Should bearings be replaced in pairs?

[GreenV8S]

wobblybox said:

Should bearings be replaced in pairs?

Each hub will contain a pair of bearings which should be replaced as a set. However, you can replace the bearings on one hub without changing any other hubs.

This is a pretty straightforward job for an experienced mechanic and you won't save much money doing it yourself, but nothing to stop you if you want the experience of doing it yourself. I must admit I wouldn't be looking for reasons to go grovelling under the car this time of year. I expect you'll find plenty of videos on YouTube showing what is involved.

Edited by GreenV8S on Saturday 2nd December 22:40

[wobblybox]

Well the mechanic is quoting £130 ish all in. I can get a comline hub assembly for £54 delivered. The local motor factors is £80 + vat for the part. Good enough saving for a but of cursing and the inevitable sore fingers

[E-bmw]

If I were you, I would search on youtube etc for a video of the job first before committing to that approach.

Some hub bearings can take major work to remove/insert without a hydraulic press, a lot of which then fail early due to the abuse metered out in the name of fitting them in.

Lots of us have learnt the hard way on this before getting properly equipped.

[GreenV8S]

wobblybox said:

Well the mechanic is quoting £130 ish all in.

You should be able to work out how much of that is labour - probably a couple of hours. For you as a novice tackling the job, it will probably take 5 - 10 times as long. In other words you should expect it to take at least one full day and possibly two. You up for spending that long freezing your a$$ off and swearing at the damn thing to save fifty quid? Do you actually have all the tools and equipment needed? If not, you'll be lucky to break even.

I'm sure most DIY enthusiasts will remember taking on jobs like this, partly to save money and partly as a learning experience. But if money is your only reason here, I'd urge you to be realistic about how little you stand to save and how difficult and unpleasant the job is going to be. Remember that once you've started, you might find yourself committed to completing the job.

[E-bmw]

GreenV8S said:

Remember that once you've started, you might find yourself committed to completing the job.

And on top of that, as per my earlier post you may well get 1/2 way through & have to get better "tooled up" or go cap-in-hand to the same mechanic to have your leg lifted for his assistance or worse still replace a bearing you goosed in the process of trying to save £50, which will cost you £100 more instead.

[wobblybox]

Sound advice folks. I'll clarify the money aspect. I can get both bearings inc hubs & abs sensor for £100 (comline with 3 year warranty) delivered to my house. The mechanic is looking £130 ish to do one... Having done a bit of research it looks like. Loosen wheel nuts, jack up, place axle stands, remove wheel, brake caliper (2 x 13mm bolts) remove disc retaining screw, remove disc, loosen 4 x 50 torx bolts, disconnectnabs sensor remove old hub/bearing assembly and reverse with new one. The hubs come with the bearing installed so no pressing, bearing pullers etc etc. The only difficulty I forsee is siezed torx bolts and that the heads of said torx are now on the inside of the car. I have a reasonable tool box of quality spanners/sockets/torx bits a nice selection of hammers, axle stands and a torque wrench. Failing that I have the hammers and a beautifully balanced felling axe.... Now that was a whole pile easier to type than do I'm sure. I'll do a bit more research tomorrow before I commit to potentially paying fook knows to have it recovered or plead on my knees for the mechanic to come and rescue me from the fury of the better half while I stand with snatters tripping me in the foundering cold.

Edited by wobblybox on Sunday 3rd December 19:50

[paintman]

E-bmw said:

If I were you, I would search on youtube etc for a video of the job first before committing to that approach.

Some hub bearings can take major work to remove/insert without a hydraulic press, a lot of which then fail early due to the abuse metered out in the name of fitting them in.

Lots of us have learnt the hard way on this before getting properly equipped.

^^^^^ I bought one of the ebay 10 ton presses to do the lower ball joints on my Sprinter & it's been very useful for a lot of other stuff since.

I've replaced a couple of 306 & 307 front hub bearings (sealed ball bearings) on our own cars due to bearing noise.
The amount of play in the worn out ones was so tiny as to be AMOST undetectable with the car jacked up & trying to rock the wheel with one hand at 12 o'clock & the other at 6.
Beating the st out of a bearing to get it in is NOT a good idea.

[wobblybox]

Thankfully the bearing I need is bought in-situ already in the hub. It's a great idea for the likes of me to to do it myself. Interesting re the lack of evidence of failure. I did try what I believe to be the offending wheel and it appeared fine. I'd be distraught to go to the expense and effort only to discover it isn't a bad bearing I'm pretty confident that it is though..

[Peanut Gallery]

Just to add my 2006 Focus had a rumble from the rear, turned out to be rear wheel alignment.

(And having replaced a number of wheel bearings in the past, I felt bad for thinking it was a bearing!)

[Krikkit]

wobblybox said:

Thankfully the bearing I need is bought in-situ already in the hub. It's a great idea for the likes of me to to do it myself. Interesting re the lack of evidence of failure. I did try what I believe to be the offending wheel and it appeared fine. I'd be distraught to go to the expense and effort only to discover it isn't a bad bearing I'm pretty confident that it is though..

It certainly sounds like it. The job you're proposing is effectively a rear disc change, so it's deliberately designed not to be too awful of a job.

FWIW you can't always tell which side a bad bearing's on with double-race bearings. I've had the inside of a left-hand one go, so it was only noisy turning left (rather than right which you'd expect). It's also pretty difficult (as said above) to find a bad bearing by twisting the wheel (imo) unless it's absolutely, totally shagged.

[wobblybox]

I recently drove a friends brand new volkswagen passat super duper R thing that's awful fast and cost the guts of £38k and found it louder than the mondeo! It was really loud and only has 3k miles on it. He agreed that it was very loud, cintaro tyres or similar fitted. I think my mondeo just has loud round noise. I had an s max before the mondeo with big fat bubbley tyres which is so much quieter than the 235 40 19's.. Stay tuned, if it gets worse which if it's a bad bearing I assume it will, then we'll change em