Wheel bearing problem

[theleader]

Hi all.

Our current shed has got what sounds to me like a dodgy wheel bearing. I jacked it up a few weeks back and spun the wheels to try and work out which one is noisy and couldn't hear anything, or feel any roughness, or feel any movement. It was in for an MOT yesterday and I asked them to see if they could work out which wheel it was; they couldn't either.

Symptoms are rumbling noise above about 50mph, much louder turning left. So I'm assuming offside wheel bearing. So the questions I'm hoping someone can answer are:
1) Is there anything else I can try to work out which wheel is causing the problem?
2) Is there anything else it could be apart from a bearing?

Thanks in advance.

[Chromed]

Well it sounds like a wheel bearing. Trouble is moving the wheel when it has no weight or energy going through it doesn't always tell you much. How many miles has it done? If its a lot and you're keeping the car, wouldn't do any harm to fit a couple of new ones.

[theleader]

I'm tempted to replace the back one first (cheaper part) and see if that fixes it. Trouble is that I don't really have the right tools for the job (yet) and, although it's meant to pretty simple, there is always the possibility of cocking it up.

It's done about 70k miles, and has already had one bearing replaced, although I don't know which one...

[rsv gone!]

HINT - Don't bother buying a hydraulic press. Just take off the hub assembly and pay a local garage a few beer-tokens to press it out/new one in.

Also, unless you are very lucky (I wasn't) then a slide hammer and bearing puller won't budge it.

[Mr2Mike]

rsv gone! said:

HINT - Don't bother buying a hydraulic press. Just take off the hub assembly and pay a local garage a few beer-tokens to press it out/new one in.

Also, unless you are very lucky (I wasn't) then a slide hammer and bearing puller won't budge it.

The quick and easy answer to this is to run a bead of weld around the inside of the outer race. This shrinks the race as it cools which will either fall out or can be tapped out with ease. Obviously you need a welder to do this!

[theleader]

Alright, so I need a hydraulic press and a welder. Anything else I can buy in order to save some money or garage costs?

[Mr2Mike]

theleader said:

Alright, so I need a hydraulic press and a welder. Anything else I can buy in order to save some money or garage costs?

You don't need the press with the welder, that's the whole idea. I have done dozens of wheel bearings and I don't have a press. Use the old bearing and a hammer to carefully tap the new one in; if it's very tight you might need to use a few brain cells to rig up a puller with a bit of stud and suitable sized sockets etc. but it's all quite doable.

However, as I'm sure you are aware, you don't buy expensive tools to save money on a one off job.

[buggalugs]

^^^ Yes the welder thing makes them come out much easier! I use a slide hammer, and a hub puller to get the things apart and a threaded bar with various nuts and old sockets etc to press the new ones in.

[shoehorn]

Before you go pulling hubs apart are you sure it`s not a tyre causing it?

[theleader]

shoehorn said:

Before you go pulling hubs apart are you sure it`s not a tyre causing it?

I wondered the same and left it until after I'd replaced all four tyres just in case. Unfortunately it wasn't that.

So what would a garage do in this situation; how would they diagnose front or back? My options seem to be living with the noise until it gets bad enough to feel which one it is, or just replacing one of them and seeing if I get lucky.

[Dan67]

sound wise its just experience of hearing the right noise in the right place that usually means you can find out where no special tricks

[theshrew]

theleader said:

I wondered the same and left it until after I'd replaced all four tyres just in case. Unfortunately it wasn't that.

So what would a garage do in this situation; how would they diagnose front or back? My options seem to be living with the noise until it gets bad enough to feel which one it is, or just replacing one of them and seeing if I get lucky.

They just do the checks you have already done and listern to it.

[rsv gone!]

Mr2Mike said:

The quick and easy answer to this is to run a bead of weld around the inside of the outer race. This shrinks the race as it cools which will either fall out or can be tapped out with ease. Obviously you need a welder to do this!

The garage that removed mine did something like this. They did comment that they had to heat to molten-lava-type temperatures for it to budge!