Previously I had an issue with power steering fluid leaking, and ended up having to have the whole steering rack replaced. Just got the car back a couple days ago, and the mechanic said that he thinks my front left wheel bearing is pretty shot. He didn't spin the wheel when he had it up, but I think he assumed it from driving. I've had this noise for a little while now, and always thought it was the exhaust because I could really only hear it when I let off the throttle, and it sounds pretty deep pitched, almost like exhaust winding down, but now the sound is constant, and I can hear it all the time when the cars moving. I'm looking at replacing both the front wheel bearings because if I have to replace one I might as well replace both. I just want to make sure that it's the wheel bearing that's bad instead of something else. Anyone have any ideas on what I can do to check the wheel bearings? I've read some things about lifting the car up and pushing back and forth on the wheel to see if it's loose, and that indicates bad bearings, but not really sure if the reliability of the source. Also any suggestions on what else I could look at to be causing that noise if the wheel bearings don't seem bad?

Any help is greatly appreciated!


Thanks!

Tim

 

Best would be to run it on a lift and listen to the bearing.

But it sure sounds like a bad wheek bearing to me.

 

Spinning the wheel is best, but you can kind of test it on the road. Drive the car and turn the wheel to the left and right, if the bearing is bad, turning left will make the sound decrease and turning right will cause it to increase.

 

Ok I will definitely be checking that out. I have noticed that the car pulls to the right now, and I'm not sure if it's related or not, may be the caliper on passenger side but not sure. Of course it's raining here so I won't be able to get to it today. So turning it to the left and the sound decreases means it's the drivers side right? Vise versa if I turn to the right and the sound decreases it's the passenger side?

Thanks for the input guys. I've looked on FCPGroton.com, and found the wheel bearing/hub assembly, but it doesn't look like it comes with any hardware for the '93 model. Guess i may just have to purchase the hardware seperately?

 

Correct!

 

Worst case, You can survive without the extra hardware if you take cae of the boltheads when you open them.

 

By the way, jacking the car up and shaking the wheel back and forth works to a degree. It shouldn't have any play in it at all. If it does, the bearing needs replayment. Listen to tech and psaboic, they give great advice.

 

Thank You!

 

Many times, the bearing could be really bad but will have no play that you can feel on the tire. Mine was nice n' tight in terms of play but still made lot of noise while driving.

I can feel day and night difference in my drive after wheel bearing replacement.

 

Hello and thanks for all the information. Does anyone know how much it would cost if you have a mechanic replace your wheel bearing? I was just quoted $418 for just one wheel (hub and bearing) at $80/hr. Does this sound right? Thank you.

 

I guess, the new bearing from FCP is sround $120 and will involve about 1 hr of labour to replace it. i did it myself otherwise, a mechanic around my place quoted me for $60to replace it. So $4xx sounds little high to me for one side.

 

Yeah I actually found a hub/wheel bearing assembly for about $100 and should arrive any day now. I was quoted by my mechanic at $85/hour for labor, that it's about 1 1/2 hours worth, so about $120 for labor, plus the $100 for the part, shouldn't be looking at any more than $250 for the whole job. I've got all the stuff needed for the job, just waiting for the hub/bearing assembly to show up, and I'll keep you all updated as to how it goes. Thanks for all the help!

 

I just did my wheel bearing today, and the noise has completely gone away. YAY! Thanks for all the help guys. It took me about an hour to do all of it, which wasn't bad at all. The only thing I would recommend for others is to use sockets with 1/2" drive. I bought the torx sockets and they were 3/8" drive, so I had to use a 1/2" to a 3/8" adapter so I could use a breaker bar, which got the first two bolts for the hub/bearing out, but the adapter broke on the 3rd try lol. Switched out the adapter for a new one, and got the other two out. Also air tools are very handy to use hehe.

Again thanks for all the help!

Tim

 

Glad it all worked out. Feels nice when you can fix it yourself and save some cash eh??

 

Glad it is better now!

 

Last night while driving, I think a bad rear wheel bearing finally gave out. A serious shudder kicked in at freeway speeds, like a wheel weight had gone or the bearing gave up the ghost, and I still had 80 miles to home. I slowed down and made it to the last five miles when the tire blew. Good thing I had a spare.
While I had it on the jack I noticed the hub was rattling all over the place, so I'm assuming I need a new bearing. I'm going to follow this threads advice and do it myself, in the hopes that once I start tearing it apart it will be easy to figure out, but if anyone here knows of a link or a book that I might need, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks to all of you for the help you've given me in the past, by the way!
Also, does anyone know of a good repair manual for a mid 80's 240? I'm pretty new to this stuff.

 

To replace a rear wheel bearing, is it necessary to pull the axle first? Will it require special tools? I'm doing this on my '86 240.

 

The bearing should be pressed onto the axle on your 240.

 

Yeah, dang it, I just figured that out. I suppose it shouldn't cost too much to have a shop cut the old locking ring and press the new bearing for me. Anyways, it's still more fun to do at least PART of the job myself.

 

It should not cost to much.