From reading through the forum, I realize the humming noise coming from my front end would probably be the wheel bearing. However I am just wondering why it is like that. Mine has a humming noise from the front as soon as the car starts moving, it becomes louder when I turn left, no noise when I turn right. At first I though it was because my CV ( I had to change the boot) but there is no clicking sound as others described.
How do I tell which side of the bearing is gone? I suspect it is the front passenger side, but still like to have you experts to confirm and educate me a little bit. Thanks in advance.
Posts: 425
Joined: 1/29/2007 From: Orange County, CA Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: wings7351
From reading through the forum, I realize the humming noise coming from my front end would probably be the wheel bearing. However I am just wondering why it is like that. Mine has a humming noise from the front as soon as the car starts moving, it becomes louder when I turn left, no noise when I turn right. At first I though it was because my CV ( I had to change the boot) but there is no clicking sound as others described.
How do I tell which side of the bearing is gone? I suspect it is the front passenger side, but still like to have you experts to confirm and educate me a little bit. Thanks in advance.
jack up one side of the car so your wheel's off the ground and grab at top and bottom and try to see if there's any play. there shouldn't be any, and if there is, definitely a wheel bearing. if the sound changes as you described, then i'm 99.9% sure it's a wheel bearing. they're not hard to replace at all, very very simple, and not too expensive either.
_____________________________
2000 Audi A6 4.2 Quattro Sport & Premium packages VAST Stage 2 custom ECU & TCU files 2003 SVT Cobra--sold 1967 Mustang--331 stroker 2007 Yamaha R6
jack up one side of the car so your wheel's off the ground and grab at top and bottom and try to see if there's any play.
I thought this is how you check for bad ball joints =)
When you do any suspentions work it's recommended to do whole axle. Bearings arn/t so expensive, and I assume it's not difficult to replace. I did not look into that when I removed my hub to repair CV joint, but there is probably just a large circlip holding the bearing in the hub.
A general rule is ( once you are sure if it's the rear or front bearing) the noise intensifies when you turn the wheel to the opposite side (ie. turn left, noise get's louder-> right side bearing and vice versa).
Thanks for the inputs. What made me worries about is that last time when I worked on the CV boot, I had a hard time to remove any one of the control arms. To change the bearing, I would have to disconnect them all to get the knuckle out. My fear is that if it is that hard to disconnect, then I might just damage the ball joints during the work. Anyone has suggestion to make the job easier?
Are you talking about two top ones connected together with one bolt? I had to drill that damed bolt out =)))) If you took it off once it should not be a problem anymore... Well, if you did one side - the other side will be. They should come out fine when the bolt is out. Spray some wd-40 in there and hammer them out with a punch from the bottom (instead of separator fork). Also put some graphite greasee in there when you put things back together.
Since you guys are the experts, so can you please comment. I am looking at a tool on the ebay to remove and install the bearing without disassemble all the control arms. It says it will do the job without taking the knuckle out. Is it real?
Strange, I replaced my front right bearing and there is still humming noise when I exceed about 10Km/h and the noise becomes heavier when I turn left. Nothing changed. Any thoughts? I am wondering what else could it be?
Printable Version
front wheel bearing diagonse - 
