Wheel Bearing seems OK

[98Saturn]

I have a 98 Saturn with 103k miles. I put new tires on the car a few months ago, and I noticed afterwards that there appeared to be some road noise. I just assumed it was the tires. Two weeks ago, I had a new clutch installed, and they mentioned that the front wheel bearings were shot. I read through everything I sould find (Thanks Twin Cam for the excellent instructions) to learn more about how to diagnose.

Sure enough, when I turned left, the noise would get louder, and would go away when I went straight or turned right. From other threads, I surmised that this was due to a bad right front wheel bearing.

I loosened the halfshaft bolt (slightly) and removed the wheel and brake calipers and torque plate. With lots of free room, I tried wiggling the hub to see how bad it was, but the only movement I can get is the small bit of turn (rotation around the axis of the hub) from the play of the transmission.

Any ideas as to what could cause this? Is it that I can't generate enough force across the small diameter of the hub to really see the play? I am sitting here with everything I need to change the hub/bearing (12 ton press, Harbor Freight adaptors, new hub, etc....)

I'd rather not pull the steering knuckle off I don't have to, but should I just replace it since I'm over 100k miles and have everyhing?

I'm still a novice at at lot of this, and I'm wondering what is more dangerous.. Me replacing the hub, or letting it go.

[mr18436572]

Another way I use to diagnose wheel bearings, to determine exactly which side is bad - with the car in the air and in neutral, rotate each front tire with one hand while wrapping your other hand around one of the coils of the spring. The side with the bad bearing will transfer the vibrations from the bearing to the spring to the hand and it should be pretty noticeable.

[98Saturn]

I tried rotating the wheels with my hand on the springs, but there was almost nothing coming through the spring. Slightly more on the left side (which still had the brake pads, etc. attached) than on the right (which had the wheel and rotor, but I didn't remount the brakes.

Any other suggestions? I may just button everything back up and see how it works. It just kills me that I spent $200+ to make sure I had everything (tools and parts) I needed to bang through this, and it looks like I jumped the gun.

[madpogue]

Try another $5-10 at Harbor Freight for a stethoscope. These bearings can get pretty bad before they evidence any "play". It's also better to check for play with the wheel/tire on, since it acts as a bigger "lever".

[fetchitfido]

They don't always get louder when turning left either. Stupid thing. Let mine go a couple of months before doing anything about it as I couldn't decide it actually was the bearing. It'd make a noise when turning left, or going straight but not when turning right Now it's all better, except for the ABS codes Low Saturn hasn't had the chance to look up for me

[98Saturn]

Thanks for the advice. If you don't think it is life or death, I'll swing in to Harbor Freight next week and grab the stethoscope as madpogue suggested.

[Growser]

I have a fleet of Saturns, so I went to the pull your own junkyard and bought a pair of knuckles, purchased new BCA bearings/hubs from Rockauto and paid my local machine shop $40 to take out the old and press in the new bearings. That way I could do the job on an afternoon without running to a machine shop and now I have a spare set of knuckles for the next job. I'm a novice, too, but by searching this forum I replaced the hubs/bearings, outer tie rod, lower control arm, brakes and rotors, struts and springs (coil springs were broken) all the same afternoon. I figure with 165,000 miles on the car I hope this would be the last time any of those parts would need replacing (maybe not the brakes) and I might as well enjoy the ride/response of the new parts.

Just replace the bearings, if you think that's your problem you're probably right. Don't be intimidated, it really isn't that difficult of a job.

[98Saturn]

Originally Posted by Growser

Just replace the bearings, if you think that's your problem you're probably right. Don't be intimidated, it really isn't that difficult of a job.

Growser,

You were right about this not being too difficult. I borrowed a press to try pressing out the hub/bearings, but after 2 hours of trying to remove the snap ring, I took the knuckle and hub to a local shop. Before I could finish mowing my front yard, the shop called and had the new bearing and spindle pressed in. Re-assembly was a piece of cake. Thanks to all who have posted information on front wheel bearings. In the future, I would not attempt the pressing myself, it was too easy to take it to the local shop. $48 to press out the old and in the new sure beats the $330 quote I was given by another shop for the whole thing.