2 Minute Tuesday: I am going to show you a quick way to check to see if your wheel bearings are bad, or loose. You don’t want to have loose wheel bearings while driving on the road or even the trail. Bad bearings can be as severe as causing your entire wheel to seize, or it could cause your disks from your breaks to be leaning up against the breaks and overheat/warp your rotors.

Wheel bearing loosesymptoms

Lift your tire off the ground and grab it from the top and the bottom. Tilting the tire into the vehicle and away, trying to wiggle the tire to see if it moves, will be your indicator if you have bad wheel bearings. If you tire does wiggle, you have either a loose or bad wheel bearing. If the tire stays still, then your wheel bearings are tight.

When your off-roading and you have loose wheel bearings, your tire will be bouncing all over the place, and you might even break your hub. If your hub breaks then you are going to lose some of the options for 4wd. But keeping an eye on them, and using the quick check tip could help prevent damage.