If whoever replaced the CV joint didn't properly torque the axle nut, hammered the crap out of the axle to get it out, or allowed weight onto the bearing before the nut was torqued, the CV job could have caused the bearing to fail.

Bad things can happen, but this really can't happen with this car. It can get very loose and wobble and pretty much chew the axle right into the bearing races and the housing, expensive and possible loss of control, so something to be avoided, but as you grind to a halt the wheel will still be attached.

Wheel bearingreplacement cost

Based on an experience with my WRX, I'd say wheelbearings are only gonna last a few days at best after they get loud and 'crunchy' sounding. I dunno how long they could 'whir', I had the A/C on high last summer, and the radio!

I had no idea that a “magic ear” was a thing - though I’d considered a low tech equivalent - just running a long piece of vacuum hose out & under attached to my stethoscope. I guess its not as nuts as I thought.

Sounds of bad wheel bearingat low speeds

A former co-worker did a front brake job on a mid '90s Buick LeSabre, including replacing the rubber caliper bushings. He forgot to install one of the bushings and sent the car out the door. Needless to say, the customer experienced a loud clunk every time she stepped on the brakes, so she took it to a Buick dealership, which used a “chassis ear” to find the glaringly obvious problem. They charged the customer $120 per hour to use the “chassis ear” on the car for two hours, then charged $130 to install a $2 bushing in the caliper (a five minute job). How they missed that problem installing the microphones is beyond me, why they had to test drive the car for two hours is even further beyond me, and why the customer didn’t bring the car right back to us is also beyond me, but not as much as this tale of either inordinate ignorance on the dealership’s part, or a complete and utter ripoff. All told, we had to reimburse the customer about $400 to have the Buick dealership perform a diagnosis that any reasonable mechanic could have diagnosed in the parking lot and fixed in ten minutes for $20 or less.

Our very good independent garage mechanic recommended about a month or two ago to drive on it a little longer, so that we could be 100% sure which wheel the noise is coming from. Seems clear right now it's the Left Front. He said it wouldn't cause any further harm driving on it longer. It is getting progressively louder to the point where we can hear extra noise in the background even when driving straight.

My '03 LL bean left-front wheel bearing failed at 75k? 80K? 100K? I forget (thread is here somewhere) and I drove on it a looooong time with it making noise. It never got loose, never got hot, hub and housing were fine. Of course if it got loose I would probably notice and so I would drive on it longer than I'd be willing to let my wife.

Bad wheel bearingsymptoms

Getting hot is the deal breaker. Have i ever seen a subaru loose a wheel because of a bad bearing ,no . Have i seen it in dozens of other cars, yes.

Sorry oldschool - I thought my initial mention of it spoke for itself. I should have added that I am going to rig up a chunk of hose to my stethoscope.

heartless, do you mean check the center of the outside tire tread (which will be warm anyway) or the center of tire around the hub?

2) Does a $585 estimate by the independent garage for parts and labor for replacing the front hub and wheel bearings sound right to you? The dealer quoted $550 parts and labor for just the bearing replacement; an additional $176 for the hub parts if those are necessary, and an additional $294 labor plus more $$$ in parts for the housing if that's necessary.

Sounds of bad wheel bearingwhile driving

If the wheel bearing is noisy but tight the chances for damaging the hub or the housing are low, in my opinion. If you drive on it and it gets loose and you don't notice, those other parts might take some damage. If there is any damage the hub will be the item damaged, most likely, you would have to do some really extreme stuff to damage the housing.

If you are certain of which one it is, next time you drive it somewhere, when you stop, check the center of the wheel with your hand - carefully - is it hot? or is it cool to the touch? if it is cool, you should be fine for a while yet.

My last one chewed up the hub/spindle and discolored some metal from heat. Oh, it also wobbled a little and that tire had more uneven wear than the others.

few days later hooked up the flatbed trailer to it to go pick up a non-running motorcycle only 25 miles away - truck had not been moved since i got home from the long trip, mind you - made the trip over, picked up the bike, started home - bearing failure so bad it had to be put on the trailer to make it the last 10 miles home - it no longer wanted to move, and the wheel was sitting at an odd angle.

I’ve heard of the “magic ear,” but never heard it called that. It’s referred to as a “chassis ear” by a lot of mechanics. I’ve never used one, but I have a story.

One way to check for rough bearings is, with the tire off the ground, place your hand on the strut spring. Now slowly rotate the tire. If the bearing is rough, it sometimes can be felt in strut spring.

Yep - could go at any time. And it will destroy a lot of expensive parts if it completely fails. ABS parts and the hub for certain. Probably brake components as well. Wheel could come off.... but that is less likely.

Sounds of bad wheel bearingwhen accelerating

as far as cost - where you live has a lot to do with that - silicon vally, you might be right in line - i had a rear bearing done on my wagon that only cost me about $250 - BUT - I live in northern Wisconsin - major difference.

I was in the same situation and kept driving until it was real bad, Like someone else said it damaged the hub which added $150 to the cost of the job. The inner race spun on the hub and wore a grove in it and ruined it. Do it now or the repair will just get more expensive

center of the wheel - where the axle nut would be - and/or, between the center cap and lug nuts - any heat created from friction in the wheel bearing will transfer out to the wheels in as little as 5-10 miles if they are getting bad enough

Whoever does the job should have the hub in hand in case it's needed. If there are any signs the inner race has been spinning on the hub, the hub must be replaced.

On the Dodge Ram pickup however - when that one started making noise, it only lasted about 60 miles before it wanted to seize up, and the wheel was wobbling...was not a pretty sight at all.

Frontwheel bearingnoise symptoms

Sometimes these “whats making the noise” type problems have been resolved by using the “magic ear” (microphones that clamp on components).

I have a '95 Caravan, FWD It has what I would call classic wheel bearing noise. Get it up to 45mph or so and it sounds like there’s a small engine airplane flying along with you. Turn left the noise goes away. Turn right, the noise gets worse. It sounds to me like it is in the front. (This is noise only - it doesn’t come with any vibration). Both rears had some contamination, a little play and a little noise so I just went ahead and replaced those - not having high hopes that that was the source of the noise because they were bad, but not that bad. The problem is that neither of the fronts show any signs of a bad bearing upon inspection. There is no play in the wheels, and they aren’t noisy when you spin them. Nothing is loose or rubbing. The tires are in VGC, and I moved them around with no change. The fronts bearings are the sealed hub type, and expensive, so I’m not going to replace them on a guess. The van has 217K on it & the fronts were done at some point, but it was so long ago I can’t remember - i.e. they could be due. But what else would act this way? And what might be the best way to find out?

It would respond to steering the way your’s does. I didn’t argue when they decided to replace the bearing. They were nice about it when that didn’t fix the problem and worked with me on the total repair bill when they aligned the engine and the noise stopped. I guess a mount was not isolating the engine and its vibration from the vehicle’s (Dodge Sedan) body.

I’m not saying that’s what wrong with your’s, but at 217K it’s worth taking a look at. Those mounts could be worn out or breaking down.

I’ve experienced front bearing failure and noise that could not be felt by spinning the unloaded wheel or rocking the wheel at the 0/180 position. It made plenty of noise going down the road, though.

I drove on my bad bearing for several months with no ill effects, other than the noise getting louder and more annoying..

The wrr-wrr-wrr-wrr-wrr sound my wife and I heard when driving on curves over 25-30 mph when curving right and left, uphill or downhill, powered or unpowered, which seemed to be coming from the front of the car, was caused by a bad wheel bearing, apparently the Left Front. It could be entirely unrelated, but it happened not long after replacing the axle after the R Front CV boot blew open after it was hit hard by some road debris on the highway + wheels aligned.

It’s possible to have tight wheel bearings that do not make noise when the wheels are off the ground. Apply the weight to them and it’s a different matter.

Bad wheel bearinghumming noise

1995 Dadge Ram 1500 (shortbox with a topper on it) - made a 600 mile trip, towing a trailer, drop the trailer off 30 mins from home. on the way home noticed a very slight growly noise...told the other half about it, he looked into what it would cost to get a new hub (easier) for it...never ordered it tho...

How to tell whichwheel bearingisbadwhile driving

Running a bad wheel bearing will run the risk of damaging not only the hub, but the brake rotor, caliper, ABS tone ring and ABS sensor.

I tried my best to look at all of the suggestions here - and even did ridiculous things with a piece of hose & zip ties while test driving (the poor man’s “magic ear”/extended stethoscope). In the end I couldn’t actually verify for certain that it was the bearing.

YMMV, but I have driven thousands of miles on noisy wheel bearings. But most of our driving is around town. If I were doing mostly hway driving, then I would get them replaced sooner rather than later. If local driving, do it at your leisure within a few months. just my .02

Last time I checked, a new ABS sensor was almost $200 from the dealer. A new hub is in the neighborhood of $130 and so on. I've had customers that had other shops tell them it was ok to run it a bit longer but what people don't tell you is when it will finally grenade. As a mechanic, I don't have a crystal ball that tells me when it's going to break so I always tell the customer, the sooner you do it, the better it is for your peace of mind and your vehicle.

1) A service rep at our local Subaru dealer claimed driving on the bad bearing longer could cause damage to the hub and housing, resulting in a more costly repair. True or not? Who is right - the dealer or the good reliable indie garage mechanic? Note that however many parts need to be replaced or whatever the labor, the dealer costs 2x as much as our very capable independent garage.

Have you checked the CV joints for problems? They typically pop and click when they go bad, but they can also make roaring sounds.

had a guy tell me he drove a hummer that had 500k miles on i with a bad wheel bearing thousands of miles till it caught on fire! ahaha:Flame:

On mine it was indeed difficult to isolate the bad bearing, had to spin each wheel with a mechanics stethoscope on the strut spring.

When you reach out to check - assume the wheel center will be hot and use caution accordingly - if it isnt hot, you are good. barely luke warm is ok, but would be thinking about it pretty soon - the hotter it is, the worse shape it is in.