anyone ever have a rear wheel bearing go bad?

tamadrumr88 · Post by **tamadrumr88** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 2:57 pm

my car shakes horribly on the flattest and smoothest of roads. the emergency brake drags horribly. and to make it worse, something (perhaps the e-brake) is making contact with something else every time the wheel goes around and makes a high-pitched grinding noise... the only thing that makes me think its a rear wheel bearing is the fact that a neighbor has a 5-series BMW that has a faulty rear wheel bearing and makes the exact noise.

on another note, though not related, my cay makes horrible noises other than the above mentioned. its extremelly dependent on the road as pot holes and bumps and such cause it to make even more noise. sounds like a bunch of coins in a tin can. i removed my entire back seat and spare tire/jack and the sound seems to be coming from just in front of the spare tire well, but more towards the front of the car. for the reason mentioned below, i thought maybe it was a brake line running under the car near the rear subframe

the wierdest thing is that BOTH of the above noises/problems stop as soon as i get on the brakes? im seriously embarassed to drive this car as everyone looks at me like, "what the f*ck is wrong with that car!?"

rice_eater · Post by **rice_eater** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 8:13 pm

well i had a bunch of weird noises from not being 100% careful when i swapped my struts/springs and whatnot...its probably not the case with you but here's a couple more things you can look at i guess:

-did the top nut on the strut get loose?
-are all your lugnuts tight (do they get a bit loose after a bunch of driving around?). i know it sounds silly but after my last autocross i thought i had completely fubared the berring and was getting ready to take it in when i realized in teh morning that i had lost 3 lugnuts on the wheel with the berring problem and another was almost fully off too...it would make noises while driving, but be silent when i braked just like you said

i think the best way to find out would be to jack the rear of the car and spin the wheel in the air to pinpoint the noise...the clicking noises should be pretty obvious

tamadrumr88 · Post by **tamadrumr88** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:46 pm

no the top strut not isnt loose because we used the correct tool to tighten them and torqued them when i did the springs

all the lugs were correctly tightened and torqued, and torqued again after 25-30 miles of driving

at an autox they usually grab your wheel and shake it, if the wheel does have a good amount of play in it chances are its the wheel bearing but thats not the case with my car

the thing im pissed about is that i had to shell out $128 to get this fixed about 3 months ago..... i obviously wouldnt have started this thread had the problem indeed been fixed and stayed that way

rice_eater · Post by **rice_eater** » Tue Oct 04, 2005 9:59 pm

hmm.. dont know then meng. did you ever try to lift the back end and spin the wheel or no? coz it should be obvious right away where the noise is coming from. its not like you have that much stuff in the rear of the car anyways

tamadrumr88 · Post by **tamadrumr88** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:29 pm

noise #1 is a proven casualty for both rear rotors and most of the emergency brake system... the rear rotors have warped and turned pink from the heat

noise #2 is something loose in the rear suspension, something that he says should be easy to find/fix

this was all diagnosed in about 15mins and a 2 mile drive by our mechanic friend. too bad it doesnt go in for work until next week. who knows how long itll be out of commission. damn this neon