Bearings. what a pain.

[DailyDriverMark]

OMG I'm soo frustrated... I tried tightening up the nut.. It tightened a little more... then... threads stripped.

I'm hoping I stripped the nut, and not the axle shaft. I'm getting burned out. Ready to go get a payment on a spark.

[DailyDriverMark]

Going in for a bearing fix again... Now that I know what I'm doing, and things are geased up, it shouldn't be that much of a pain. fingers crossed. I'll be trying an autozone cheapo bearing today because thats all I can afford right now. I'm wondering what the problem was, with this SKF bearing I just put in, but looking back it may have been damaged it myself when I pressed the hub in but didn't support the back of the bearing in the right spot. (against the inner race).

[DailyDriverMark]

Went to remove the axle nut and as I feared... it turns but wont grab the threads, and just spins in place.

I guess my next plan, is to dremel the nut off if that's possible.

[petrified.rabbit]

How much more did you tighten it?

if you are spinning it, try prying back on it a bit (using an impact?)

[DailyDriverMark]

About a half turn, in small increments... I had a long extension. Must have been torqued good to begin with.

I used the bolt that came with the bearing and I shouldn't have...
It was allot smaller.. (thinner, less threads) than the factory nut.

I figure, if I dremel the bolt off and the threads on the axle are indeed bad, I could still use the stock nut and have enough threads to hold on properly.

[DailyDriverMark]

Ok, Yesterday I spent the day installing the second bearing in the front drivers side. Took my time and made sure I did it right.

Here's the situation. I have a the typical low moan/growl that picks up speed as I drive from above 30mph. Classic symptoms of a bad wheel bearing. If I steer to the left, it quiets down. If I steer right it get louder so that points to the drivers side being bad.


I put a new bearing in yesterday, and it makes just as much noise!!

So here's my questions now...

1. Could the Axle shaft make the same noise as a wheel bearing? I had it bent out of the way during the clutch change.. I left it in the spindle and just positioned it out of the way... could this have ruined the CV joint near the spindle?

2. Also during the clutch change, I broke a bolt on the lower motor mount. So only one is holding it in. Well this caused the mount to pull away from the lower cradle it bolts too. Just a bit. So it's bolted to the cradle still but is off at an angle (like it's trying to rip away) on the side with the broken bolt. That side is about an half inch away, as opposed to the other side that is bolt down tight, (the cradle is deforming) Could this -very slight- misalignment of the motor cause this noise?

3. Wrong transmission oil? I didn't use the GM part number oil, I used some proper weight... proper API rating oil.. from Valvoline..
Could this be the source of the noise. There's alot of info out there on API 4 and how it might not have all the right additives for a modern transaxle.

What else could it be?

Granted I used a cheapo bearing this time, but should it be loud right out of the box? Like I'm driving with 44" knobby tires.

-just thinking, I havent checked the passenger side bearing yet. Tests indicate it should be the drivers side.

[DailyDriverMark]

Here's an update...today on my lunch break, I got the spare tire jack out of the trunk and propped the car up to check the noise on the passenger side.. I think I found my problem... I think I've been changing the wrong side bearing!

You can feel alot more vibration in the coil spring as that wheel spins versus the drivers side. Go figure.

To anyone reading this, I'd skip the "steer left and right" technique. That can confirm you have a bad bearing but it wont confirm which side it is.

Both should get replaced at the same time anyhow.


I'm going to turn this into a test, I have a $19.99 bearing in the left side, now I'm going to use a 45 dollar bearing in the right side and see if there's any difference in how long they last..

[petrified.rabbit]

I would also like to state that cv joints sound just like bad wheel bearings. But you cannot tell which side by turning the wheel because they extend when you turn in both directions, and there are 4 of them.

So i would check the cv joints before replacing another bearing.

[DailyDriverMark]

Thanks for the tip. No boots are torn. What other ways can you 'check' cv's? They don't click or make any of the typical noises so I'm sticking with next most likely source of the noise, the pass. side bearing. The check I did on that side, (see post above) nearly confirmed this. So, off I go to replace them, besides with the bearing tool I have, now that I've been through it, It's not all that hard to replace them.
I'll be replacing the Axle shaft on the drivers side, soon enough, due to those stripped threads. I have a nut on there now, holding the proper torque, but I had to use a spacer, to stay on the remaining threads. And I wan't it all factory correct.

[petrified.rabbit]

all you can really do is jack up the front, and shake and turn the cv's and listen for noise and feel for play. Kind of like checking the bearings..

good luck.