Forum

Forum Forum

Diagnosing a bad wheel bearing

by 1986chevyman on Feb 05 2018, 9:34 PM

Elite Tech

The best method I have found to diagnose a bad wheel bearing. I grab the coil spring closest to the suspected bad bearing and spin the wheel. You will be able to feel the roughness in the spring. Also if the bearing has any play in it, it is bad.

You must be signed in to reply or vote on this post.

16 Replies

By automan003 May 23 2019, 1:40 PM

Sometimes it does take the road test to confirm which bearing is bad. By loading the suspension by turning left & right you can hear the bearing noise on the road come & go with the movement of the steering wheel. I've had some vehicles on the lift without any load on the bearing quite down to a point where you could not hear the bad bearing , even with a stethoscope.

Sign in to vote 0
By mechmikeyb87 May 23 2019, 3:09 AM

Hand and stethoscope methods works for me.

Sign in to vote 0
By danielwin22 Mar 18 2019, 1:59 PM

I always use the Chassis Ear tool on a test drive. Ive had them bite me in the but using the test drive and turning/swerving method to determine which side of the vehicle the bad one was on, for example I've had them sound like left rear and ended up being right rear instead, because of the sound carrying across the vehicle. I like the idea of the thermal imaging tool. That just adds to my list of reasons why I need to purchase the thermal imaging tool. I have had multiple bearings bad (making noise) that were not loose on the rack, so I don't trust that method too far.

Sign in to vote 0
By waylor22 Nov 28 2018, 1:24 PM

I use the hand on the coil spring method. We have just purchased a thermal imaging tool and have started looking at the temp on all the wheels to determine the bad bearing. So far so good

Sign in to vote 0
By rustychevy Oct 29 2018, 2:54 PM

Run it on a lift and listen with a stethoscope...if it's a rear bearing on a front drive vehicle,you can usually spin it fast enough by hand.

Sign in to vote 0
By emanuelle123 Oct 11 2018, 1:54 PM

GOOD ANSWER GOOD TO KNOW

Sign in to vote 0
By jack12345 Oct 03 2018, 6:38 AM

I always have diagnose on test drive, in most cases i have found the bearing will start to get nosie around 40km, moving the steering wheel left to right while driving strait will determine what side(L or R). if that fails verify on the hoist with stethoscope when wheels are spinning.

Sign in to vote 0
By goodguysnick Sep 26 2018, 8:46 PM

we put the vehicle on a lift to check for up and down play in the bearing and use a stethoscope to check bearing as well.

Sign in to vote 0
By paulwilley11 Sep 21 2018, 6:02 PM

Chassis ears or spin the wheels in the air

Sign in to vote 0
By daagstir Sep 14 2018, 5:35 PM

We lift on hoist and let car down on a block 1 wheel at a time and put in gear.

Sign in to vote 0