Thread: Trying to diagnose a grinding in my front left wheel...

1997 200sx SE daily driver stock everything

Hi all, driving home on the highway today I noticed a noise that sounds almost like a bad wheel bearing coming from my front left tire. At first as I was driving I figured it to be road noise from my newly mounted(on friday) Hankook Ipikes...then it got more constant and louder as I accelerated. I was thinking great, flat tire on my brand new rubber. No such luck. Thought #2 in my head was 'looks like the brake pads have finally met their maker..' NP. Popped over to the parts store and got some pads. I knew that the pads needed replacing anyway, however it didn't look like the wear clip was touching the rotor at all. Rotors seemed to be in fair condition with no extreme warping so I popped em on and as I'm tightening up the last caliper pin before we can try it out I snapped it. NBD replaced that after 20$ and another trip to the store. Got everything back together and after initially taking off I note the noise is still there and unchanged. Okay...take my buddy for a ride he says he doesn't know. Drive a bit more, jam the brakes a bit do some accelerating and the noise went away. While going in a straight line. When I turned the wheel I noticed the grinding noise still there(grinding enough to make me feel it through the floor).

So I'm coming to the conclusion that even though the rotors felt and looked good it's quite possible my driver side one is warped and causing grinding, I suppose I'm just looking for some backup to this idea as I'm sure a lot of guys on the forum have come across this quite often.


Also, for what it's worth I had no types of noises coming from my front end at all until today on the highway.


Thoughts?

TLR version:

- grinding noise sounds almost like a wheel bearing front left wheel
- no play in wheel at all when checking for bearing play
- brake pads shot - replaced - reused old rotors
- grinding noise seemed to be affected by jamming breaks to 'seat' new pads
- noise gone from straight line driving, now exists in just turning
- shouldn't of cheaped out and should of put new rotors on too
- steering wheel has 0 vibration coming from it, can feel grinding through floorboard


Thanks for your input and time!

Is your axle nut loose? The splines could be grinding on the inner side of the wheel knuckle. I've had this happen to me before after not torquing down an axle nut properly.

Also, check for play in your axle... bearings could be shot.

Just saying, I had to replace my front pass wheel bearing a few weeks ago for the same issues. Sometimes it would make noise, sometimes it wouldn't. Popped the old one out and it was completely destroyed.

no rocks stuck behind the caliper bracket or anything like that?

No rocks, axle nut is torqued and tight(both side axles were replaced about 3 months ago by me). Going to do my newspapers right now...gonna see how it does then dropping it off at my buddies house for the day while I'm at my second job. I'll update when I find out more.

I am willing to bet a bad wheel bearing. I have seen wheel bearings make different types of noises when they go bad so don't expect them all to sound the same.

Hes about to pull it apart now but he is thinking the same.. I guess I am still baffled because of the lack of play in the wheel. This morning it was fine in a straight line and was making noise on right turns.. after a while it came back while going in a straight line and was quiet on turns so I am able to manipulate the noise this way.

Thanks for all your responses!!

You don't have to have play for it to be wheel bearing.

I had both rear wheel bearings toasted and there was no play in either of the wheels.

Isn't that trick 100% accurate on "old fashioned" wheel bearings that you can't torque down hard?? and it only works with our type of wheel beaings sometimes to reveal a bad bearing??

From what I have seen, if you have wheel play often your bearing got so bad that your hub got worn and is now bad. If it is just making noise and when you take your axle out and no bearing parts fall out, your hub is still good. FYI, I am very good at replacing front wheel bearings as I have done it close to 20 times. If you need any advice, recommended tools, or any helpful hints, PM me and I will give you my phone number.