Thread: Wheel Bearing? Axle? or other?

Remove your tire, remove caliper and remove the axle nut. when u remove caliper your Hub will fall right off if it's the wheel bearing. if not and hub is nice and tight you got a good bearing. possibly severly warped caliper, tire separation (bubble on tire) could be happening, or a bent wheel. Dont sound like an axle to me.

Raise your front up with jacks, come to each front wheel grab the wheel by two horizontal sides and check for play, then grab them from two vertical points and check for play.

Horizontal will start moving due to the steering wheel, heck for play right before the steering wheel starts moving.



Not necessarily. My wheel bearings where going bad and I could barely get the hub out with a shop press.

Agree with vadim, a bad wheel bearing doesn't make the hub fall off 9 times out of 10. A very little bit of play in the bearing turns into a lot of play the farther you get away from the center rotating mass. The bigger the wheels the more noticeable the play. Axles are a common problem as well. They become "off center" and don't spin true. They cause an awful shimmy. Jack the car up and put it on jack stands and put the car in drive, look at the axles spinning...you'll know if they're bad.

Yea when they are "going bad" the way his sounds it's severly worn out and could be shaving out the Hub shaft. I've had 3 b13's in the past and every single one of em had the Hub fall right out, shaving off the end of the hub, If you replace your bearing before it goes really bad, then you can save the hub and your gonna have to press the bearing out ofcourse.

Also by lifting up the car and checking for play you might not get any play at all since on these fwd cars the the hub and bearing are torqued down by the axle nut. On all 3 of my b13's lifting them up and check for play didn't work out very well unitll I pulled out the
Caliper and axle Nut.

This would happen now lol, Ight. To the jack I go, and I've had bearings go bad and it was progressive this was almost sudden, as soon as my ds caliper started freezing I started hearing the noise on my ps side. Are b13/nx hubs the same

Yes they are. Removing the caliper and axle nut will be
The best way to check.

If bearing is bad enough to separate the hub like that you should easily be able to tell by jacking it up and rocking the tire. You shouldn't have to pull the caliper and axle nut off to tell if a bearing is bad or not. Work smarter, not harder!

On my B14, my axle nut got loose and I drove 250 miles. Bam bearings started making a slight noise, but nothing serious. I was able to feel the play in them when I raised the car though. My hub was perfectly fine to reuse too .

On my P11, I have fairly excessive horizontal play, I just spent the last two days replacing the bushings on the LCA and pressing out the bearing. Installed it and the play is still there! . Got the wife to check the wheel while under the car, and noticed that little play is actually coming from the CV shaft itself . On the bright sight I don't have to replace my other bearing

^ yes hubs are the same.

stratton.

Ya I have to agree sounds like a bearing buddy's car sounded like that soon you'll probably feel it in the wheel then the whole car