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I’ve had a noise in front on turning for awhile. It is hard to describe, just a noise that otherwise isn’t there. Reading on Evolutionm.net, people with bearing problems on this car (Evo 8 ) always fix the wrong side first. Then the advice is – do the other side.
So, to be prepared for the above eventuality I bought two hubs and didn’t even try to figure out which one was the culprit – I just selected one at random, pulled the knuckle, had bear frame and axle knock out the hub and slapped her back together. The biggest part of this job is removing and replacing the fender liner with all the plastic clips. That has to come out to reach the plug for the abs sensor which is now a permanent part of the knuckle.
So, anyway, that apparently is the secret, doing them at random, because the noise is gone. Now I need to do the other hub, all the while knowing I am not fixing anything. I’ll chalk it up to maintenance.
BTW, the old hub turns as smoothly as the new one when rotated by hand.
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Bearings are fun like that. Sometimes you hear them like crazy on the road then you put it up on the lift and it isnt loose and/or makes no noise.
On my car I cant tell if I need a bearing changed or if my tires are just loud
[quote=”Jeremyj1992″ post=134711]Bearings are fun like that. Sometimes you hear them like crazy on the road then you put it up on the lift and it isnt loose and/or makes no noise.
On my car I cant tell if I need a bearing changed or if my tires are just loud[/quote]
I tried blaming it on tires and moving tires around sorta made the sound go away but not completely. The sound also was the same as if the power steering was working harder in a turn. So, blame the steering. In the end I either spent the money to find out or had to keep wondering about it.
The mechanics on here talk about bearings roaring. They must only see them when in very bad shape. What I learned here is that a wheel bearing going bad can be very subtle. I’d been hearing this sound for maybe 30K.
I recently figured out something about wheel bearings I should have known long ago, and so should all the mechanics I’ve worked with who don’t. The first logic of diagnosing wheel bearings is that if you lean the weight on a particular corner of the car while turning and the noise gets louder, that’s the bad bearing that makes more noise when you put more weight/load on it. Then came the first time I heard rear wheel bearings get louder during a brake dive, when the weight is lifted off the rears. But I thought pushing the bad wheel bearing against the ground harder made it get louder? That totally makes sense, right? Sure. But that doesn’t matter to reality.
Because there are always 2 rows of balls or rollers in a wheel bearing configuration, either row can go bad independently and which row goes bad will determine how the noise changes with load. So you can have 2 different 2003 Evos with a noisy left front wheel bearing, but one car will be louder turning left (lifting the weight off) and the other when turning right (pushing extra weight on) if they have the opposite row of balls fail in each of their respective left front bearings.
You can have loose wheel bearings where the wheel practically flops in the breeze when lifted off the ground, but there is no noise at all when driving it. You can also have insanely loud bearings that have no slack/play in them at all.
Very early in my career, I had a wheel bearing job where the car came in with only inner and outer bearing races present. both rows of rollers and their cages had fallen out. The car drove in on it’s own like that, with only rotor being trapped in the brake pad bracket keeping the wheel/hub/axle assembly from leaving the vehicle. It was neat to drive, but I didn’t drive it far.
I heard (actually read) of plenty of cases where the above advice was given (the bad side is the side that makes noise with load) only to have the original poster report later it was the opposite side. I knew from this reading I wouldn’t be able to tell which side was bad from the above test, but, until now, I had no idea why this is true. What you say makes perfect sense, so much sense it angers me that I couldn’t see this.
The best advice I read concerning Evo front wheel bearings comes from a young man who has put almost 400K on his Evo. He has a long commute. His advice is change them every 100K. If my car sees another 100K I will change them again.
Barney, you are great contributor to this forum and I have a soft spot for intelligent and thoughtful Evo drivers (because there are so few and those cars are a real gift for a skilled and intelligent driver). I just want to say I’m really glad to have been able to provide you with some new information. I totally know your feeling. Like I said, I only came to understand this recently. I’m a great tech, but such revelations of my own ignorance keep me thirsting tor a better understanding of everything, no matter how much I think I know.
I’ve also started taking apart noisy wheel bearings and finding the points of failure to be able to learn which row on which side under which load will make noise, but I think it will probably take quite a while yet before I’m able to learn the specifics. Unfortunately it’s irrelevant to actually diagnosing the side more quickly, so it’s tougher to find the time while working to pay as much attention as I’d like. Still, I’m thinking about it far more than most professionals.
Thanks for the compliment but when I see some lady slicing her minivan through traffic with six kids bouncing about I think now there is skill or at least a level of concentration I will never achieve. But owning this car is a privilege and I never underestimate my good fortune. And now that era closes with this production year.
Being a DIYer, even for the 58 years I have been at it probably doesn’t equal a month working at it professionally. So, I always look for and read you posts as well as those of the other technicians. I do it to learn. Some of your answers, thoughtfully considered, are among the best.
BTW, do you think one could weld a damper back on and get a few more miles out of a Honda?
When you say ‘damper’, are you referring to the crankshaft pulley, a shock absorber, or something else? Damper is getting to be a less used word for car parts now, but can mean everything from a crank pulley to a metal brick mounted on a subframe or exhaust pipe to dampen vibration or harmonic resonance.
I’m referring to http://www.ericthecarguy.com/kunena/8-Service-and-Repair-Questions-Answered-Here/57633-damaged-crankshaft. Since the vehicle is 23 years old and immediately junk with the key way sheared could a bandaid repair be attempted like welding the pulley on?
I don’t see why not. Just make sure that the last timing belt it’s ever going to have is to your satisfaction before you do it.
It’s not something I’d do but I have seen a few welded on balancers. That’s kind of a last gasp repair.
Just curious, but has there been any sort of recent work involving the timing belt or water pump? If so, I was just wondering if someone failed to tighten the balancer bolt properly.
Do you guys ever do a dry park shake down and road test? On the road test you swerve a lot. It puts a load on the bad bearing and helps identify the issue.
Some of these DIY mechanics need to have their tools taken away.I seen the cobbled up messes these DIY mechanics did and have to fix them right.Fastners missing,compression fittings used on brake line fittings are two examples of this.I even seen brake pads installed backwards metal to metal once and goes on and on.Wheelbearings,sometimes easy to find out which one is bad sometimes.Jack the vehicle up and find lots of play moving the tire and wheel assembly.GM is the worst for wheelbearing problems and they eat wheelbearings left and right.I replace them for not making noise too,this is with the fullsize 4×4 truck all because of an abs problem.Rust and crud get in the ABS sensor hole,GM’s fix taking out the sensor cleaning it out never fixed it and there was a recall on this.Real fix is replace both front wheelbearings starting in the 1995 models.
DIY mechanics can be raging hazards, just a few of my favorites I can think of off hand…
– 4 wheel drum brakes on an old Buick, owner did a brake job and he car pulled right after. Adjustment was OK so I pulled the drums and found both large shoes on one side.
– Wire nuts, frigging wire nuts EVERYWHERE. I really see this a lot at work right now. I would on aerial lift equipment and it seems like electricians are always ‘fixing’ them with wire nuts.
– My old van I just picked up had a funny burning smell when the fan was on. Found a melty 10 gauge wire going DIRECT from the battery positive to the back of the fan switch; way to almost burn down a car. I also remember seeing car audio ding-dongs run unfused power right to the amp, usually through a door jam and under the sill trim.
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