possible wheel bearing issue

[Joe]

So on my 2005 nissan altima 2.5 I believe my driver front wheel bearing is going out. Thing howls down the road like a dog and when I turn the wheels left the sound goes away. Hitting the brakes also negates some of the sound. Classic wheel bearing symptoms.

However when I actually jack the car up and check the wheel bearing for play there is none. I also went as far as to take the axle nut and cv axle off and visually inspect it and it looks fine. There’s no bearing grease leaking out or anything and when I turn the wheel with the car jacked up everything sounds fine.

Is there something else I could be missing that could cause this issue? I had to replace the transmission last year and installed a used transmission and I’m wondering if there’s possibly a bearing in the transmission somewhere that could be failing on me. Or am I just over thinking this? I’ve just never had these symptoms come up and have a wheel bearing seem perfectly fine when I visually inspect it like this.

Topic

[Austin]

Does it do it in all gears?

[Lorrin Barth]

To eliminate tire sounds, rotate that tire to the rear. I had the same symptoms a couple of years ago, did this and the noise was now in the rear.

[Joe]

[quote=”barneyb” post=105043]To eliminate tire sounds, rotate that tire to the rear. I had the same symptoms a couple of years ago, did this and the noise was now in the rear.[/quote]

tires are brand new. Rotated the tires anyway just to be sure though. Should have added that. Also gave it a 4 wheel alignment myself. All alignment is in spec.

@shoptech

yea the howling increases with speed. I also tried coasting in neutral and downshifting to see if the noise would change but it didn’t.

[Lorrin Barth]

You had the axle out and rotated the hub by hand?

[Joe]

[quote=”barneyb” post=105048]You had the axle out and rotated the hub by hand?[/quote]

yup

I’m pretty close to just saying screw it and replacing the bearing. The only thing that sucks is I gotta tear the a-arm out at the house, find a ride to work(which is easier said than done when you live 35 min away from work.), and press the bearing out there. Other than that I’m down to throw $25 at a new bearing at this point.

Unless there’s something I should know about in the trans… I probably should have just pulled the whole inner axle out while I had the one end off but I didn’t think about it. I replaced the axle seals, and the trans “filter”/gasket in the used trans I installed. I also flushed it out with nissan k-matic fluid (12 quarts of that stuff is not cheap).

[Lorrin Barth]

The only thing I can add is I know of a few cases where a front wheel bearing was replaced after it was heard making noise and it turned out to be the wheel bearing on the opposite side.

[Joe]

ended up replacing both front wheel bearings. Also ended up replacing the front brake pads/rotors and front struts/strut mounts since that stuff needed to be done as well and it seemed like a good time to do it. The noise is gone but I’m still not entirely positive that it was the old wheel bearings that were causing the noise. Whatevs… problems fixed now and she rides like a brand new car again.

[Author]

Replies