Wheel Bearing Diagnosis

[Oldswagon]

I am trying to diagnose what I believe may be a bad wheel bearing. I used to have access to a chassis ear to do this sort of thing, but I don't anymore. In any case the noise is related to speed and sounds like it's coming from the front left corner. The sound seems to get louder when I turn right, quieter when I turn left. There is no play in any of the bearings. I pulled all the wheels and brakes off the hub assmeblies to check for roughness or noise. The front left does seem to have a very small amount of roughness in it, but nothing too bad. It's also difficult to tell in the front due to it being connected to the drive axles.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks to use to find out for sure which bearing is bad? I don't want to order the part until I am sure.

 

[Jimzz]

It helpful if you tell us the year, make, and model.

If its FWD then loosen the axle nut before checking for play.

 

[Oldswagon]

Sorry, forgot to mention that. 2010 Toyota Prius about 85K miles.

 

[OneEyeJack]

Axle?

 

[SwampSurvivor]

They will make noise, even with a slight bit of roughness to them.

 

[Tegger]

Originally Posted By: Oldswagon
The sound seems to get louder when I turn right, quieter when I turn left.

Before you blame bearings on a vehicle that young, suspect the tires.

Swap the tires left-to-right (or front-to-back) and see if the noise changes.

 

[anonobomber]

If you have a somewhat long drive you can use an infrared thermometer sometimes to find it. If it shows much hotter than the other side you could have a bearing issue going on.

 

[another Todd]

Originally Posted By: Oldswagon
I am trying to diagnose what I believe may be a bad wheel bearing. In any case the noise is related to speed and sounds like it's coming from the front left corner. The sound seems to get louder when I turn right, quieter when I turn left. There is no play in any of the bearings. I pulled all the wheels and brakes off the hub assmeblies to check for roughness or noise. The front left does seem to have a very small amount of roughness in it, but nothing too bad.


This makes sense. When you turn right, you load the left bearings (louder), when you turn left you unload the left bearings (quieter). Any amount of roughness in a used bearing is too much and will make noise when running and or loaded.

 

[Oldswagon]

I did try the tires, that was my initial thought. The sound is still there, even between two different sets (summer/winter). The front bearings are very expensive for these cars, that's why I want to be sure before I order and replace it.

 

[CT8]

Sometimes it takes a good deal of detective work. It should be easy but sometimes it isn't.

 

[Jimzz]

Originally Posted By: Oldswagon
I did try the tires, that was my initial thought. The sound is still there, even between two different sets (summer/winter). The front bearings are very expensive for these cars, that's why I want to be sure before I order and replace it.


They are not much more than most other hubs. You can get a Pro white box bearing for $60 and a Beck/Arnley for $120 plus shipping at www.rockauto.com

 

[The Critic]

The only other thing you can do, is to check the runout of the hub assembly to see if it is within spec. This may/may not lead you anywhere, but it could be another way to confirm the issue. We replace quite a few hubs/bearing assemblies due to runout alone, fwiw.

I have 99k on my 2011 Prius and my hub assemblies are still quiet, but I have read a few reports of hub replacement over on Priuschat.

 

[Merkava_4]

A bad wheel bearing will sound like large knobby tires going down the road.

Come to think of it -- the guys driving with large knobby tires -- I wonder how they'd diagnose a bad wheel bearing.

 

[Oldswagon]

Originally Posted By: Jimzz

They are not much more than most other hubs. You can get a Pro white box bearing for $60 and a Beck/Arnley for $120 plus shipping at www.rockauto.com


I am in Canada, so those prices don't apply to me. Plus I wouldn't buy a white box, I like to buy OEM quality. Toyota told me it was about $550 + tax for the hub assembly. I did find a aftermarket supplier that I could get a Timken from for a fair bit less though.

Anyone know how Timken compares to OEM Toyota? They have always been good in American cars I have owned.

 

[Oldswagon]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
The only other thing you can do, is to check the runout of the hub assembly to see if it is within spec. This may/may not lead you anywhere, but it could be another way to confirm the issue. We replace quite a few hubs/bearing assemblies due to runout alone, fwiw.

I have 99k on my 2011 Prius and my hub assemblies are still quiet, but I have read a few reports of hub replacement over on Priuschat.


Thanks for the tip on the runout. At this point we just have excessive road noise. If this bearing is gone, I am not sure why it failed early (in my opinion). We do have harsh road conditions here though, lots of salt and sand, so perhaps that damaged the seals. This is the first parts failure of any type we've had with this car though.

 

[supton]

Can you put this onto jackstands and put into "drive"? That was the recommended method on my Jetta--jack front end up, put into top gear, let it idle in gear. Then you can walk around the car and see which side makes the noise.

On a Prius I'm guessing you might have to use a second person to rev it in drive; although it might decide to not spin the tires at all for all I know.

 

[PandaBear]

I had the exact same symptom on one of my car and it turns out to be wheel bearing. Turning in the opposite direction, the wheel runs faster, it whine more. Turning in the same direction, the wheel runs slower, it whine less. It doesn't whine when the wheel is spinning in the air unloaded, it whines more when it is braking (more load on the bearing), it doesn't whine when I accelerate from a stop.

The bearing didn't knock the whole time.

The symptom showed up when the car was 220K miles and a few months after an accident. It is the opposite side of the car being hit (mom change lane without realizing some was trying to run a yellow light).

Hope this help.

 

[JTK]

Any time I've had front bearing hub assemblies go bad, they were real easy to diagnose. They got real noisy with a lateral load put on them. Swing right, you'd notice the noise on the front left and vice versa.

Rears are more of a challenge. I've also had them go from a slight nobby tire type noise to an all-out hurt your ears ROAR in one trip!

All of my above bad hubs on normal straight ahead driving would only make noise at specific speed ranges due to the whole resonance/harmonics thing.

 

[seanf]

Originally Posted By: Oldswagon
Originally Posted By: Jimzz

They are not much more than most other hubs. You can get a Pro white box bearing for $60 and a Beck/Arnley for $120 plus shipping at www.rockauto.com


I am in Canada, so those prices don't apply to me. Plus I wouldn't buy a white box, I like to buy OEM quality. Toyota told me it was about $550 + tax for the hub assembly. I did find a aftermarket supplier that I could get a Timken from for a fair bit less though.

Anyone know how Timken compares to OEM Toyota? They have always been good in American cars I have owned.


rockauto.com will ship directly to your door in Canada for whatever the shipping charge says on the website, no fees, duties, extra [censored]. I use them all the time and ship things right to my door in Winnipeg.

 

[Oldswagon]

Originally Posted By: seanf
rockauto.com will ship directly to your door in Canada for whatever the shipping charge says on the website, no fees, duties, extra [censored]. I use them all the time and ship things right to my door in Winnipeg.


That's great to know. I have used them as a resource, but never ordered from them in fear of extra fees. And if that's the case I can get the Timken bearing for about half the cost of the OEM Toyota.