wheel bearing?

[JHZR2]

Was driving my truck tonight on a fairly long trip (about 200 miles today). On the way home, started hearing a bit of noise from what seemed to be the front left. Sounded almost like stones in a hubcap type of ratling noise, but sort of squeaky.

It seemed to occur going straight and right, and went away going leftward.

Didnt notice any noise on the highway, which was where we put most of our miles. The noise only really seemed to occur when we got to the end of our trip (bearing the hottest? grease ran out to some amount?).

The truck is a 98 S-10 ZR2 4x4. The ZR2 came with bigger tires, and though some of the stuff was beefed up, I believe that hubs/bearings and ball joints were standard S-10 items.

Does this sound phenomena point to a bearing or hub? I wasnt in 4wd, and hoping it isnt a CV on the independent front.

Thanks!

 

[Rand]

wheel bearing usually sounds like a really loud tire thats wore bad. I hope yours are cheaper than the ranger's 250$/side I did last year.(front)

My friend had a 2010 hyundai accent that had BOTH fronts bad at 8k miles on it.

I told her sounds like wheel bearings your tires are too new.. take it in... and voila it had 2 bad bearings not just one. Factory defect I guess.

 

[Rob_Roy]

CV joint?

 

[JHZR2]

Its a 4wd vehicle and I suppose they always spin, but I was not in 4wd, so they werent loaded.

 

[01rangerxl]

Lift the front up and see if there is play in the wheels. Having to replace wheel bearings is somewhat common with the larger 1500 and 2500 4WD trucks, so I wouldn't be surprised if that is the problem.

The bearing/hub should be a sealed assembly. Probably something you want to shop around for online if you can go without driving the truck for a few days.

 

[Garak]

Yep, as 01rangerxl states, check for play. Shot wheel bearings aren't always noisy. One went in my old Audi, and the only way I could tell was wheel play. It was quiet as a mouse, yet was so far gone it took a torch to get it off.

 

[Kestas]

What you describe does not sound like a bad wheel bearing. Hopefully, once it's up in the air, an inspection will reveal the source of the noise.

 

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
The bearing/hub should be a sealed assembly. Probably something you want to shop around for online if you can go without driving the truck for a few days.

If money is tight look for "Dearborn Axle" or "Detroit Axle" on ebay. I got a bearing from them with a Japanese sounding name and no discernable COO, but the machining looked good, for what I could tell. OE part worked good but the ABS wire got yanked out.

 

[yonyon]

A broken sway bar end link or cracked upper control arm could sound like that and be a pretty common thing on the S-10s. Maybe you're 'lucky' and it's loose lug nuts.

I suspect Rob_Roy's got it. The way you describe it sounds like like a front side u-joint, but the T trucks have CVs instead and they shouldn't really sound squeaky unless you've been running it with the boot missing. A broken CV could make the rocks noise and provoke an already bad lower ball joint or wheel bearing assembly to squeak though.

All we can do is guess untill you jack it up and take a look. If you have a floor jack or other suitable jack, try to jack it up by the lower control arm as near as possible to the ball joint. This keeps the angle of the CV as close as possible to normal angle and you'll get a better idea of what happens when you rotate the wheel. Jacking it up this way also lets you get a look at the ball joints and control arm bushings. It's easy to forget that jacking by the frame and letting the suspension hang leaves you with the spring pushing the lower arm down and the rubber bump stop pulling the upper arm up. That creates more than enough tension to hide all the play in some parts that could bo so worn they're ready to break over the next bump.

 

[mechtech2]

Brakes are my first guess. Wear sensors, backing plate bent or rusted - things like that.
Wheel bearings rarely make a high squeak.

 

[PandaBear]

My car has the exact same sound recently and it turns out to be the wheel bearing.

 

[mechtech2]

You heard the exact same sounds over the internet?