Bad Wheel Bearings?

Howdy Gents,

I have a quick question about replacing the front wheel bearings. First of all I have a 2WD 2010 DCLB. I just turned 46K miles on it. Last week I noticed that when I accelerate on the on-ramps I hear a squeal/metallic rubbing sound but it is not a continuous sound and you can bearly hear it ove the tires and exhaust. It also flucuates with with the throttle. But, it stops once I get to around 30mph. Of course the dealership could not duplicate it. The truck does not have vibes or pull and the belts are tight.

After looking at threads here I think it may be the wheel bearings or a u-joint. Brake pads/rotors? Not sure...

Am I on the right direction? Thanks!

 

Yes, it does sound like a u-joint. I had to replace one of mine at about the same time (46k), those sealed u-joints are crap. Try and replace it with a greasable one.

 

If its with acceleration that U joints or a carrier bearing. The bad wheel bearing sound is a continuous one and accelerating up and down wouldnt change the sound too much simply because your still rolling.

 

Thanks! Yea the more I listen to it and read about it here I think it is a u-joint. I think I might as well replace them with the ones with greaseable zerks. Thanks all!

 

this ^^^^

and this ^^^^^

take that shit back to dealer

 

Do you have an extended warranty?

 

nope. just basic plus drive train.

 

arent you at like 170k miles by now?!

 

yea right! might as well be man!

 

I had to replace my u joints at about 50k.. that noise was annoying and is exactly as you describe... The repair fixed the issue

 

Well, I'm headed to the dealership to get the u-joints replaced. They checked the wheel bearings last week and replaced the front left. It was free since it was still under warranty. I may just ask them to replace all of them since it is still making the noise.

The funny things is that I only hear this sound between ~30-60mph on the freeway. No sound when driving on regular streets or <30mph. That's what gets me. It is more of a constant high-pitched scraping but not very loud (i.e. rusty hamster wheel lol) and there are no clunks in the drive train. Pretty sure it is not a belt issue since it does not happen in neutral. It's driving me crazy trying to fix it but I'll get it!!!

 

weird. My U joints would make the sound from 1 to about 40 mph then go away.

Time to trade her in for a 4x4!

 

you need to actually grease yours.... they should not be going bad at 50k. OP on the other hand most likely can not grease his.

 

mine went out on my last taco at 35k miles...non greasable.

 

Ha! then i would have to start the build all over again! plus its almost paid off!

 

Is there a write up for replacing them? I don't like having non-greasable ones

 

they were aftermarket on my Tom Woods drive shaft and got greased but apparently there was a bad fitting and the grease did not make it - they were replaced under warranty

 

gotcha... I grease mine until I see all the old burnt up dirty grease come out completely. They aren't sealed so the more clean grease in there the better.

 

but if they gave you 22 for your truck then a new 4x4 would only cost like 10k then just have them switch all your mods over