Front End Wheel Bearing Noise?

Hello everyone,
Over the summer I noticed what sounded like a wheel bearing going out. It continued to get worse over the course of the last 6 months or so and I finally had it changed. But it hasn’t gone away!! I don’t know what it could be. Maybe the tires but I am extremely unhappy that I spent all that money to get it changed and the sound isn’t gone. Does anyone know what else it could be or if it could be the tires needing a rebalance/alignment? Please help!!

 

What tires are you running?

 

Falken Wildpeak AT3W

 

Less likely to be the tires then. Those are known to be pretty quiet.

Did you swap both bearings or just one? Is it a metal on metal grinding sound? Any vibrations? Needle bearing? Caliper dust shields? Rotor?

 

Wrong side?

 

The other side was replaced about 5k miles ago

 

Just the driver because the passenger was replaced in November of 2019. There is a slight vibration that winds itself down when slowing down. Typical wheel bearing noise that’s what has me confused. Not sure about the dust shields or needle bearing.

 

does the noise go away if you put it in 4wd? ( assuming you have 4wd )

if it does go away, then it could be your drivers side needle bearing. ECGS Bushing should fix it.

 

That’s what I’m seeing online. Will this only happen on the drivers side? And what is a good estimated cost for the replacement I know the bushing is 60$.

 

its pretty common on the drivers side, has something to due to the way the CV is in the front Diff.
ECGS did a good Youtube on it.


as for price, you'll need the removal tool ( or make your own ) so that price goes up as well. I can't speak for cost, I guess it depends if you can do it yourself, or what your local mechanic will charge.

 

If it’s any help at all, I replaced the needle bearing with the ecgs bushing when I replaced my cv axle last week...I’m not mechanical AT ALL, and it all went pretty darn smooth (except for me mangling a seal when I tried to put it in lol), you could easily do it on your own

 

I don’t have any of the necessary tools. I think I’ll look into my local trade school to see if they’ll do it for free

 

Will get an extra seal noted

 

Just out of curiosity, what brand of bearing & hub did you use? Cheap bearings are prone to not being much better than a worn out OEM bearing. Improperly installed bearings - no matter how good they are - can cause problems.

 

Not sure I had our lifetime shop do it. One we’ve used for every vehicle my family has owned I trust their reliability. I went out and it doesn’t make the noise when in 4wd, seems to be the needle bearing. I talked to a friend at a trade school and they’re probably going to do it. I guess it was good preventative maintenance to get the wheel bearing changed close to the other one.

 

I wanted to chime in on this thread as it seems your chasing a similar vibration to what I've got. Mine is a '04, but I hear the noise on the right hand side and have already replace the wheel bearing. I used a Durango 29517011 from RockAuto. Not an OEM, but I'm confident its not the bearing as the vibration intensity is no different after replacing. I'm wondering if its an outer CV joint as the intensity changes with steering angle. Do you experience the same?