Wheel Bearing Sanity Check

In regards to wheel bearing noise...Turning left offloads the driver-side bearing turning right offloads the passenger. Is this a correct statement?

The noise goes away with the offloaded pressure when I turn left.

Time to replace a Wheel bearing and I'm going to replace both however I'm waiting for the second one to get here. Just want to get the one making the noise replaced first then I'll do the other.

 

Is that a question or a statement?

 

Just confirming the statement of on-loading and off-loading the wheels when turning. So kind of both

 

Are you still running a sway bar? If so, you aren't really offloading much pressure from the bearing. I would jack up the front end and spin each wheel to see what one is making noise.

If you are talking rear bearings, good luck! They royally suck to replace.

 

So I went through this recently. And sadly it's not that easy, lol. Our front hub assemblies have two bearings, an inner and an outer. Depending on which goes out, it could be the opposite of what you'd expect. One is supposedly way less likely to go out, but it still happens. For me, my front left was bad, and it went silent when I was on a hard right corner at speed and the left hub assembly was carrying all the weight. My buddy told me he thought it was the driver side. My mechanic (owns an offroad and automotive shop, races King of Hammers, etc) said it's most likely the passenger side, but said to let him know, cause our buddy would probably be right. The mechanic was the one who explained the inner and outer, and I read about it on here too.

To be sure, I swapped the Driver side first, and 90% of my noise went away. I then swapped the other after a drive. I didn't want to swap both at the same time and never know who was right.

 

Awesome I appreciate it, Time to go down the rabbit hole and see.

 

From everything I've seen, your bearings would have to be just about completely gone for them to make noise. The whole grab and shake the wheel and spin it gave me nothing. From what I've read on here, the brake rotor may be taking a lot of the load when trying to push and pull. And even with my damn near deafening cab noise from that bearing, I could spin the wheel and no noise or difference compared to spinning the opposite side.

 

Yeah I got nothing from shaking the tire back on forth regarding play. I haven't tried just flat spinning it and seeing if I can hear anything but I'll do it just to see. I'll update the thread if I can figure anything out. In the end, I'm going to replace both wheel/hub assemblies out.

 

For sure let us know which side it ends up being. Luckily it's not a hard job. I'm no mechanic but I was able to do it relatively easily. Just had to borrow my sister's impact and larger than I owned torque wrench. Bought the big socket too. Be careful when you put your dust shield back on... I put mine on 90 degrees off and didn't realize til it came time to install the brake caliper.

D'OH

 

I have a little noise difference between the passenger (louder) and the driver, so I'm going to start there. Which hub/bearing assembly did you use? My nearest dealer says they don't sell an assembly.

 

I just used these on the 4Runner a couple months back.
Time will tell, but initial quality looked excellent at a fraction of OEM cost.
Be sure you've got a 200ft lb torque wrench on hand.

$56 MotorbyMotor 950-001 Front Wheel Bearing and Hub Assembly 4WD with 6 Lugs fits for Toyota Tacoma 4Runner FJ Cruiser, Lexus GX460 GX470 Wheel Hub Bearing Assembly 515040

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W1NZBMR?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/wheel-bearings-hubs-press-service-oe-nsk.537080/#post-17293000

 

An inner and outer bearing in one hub? I've never heard of that before. Are you thinking of the seals?

 

Yep, @YF_Ryan There's only one bearing in each hub brother..

 

It looks like off the top of his head he thought the 2nd gen Taco had opposing roller bearings? Not the single bearing as you guys have correctly pointed out. I'm trying to find the post on here where someone else had said the same thing. Did an earlier gen have inner/outter? Again, not a mechanic, just passing on what I was told. All I know for sure was that LOADING the bearing made it quiet in my case, whatever the cause!

 

https://www.yotabearingsandhubs.com/

They have two different options for our trucks. Cheap Chinese bearings assembled, or quality bearings assembled. Your choice. I went with the quality ones.

 

The loading one side doesn’t always work for diagnosis, there are two rows of ball bearings in the hub so depending on which row is bad it might change the scenario. Just a heads up.

 

If your going to replace one side, replace thee other side. That's rule I go with.

 

Yea I’m going to, the nearest auto parts store only has one so. Note I’m going to hold until I can get two good quality ones.

 

That's not how that would work. Fundamental vehicle dynamics will tell you there is more load transfer across the front with the anti-roll bar than without.