Safe to even drive to shop? snapped front axle or wheel bearings...

Started getting a rattling today in front driver side wheel, jacked it up and I have 3/4-1" of play in the wheel with lug nugs snug and no suspension play, in all directions. Is this even safe to drive to the shop 3 miles away or should I get it towed? 2009 tacoma 108k 4wd manual 4.0 v6

 

If it's the wheel bearing and you can stay off major roads you can probably drive it.

 

Thoughts on what it could be besides wheel bearings? Ive got a 35mph road S turns and hills, just what I need to have a wheel flying off

 

can you spin the wheel with it in PARK?
Then you will know if the axle is broken.

 

I bet good odds it's not a "snapped axle UHHMM CV" its a bad bearing, 3 miles should be no issue especially if you just noticed it. I drove on a violent bad DS wheel bearing for 40 mIles, because I HAD too. Just take it slow. OOOoorr, just do it yourself, it's fairly easy and there are some great writeups on here. Side bar: OP assumes all responsibility for driving on said bad bearing.

 

Inner or outer tie rods?

 

If you are gonna drive it, have another car follow you, and no more then 15-20 mph just to be safe. But, that's just my opinion...

 

had the tie rods replaced at 75k, assume that would be both inner and outer but not positive, also Ive been running FJ wheels with 255 17 17 BFG's, stock suspension

 

Appreciate the help guys!

 

I did the Bamatoy wheel bearings on mine. Fairly easy to do, and a heck of a lot cheaper then having a shop do them! Of course, I'm a believer in the old "if one is bad, do both" school of thought.

 

It's really not hard to do the wheel bearings on these if you know how to swap rotors and diagnose the problem and it's already jacked up your halfway there.

 

You said you have play in the wheel. Is it side to side play? As in if you sit facing the wheel with the truck jacked up and pull on the bottom of the wheel towards you it moves?

 

correct, inch of play sitting next to wheel in all directions pulling side to side (tug n pull) 12 and 6, 9 and 3, and about a 1/4" of play at the rotor

 

The wheel spins fairly easy while its jacked up, not the smoothest of feeling but not super alarming. Passenger side has no play in it side to side while jacked up. What I noticed while driving was just a rattling like the common loose brake pads issue, was checking on those and noticed it.

 

I would advise against driving it. IF it comes loose when driving even slowly the potential for a lot more damage is too great. And to add to that a loss of control could cause a wreck and hurt yourself or others that have no say so if you drive it or not.

Tow it or do it at home.

 

Get the Bamatoy bearings and do it at home

 

This...shop is going to take you over the hurdles. Or buy prebuilt hubs from bama or the NJ guy and bring it to the shop to have them do the labor. save you a big chunk of labor/parts

 

If you get that significant of play in all directions and significant noise on rotation, most def it is a wheel bearing. Like many said before, it's a pretty easy job. It probably won't die driving it but keep it slow and take yourself to get it fixed if you don't feel comfortable doing the repair.

 

If you have to ask, tow it.

 

yah mechanic said I shouldnt have driven it either. Had it towed and the hub and bearing were shot. CV looked to be ok