basic question regarding worn wheel bearings or sway link

[oz16us]

so i'm trying to diagnose these random small popping noises after the fender bender i got with a taxi at about 10 mph. The popping noise occurs on the front passenger side mainly when i slow down or when i go on a decline (not incline). I ruled out the brakes since it doesn't happen when i just brake or turn.

I'm guess it could be a shock or a shock mount....first i'm trying to rule out worn wheel bearings (though i changed them less than a year ago) or the sway links. I took out the passenger front wheel bearing yesterday.... may question is, if it's worn, should i visibly be able to see the bearing roughed up? it looked good as new

And with the sway links, they look good but I don't know if I over tightened them to begin with. Either way, I untightened them today and torqued the moog sway links to 10 lbs

 

[swshawaii]

Check the upper control arm bolts, two on each UCA. They could easily be loosened by a hit. Torque @ 98 ft/lbs. Alignment OK?

 

[oz16us]

hmmmmmmm...that's a huge bolt. I'll take a look at it. Thanks!

 

[oz16us]

could i look at a wheel bearing and visibly tell it's bad or can it still look new and be bad? I just want to rule out that it's not the wheel bearing

 

[SplendidSquid]

could i look at a wheel bearing and visibly tell it's bad or can it still look new and be bad? I just want to rule out that it's not the wheel bearing

visually looking at a wheel bearing is nearly impossible to tell. (inside the hub)
now what you can do is jack up the front end. and shake the wheel back and forth.up and down diagonally and feel for any play.
if there is play. you'll have to find the part that is loose.
my money is on a ball joint or tie rod. ive never heard a bearing making a popping noise. it would have to be pretty worn.

another option is have a buddy bounce the truck up and down and feel suspension parts for play or popping (carefully! dont get any appendages crushed by the vehicle) this is mostly gonna find sway bar links and other components effected by suspension travel.

 

[oz16us]

i actually took both the inner and outer wheel bearings out and visibly inspected them...they looked brand new. I want to rule them out. I'll try to get a friend to help me bounce the truck to see if it makes any noise

 

[bluestream1]

i actually took both the inner and outer wheel bearings out and visibly inspected them...they looked brand new. I want to rule them out. I'll try to get a friend to help me bounce the truck to see if it makes any noise

You cannot diagnose a wheel bearing by looking at it.

 

[sr139fox]

I had the same knock on my wifes tribute. Put new sway bar parts on. After 6 months it developed a knock. Thought the same. I did have a bad wheel bearing. Change it but still had the knock. Turned out the right bolt to the sway bar backed off a hair and caused the knock. It was sipping inside the hole. Put a lock washer and tightened the hell out of it. Knock is gone. Used a rubber mallet and about 2 hours of tapping to find it. Dave p.

 

[oz16us]

one thing i didn't mention is that after the accident, i did see a lot of grease come out of the ball joint of the passenger side on the upper control arm. On the other hand, when I previously installed the upper control arm a few months ago, after spending hours putting it in, i discovered there was a #####-size hole in the ball joint boot. A small amount of grease would ooze out whenever I filled it with grease. After the accident, a lot of it came out. I'm going to grease it up today and see if that noise goes away

 

[01STrunner]

A way to rule out the sway bar parts: Disconnect it and zip tie it up out of the way for a day or 2. If the sound disappears you found your problem.

I drive mine without sway control but only locally. BE CAREFUL! Take turns slower and don't weave in and out of traffic.

 

[oz16us]

i mean, i can go down the street and listen if the sound comes back...without sway bars. I'm not quite sure what they're used for....

 

[01STrunner]

Didn't mean to offend, just didn't want a bunch of people to go off and say driving without sway bars is stupid, etc. As long as you drive sanely it's okay.

One pass down a straight road isn't going to tell you much of anything if its a sway bar related issue.

 

[oz16us]

okay, so I greased the upper control arm ball joint (the one where grease came out of during the accident) and it was a noticeable improvement....i can still hear some noise every now and then...i'm guessing this was the problem perhaps. The weird thing is that the fender bender accent happened on the driver side