How to know if wheel bearings are bad

[dfox52]

So I had our 2013 Explorer in for some maintenance and the mechanic told me that I had a VERY bad wheel bearing on one of the rear wheels. He took me for a ride so we could listen it. It is loud, and it has been loud for a while, but I attributed the noise to the snow tires... In fact the noise sounds like you would expect aggressive tread to sound on pavement. He did not put it up on the lift or inspect it, he diagnosed it entirely by the sound from the rear. It's a 2013 XLT with 153,000 miles and the wheel bearings have never been replaced. So I accepted his diagnosis, took the vehicle home, put it up on jack stands. I tried turning and yanking the wheels back and forth to see if there was any movement or unusual sound from either wheel but I found nothing. Both wheels turn smoothly and make no sound. So I pulled the wheels, calipers, and rotors to try and get a better look. I'm down to the bare hub on both sides but there is still no movement, slop, or unusual sound from either wheel. So my question to folks... Is it possible to tell for certain if the wheel bearings are bad without actually pulling them? (which I hear can be a nightmare on these Explorers). I don't drive it much. maybe 1,000 miles a year, so I really don't want to get into time and expense of pulling the wheel bearings if there is still life in them. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

 

[94Eddie]

If you raised the rear up and tried to rock the wheel along the horizontal and vertical axis with no play and/or heard no noise when the tire is rotated then I would conclude there is no wheel bearing related issue. When a wheel bearing is going bad it will usually make more noise when turning in one direction over the other.

 

[dfox52]

If you raised the rear up and tried to rock the wheel along the horizontal and vertical axis with no play and/or heard no noise when the tire is rotated then I would conclude there is no wheel bearing related issue. When a wheel bearing is going bad it will usually make more noise when turning in one direction over the other.

Thanks Eddie! Ya, that's what I was always told. It just had me "befuddled" beacause I figured the mechanic had expertise that I didn't, and since the vehicles does have 153,000 miles on it, I didn't question him. But after checking it out, I wondered if there were other ways to diagnose a bad bearing that I wasn't aware of. Maybe the mechanic heard noise and just assumed it was a bearing.

 

[dfox52]

So I just read somewhere that a bad wheel bearing could be mistaken for tire noise while driving.

 

[peterk9]

So I just read somewhere that a bad wheel bearing could be mistaken for tire noise while driving.

You should know fairly soon unless you plan to run those winter tires all spring. Mine are coming off in a couple weeks. BTW, my winter tires have a very slight hum as well but it isn't any louder, front or back.

Peter

 

[justjim_pia]

So I had our 2013 Explorer in for some maintenance and the mechanic told me that I had a VERY bad wheel bearing on one of the rear wheels. He took me for a ride so we could listen it. It is loud, and it has been loud for a while, but I attributed the noise to the snow tires... In fact the noise sounds like you would expect aggressive tread to sound on pavement. He did not put it up on the lift or inspect it, he diagnosed it entirely by the sound from the rear. It's a 2013 XLT with 153,000 miles and the wheel bearings have never been replaced. So I accepted his diagnosis, took the vehicle home, put it up on jack stands. I tried turning and yanking the wheels back and forth to see if there was any movement or unusual sound from either wheel but I found nothing. Both wheels turn smoothly and make no sound. So I pulled the wheels, calipers, and rotors to try and get a better look. I'm down to the bare hub on both sides but there is still no movement, slop, or unusual sound from either wheel. So my question to folks... Is it possible to tell for certain if the wheel bearings are bad without actually pulling them? (which I hear can be a nightmare on these Explorers). I don't drive it much. maybe 1,000 miles a year, so I really don't want to get into time and expense of pulling the wheel bearings if there is still life in them. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

I just replaced one of my rear bearings at 141k miles. It had the characteristic "hum" noise above 30mph and it appeared to be from the left rear (I have a ChassisEar which helped greatly pinpoint the general area). I got all 4 tires off the ground, there was no play in the wheel, nor could hear anything when spinning the wheel by hand. A quick front/rear tire rotation had the noise still at the back of the vehicle. All that said I did the work myself and it took about 3 hrs for the total job with 2 of the hours to get the bearing out. The noise is now gone.

All that said, the bearings seemed OK when inspected, but made a good humming whilst on the road. A Steelman Chassis Ear ($100ish) was a good investment to pinpoint the bad bearing.

Jim

 

[mitch1204]

I could find an easier repair to beat you out of money. You are at that mileage and he's experienced.The easiest way to tell is go to Harbor Freight and buy a cheap laser thermometer. Drive your vehicle awhile then shoot the temperature of each wheel. The bad wheel bearing one will be noticeably warmer. It works well with checking plugged catalytic converters too.

 

[Turdle]

Yeah,agreed with above. Reading what you want to hear on the net could result in a real bad scenario. Take his word, try a new bearing.

If it is bad, and ignored, it could seize or fall off.

 

[tomlogan]

I had mine in for what was thought to be a differential bearing. After the mechanic got ready to start - he put a stethoscope on the wheel bearing mount and quickly changed the diagnosis to a wheel bearing. He replaced the bearing and noise was gone

 

[Astrobuf]

So I had our 2013 Explorer in for some maintenance and the mechanic told me that I had a VERY bad wheel bearing on one of the rear wheels. He took me for a ride so we could listen it. It is loud, and it has been loud for a while, but I attributed the noise to the snow tires... In fact the noise sounds like you would expect aggressive tread to sound on pavement. He did not put it up on the lift or inspect it, he diagnosed it entirely by the sound from the rear. It's a 2013 XLT with 153,000 miles and the wheel bearings have never been replaced. So I accepted his diagnosis, took the vehicle home, put it up on jack stands. I tried turning and yanking the wheels back and forth to see if there was any movement or unusual sound from either wheel but I found nothing. Both wheels turn smoothly and make no sound. So I pulled the wheels, calipers, and rotors to try and get a better look. I'm down to the bare hub on both sides but there is still no movement, slop, or unusual sound from either wheel. So my question to folks... Is it possible to tell for certain if the wheel bearings are bad without actually pulling them? (which I hear can be a nightmare on these Explorers). I don't drive it much. maybe 1,000 miles a year, so I really don't want to get into time and expense of pulling the wheel bearings if there is still life in them. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Wheel bearings go bad in stages. First, the races get pitted from corrosion. The bearing seals go bad and allow water into the bearing. This leads to corrosion at spots where the balls are in contact with the race when Stationary.

The bearing roar you hear is caused by the bearing balls "dropping" into the pitted races. This eventually pounds out more steel and makes the pits big enough that the bearing gets sloppy. Sloppy bearing can lead to your wheel falling off.

You vehicle is old enough and the mileage high enough that it is now in the early stage of failure. The fact that ot sits a lot matches the failure diagnosis.

Astrobuf

 

[mvan231]

This is quite interesting to read some of the stories and experiences people have had.

I'm having an interesting one myself on our 2017 Explorer XLT.
When driving at speed, there is a humming noise starting and seems to quiet down a bit when turning right and a little louder when turning left. This had me believing the rear right wheel bearing was going bad.

With the rear left wheel off the ground, it spins relatively freely and no noise.

With the rear right (passenger side) wheel off the ground, it has some amount of rotation available but then is difficult to continue rotating, but it is doable. Same in both directions, but there isn't any distinct noise like you would normally hear from a wheel bearing that is going bad.

I was thinking maybe it's something deeper like a CV shaft maybe but I'm curious on what your thoughts might be.

Edit: by the way, this vehicle has ~123,000 miles on it

 

[Astrobuf]

This is quite interesting to read some of the stories and experiences people have had.

I'm having an interesting one myself on our 2017 Explorer XLT.
When driving at speed, there is a humming noise starting and seems to quiet down a bit when turning right and a little louder when turning left. This had me believing the rear right wheel bearing was going bad.

With the rear left wheel off the ground, it spins relatively freely and no noise.

With the rear right (passenger side) wheel off the ground, it has some amount of rotation available but then is difficult to continue rotating, but it is doable. Same in both directions, but there isn't any distinct noise like you would normally hear from a wheel bearing that is going bad.

I was thinking maybe it's something deeper like a CV shaft maybe but I'm curious on what your thoughts might be.

Edit: by the way, this vehicle has ~123,000 miles on it

The best wY to determine if a wheel bearing is bad is to listed to it using a mechanics stethoscope. It's easy to tell a good from a bad bearing when you spin them with the probe adjacent to the bearing, but on Stationary spindle. In the early stages of bearing failure the bearing remains tight, but the rust induced pitting on the bearing races makes a scratchy kind of noise as the balls/rollers drop into the pits. The corrosion usually is the result of age related seal failure and short distance driving.

Astrobuf

 

[Fix4Dirt]

does the noise change when cornering? braking? gas? just trying to see if it changes as the forces shift.

 

[The D]

Easily diagnosed with an auto stethoscope with an aluminum rod on the end. I can get a pic of mine tomorrow if anyone wants

If you can get the car completely up in the air with enough room to safely get underneath have someone start the car and put it in drive. A noisy bearing will hurt your ears when you put the stethoscope on the back of the bearing carrier. This is the surest way to know.

If you suspect a bearing at one corner, turn the opposite direction. The loaded bearing will quiet down either completely or enough to confirm.

 

[mvan231]

The best wY to determine if a wheel bearing is bad is to listed to it using a mechanics stethoscope. It's easy to tell a good from a bad bearing when you spin them with the probe adjacent to the bearing, but on Stationary spindle. In the early stages of bearing failure the bearing remains tight, but the rust induced pitting on the bearing races makes a scratchy kind of noise as the balls/rollers drop into the pits. The corrosion usually is the result of age related seal failure and short distance driving.

Astrobuf

Thats a very good point! I'll have to take a closer listen to see what I can hear directly at the bearing

Easily diagnosed with an auto stethoscope with an aluminum rod on the end. I can get a pic of mine tomorrow if anyone wants

If you can get the car completely up in the air with enough room to safely get underneath have someone start the car and put it in drive. A noisy bearing will hurt your ears when you put the stethoscope on the back of the bearing carrier. This is the surest way to know.

If you suspect a bearing at one corner, turn the opposite direction. The loaded bearing will quiet down either completely or enough to confirm.

Thanks for this! I was trying that and suspecting the same. Which is what led me to believe it was the rear right bearing in the first place. It's quite tight right now

does the noise change when cornering? braking? gas? just trying to see if it changes as the forces shift.

Seems to change a little while cornering but that's about it if the conditions you mentioned. This is what led me to looking at the rear right bearing actually

 

[mvan231]

Update on my situation: I was able to use a slide hammer and pulled out the hub itself, but the mounting portion of the assembly stayed in the knuckle.

I've been trying to work on getting it out, but still facing difficultly with breaking it free

 

[mvan231]

Hi,
I was able to finally get the rest of the bearing out. This was a long time coming due to getting COVID in the middle of tearing it apart.

I ended up removing the knuckle from the vehicle and pressing it out.

I'm curious now though, for this design, it seems like an alignment maybe needed after replacing the knuckle back on the vehicle.

Any thoughts on the necessity of this? The top mounting where the shock absorber connects seems to have a bit of a slot / play in the bolt hole for adjustment

 

[Odrapnew]

Anytime you disconnect or replace a 'major' suspension component (control arm, knuckle, bushing, bearing, yadda-yadda-yadda), you should get an alignment, or at least checked. Might not be needed, but cheaper than a set of tires. Just my $0.02.

 

[J_C]

Hi,
I was able to finally get the rest of the bearing out. This was a long time coming due to getting COVID in the middle of tearing it apart.

I ended up removing the knuckle from the vehicle and pressing it out.

I'm curious now though, for this design, it seems like an alignment maybe needed after replacing the knuckle back on the vehicle.

Any thoughts on the necessity of this? The top mounting where the shock absorber connects seems to have a bit of a slot / play in the bolt hole for adjustment

Do you mean like rust or wear ate away the mounting, a bushing is worn, or fastener(s) came loose? If the whole strut tower is loose at the top, you need to fix that, and it will need aligned due to that.

 

[mvan231]

Anytime you disconnect or replace a 'major' suspension component (control arm, knuckle, bushing, bearing, yadda-yadda-yadda), you should get an alignment, or at least checked. Might not be needed, but cheaper than a set of tires. Just my $0.02.

Definitely makes sense and usually a mentality I go with as well except in cases of a simple bearing replacement but due to the whole knuckle being removed in this case, I'll probably check it out at least