Questions about hub bearing noises...

[Mitchs07explorer]

Okay, I replaced my front left hub a few weeks back and the job went smoothly. Lately I'm hearing a whirring noise that sounds more like A/T tire noise but I swear it's getting louder just like when my front left went bad. I lifted the SUV up and went around and spun all my tires. I'm pretty darn sure my rear left hub is going out now. There's definitely more of a grinding noise when I spin that one. One of my questions is about the front left hub that I already replaced, its smooth when I spin it but it also faintly sounds like there is a rubbing/dragging noise, very light noise (speed sensor maybe!?) when turned one full rotation. When I go around to the other two "assumed good" hubs and spin the wheels they all sound about the same as the new one. The only real difference is the hubs with 104k on them roll easier than the new Timken I installed. The new one has a little more resistance when turned than the two older hubs but the older hubs have that faint drag feeling when you turn them too. So I assume that's all normal?! Can anyone tell me what that is? Is there a speed sensor or the abs sensor that I'm noticing make a slight noise when I spin the wheel a full rotation?

Also can someone recommend a good quality precision torque wrench or tell me if the one I'm using is okay. When I replaced my front left hub I used a 25lb-250lb click style wrench by EPAuto. It was only $50 on amazon but it had nearly a 5 star rating. It says it's been properly tested and calibrated and will guarantee a +/- 4%. In my opinion a +/- 4% seems like a wide variance to me especially when torquing the front axel nut to 184 pounds. That would mean it could be as tight as 192 pounds and as loose as 176 pounds. This makes me paranoid because if the axel nut is not in the right tolerance range the bearing can go bad in under 5000 miles. I'm wondering if I went to cheap on my torque wrench. Yet I found an OTC torque wrench that was $200 and it gave the same +/- 4% variance. That leads me to believe that the more expensive wrenches are more for professional day to day use versus the DIY guy in their garage. Does anyone know about torque wrenches, did I make a mistake by not buying an expensive name brand wrench?

I apologize for the newbie questions, I don't have a lot of automotive experience but I'm fairly technical and like a good challenge. If anyone had any info to offer it would be much appreciated. Thank you!

 

[michael loibl]

Welcome to the forum...and to the fun of chasing wheel bearing noise! I agree with u on the desire for more accuracy in your torque wrench, but knowing first hand that many shops don't "torque" most fasteners helps me to come to terms with my Fisher Price grade torque wrench!
The front torque actually isn't really critical, as it does not support the bearing the way the rears do. 2WD explorers use the same front bearing with nothing filling the splines hole.
I recently replaced my wife's front driverside bearing because we were both certain that was the source of the noise. We were wrong, same exact noise til I replaced the other front the next day.
Rears are a whole nightmare I hope to never experience

 

[Mitchs07explorer]

Welcome to the forum...and to the fun of chasing wheel bearing noise! I agree with u on the desire for more accuracy in your torque wrench, but knowing first hand that many shops don't "torque" most fasteners helps me to come to terms with my Fisher Price grade torque wrench!
The front torque actually isn't really critical, as it does not support the bearing the way the rears do. 2WD explorers use the same front bearing with nothing filling the splines hole.
I recently replaced my wife's front driverside bearing because we were both certain that was the source of the noise. We were wrong, same exact noise til I replaced the other front the next day.
Rears are a whole nightmare I hope to never experience

Thanks for your input, makes me feel better about my torque wrench. It seems since I've 100k I'm chasing all kinds of problems, seems like I did one thing and then something else goes out lol. The fun of high mileage vehicles

 

[07EddyB]

Remember that as you spin those tires your brake rotor is spinning between your brake pads. And yes, the amount that your pads drag the rotor can vary between wheels.
As far as the torque wrench goes - you can only do so much. Making the effort to torque them to begin with puts you way ahead. Every torque wrench has a margin for error. When you think about it - who came up with precisely 184 foot pounds. I'm sure it was the result of some complex calculation that also allows for some tolerance. As stated before, I think the front torque is more a reflection of the nut size and thread pitchas on the shafts than the bearing itself.
In terms of chasing the noise - don't even bother until it gets obvious when you turn left or right. I've never had a catastrophic failure - you usually have months before things get real bad. Once the correct side is determined, then work on front or rear.

 

[Mitchs07explorer]

Remember that as you spin those tires your brake rotor is spinning between your brake pads. And yes, the amount that your pads drag the rotor can vary between wheels.
As far as the torque wrench goes - you can only do so much. Making the effort to torque them to begin with puts you way ahead. Every torque wrench has a margin for error. When you think about it - who came up with precisely 184 foot pounds. I'm sure it was the result of some complex calculation that also allows for some tolerance. As stated before, I think the front torque is more a reflection of the nut size and thread pitchas on the shafts than the bearing itself.
In terms of chasing the noise - don't even bother until it gets obvious when you turn left or right. I've never had a catastrophic failure - you usually have months before things get real bad. Once the correct side is determined, then work on front or rear.

Good point on the rotors and pads making the noise, that really makes the most sense. I might pull the pads off of one of the wheels to see if that's the case. I think I'm going to take your advice on waiting till the noise gets worse before I do anything on the rear (pretty sure it's rear left). At this point I'm probably the only one who can even notice the noise and that's probably because I'm the only one who drives it. Drives me nuts those because then I listen for it and then it's all I can focus on.

 

[CDW6212R]

Welcome Mitch, and I think you need a better radio. Crank it up, you won't hear any bearing noise.

I checked in here wondering about the rear suspension, difficulty to service etc.I'm considering one of the 06-10's, so I like to read from others about those problems.

 

[GeorgeH]

Remember that as you spin those tires your brake rotor is spinning between your brake pads. And yes, the amount that your pads drag the rotor can vary between wheels.
As far as the torque wrench goes - you can only do so much. Making the effort to torque them to begin with puts you way ahead. Every torque wrench has a margin for error. When you think about it - who came up with precisely 184 foot pounds. I'm sure it was the result of some complex calculation that also allows for some tolerance. As stated before, I think the front torque is more a reflection of the nut size and thread pitchas on the shafts than the bearing itself.
In terms of chasing the noise - don't even bother until it gets obvious when you turn left or right. I've never had a catastrophic failure - you usually have months before things get real bad. Once the correct side is determined, then work on front or rear.

So the way I'm reading this is - If you are not sure whether its road noise or a bearing don't worry about it. You are pretty much safe to wait until there's definitely a noise to chase. Would that be right?

 

[Mitchs07explorer]

Welcome Mitch, and I think you need a better radio. Crank it up, you won't hear any bearing noise.

I checked in here wondering about the rear suspension, difficulty to service etc.I'm considering one of the 06-10's, so I like to read from others about those problems.

From the sounds of it, most of the poorly designed things on the 02-05 models mostly got fixed for the 06-10 models. If you can, get yourself a 2010. From what I've read the 10 seems to be one of the better years to buy. I've been happy with my V6 as far as power goes but if I could do it over I'd look for a V8.

 

[07EddyB]

So the way I'm reading this is - If you are not sure whether its road noise or a bearing don't worry about it. You are pretty much safe to wait until there's definitely a noise to chase. Would that be right?

Yes. Bad part is that it slowly gets worse giving you plenty of time to get used to the increased noise. My main point was that if it is a bearing it will get louder in a turn. If it hasn't started doing that yet then it either isn't a bearing or it hasn't gotten that bad yet. That's really the only way to tell which side. Then sometimes you have to let it get louder to isolate front or back.
I knew my last bearing was going several months ago. From the vibration in the steering you would think front - let it ride until I determined it was the rear as suspected since they were still original.
It's really up to you to know your vehicle and the roads you travel and what is normal. If you have to strain to hear it in perfect conditions then turn your radio back on and just drive.