Wheel Bearing

Okay, so I go to make a run this morning and when going down the street and letting off the gas, i hear a grinding noise. I've heard this noise for a few days now and thought it was just my mud grips, this morning it became very pronounced... I went back home and jacked it up with all 4's off the ground and spun some tires, the first one I happened to spin was the front passenger and I heard the grinding, all others are good to go except for this one. I looked closer and from what I can tell without removing the tire is that it's a wheel bearing. It seems like I can hear the grinding at the top of the CV axle, but I don't know if it's just echoing from the wheel bearing. I haven't checked up and down, left and right yet to verify as I went inside to cool off from this hot, humid TX weather.

Can anyone one on here verify if it's the wheel bearing or if it could be something with the CV? Does anyone have a preferred and trusted brand of wheel bearing / hub assembly? I was going to buy Mopar, but would rather save a little bit.

Thanks in advance

CV joints usually click, not grind or growl, at least until the bitter end. Does it vary the sound on corners? In your case, it should be louder when going around a left turn/curve, as more weight will be on the outer side.

KPietriyk said:

CV joints usually click, not grind or growl, at least until the bitter end. Does it vary the sound on corners? In your case, it should be louder when going around a left turn/curve, as more weight will be on the outer side.

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I can't really hear it when going around curves because of my tires, but when turning into the driveway I can feel it and hear it. I know about the clicking from a Polaris 800 I had, but this is grinding and growl at low speeds, I'm sure it does it at all speeds, but I can only hear it at low.

I'd say it's most likely the wheel bearings then. Any autoparts store should be fine. Get premium lifetime if you can and that way you don;t have to worry about buying them again if they fail in the future.

xtremewlr said:

I'd say it's most likely the wheel bearings then. Any autoparts store should be fine. Get premium lifetime if you can and that way you don;t have to worry about buying them again if they fail in the future.

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I think I'm going to opt for Timken brand and go through Amazon for $120 instead of Autozone (which I hate!) for $200. The only thing I can find is the MasterPro brand at Oreilly and I don't like cheap stuff for this kind of thing.

I bought a pair of the lifetime warranty wheel bearings from Napa for my jeep back when I had it. The factory ones lasted 230,000 miles. These new ones lasted barely 1000 miles. Yeah they're lifetime warranty but my idea of fun isn't replacing wheel bearings once a month. Timkens should be ok. Factory is usually the best but as we all know they like to **** their customers on prices.

Timken ..made in china just like the "others"

Ramunit said:

Timken ..made in china just like the "others"

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Most everything is made in China, doesn't matter, I figured out what it was.

Well I lucked out... wasn't the bearing. Turned out to be the pad and rotor were metal to metal.

Got all your money's worth out of those pads!

KPietriyk said:

Got all your money's worth out of those pads!

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Damn near...

If you ever suspect a wheel bearing, most of the time it howls and gets louder over time. When you want to inspect it, jack up the front end and spin the tire with one hand and put the other hand on the strut spring and you should feel the vibration through the spring.

Also check for up and down play for loose bearings. Make sure don't confuse the play for ball joints since you have to load the front end to check them properly.


If you suspect a CV, typically they are known to get loose on the ends of the stub shaft and grind when in 4x4. Jack up the front, take the wheel off and work the inner CV joint up and down with a long pry bar. When they start to wear they flop around excessively