Wheel bearing problem - ZX

sooty · Post by **sooty** » 22 Feb 2005, 04:27

Is there any is easy way to define which wheel bearing is causing a noise. I've got a wheel bearing starting to fail, but at present I can't tell which one it is. All I know that is, if I go round a left hand bend the noise is quiet and a right hand bend its there, but it sounds from the front and cannot point to the l/h or r/h. I've checked for play when jacked up and if one hub is warmer than the other after a run, but nothing.
Where these front bearings are expensive and work involved to replace them and I have to do some long distance journeys shortly, I want to replace the bearing now before it fails on the future trips.
Any tips????

mrbump · Post by **mrbump** » 22 Feb 2005, 04:43

Its very hard to tell which one it is especially if there is no play. Usually the knackered one will be noisier when you are leaning on it, but not always the case unfortunately! Its quite a job changing the front ones and is certainly easier to just find a good hub/steering knuckle whatever you want to call it and change it complete. One of these from a breakers will be about the same price as a new bearing. Garage should charge around £65 to change a bearing.
If youre going to go for it, I would suggest trying everything you can to pinpoint which side it is and just keep your fingers crossed. Maybe try loosening and then tightening the hub nut on each side to see if it makes the noise change?

Mosser · Post by **Mosser** » 22 Feb 2005, 04:48

IF it was me, i would just wait a few more weeks/months until it got worse, then you should be able to tell using the jack and wobble technique

Dave Bamber · Post by **Dave Bamber** » 22 Feb 2005, 04:51

I've the same problem with the 205 which has a similar suspension to the ZX, when I turn left the noise increases, pointing to the OSF wheel. I've yet to investigate further but my money is on the OSF.

Wookey · Post by **Wookey** » 22 Feb 2005, 06:13

In my experience wheel bearings don't fail suddenly - they just get steadily noisier and noisier until you can't stand it any longer. So the advice to wait until you are sure is good (unless 'long journeys' means more than 2000 miles). As everyone observes getting them out is a pain (although I've never done it on a ZX). The problem with getting a scrapper hub is that you don't know how long it's got left in it. Change it for a new one and you should get at least 50,000 out of it unless there is some other problem.

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 22 Feb 2005, 18:39

Another way is to obtain some scrapper hubs and get new bearings fitted to them, then its just a simple job of swapping them over, to change the bearings you will need a fly press or similar and some mandrels etc.
Stewart