Wheel bearing ID....? How...

[citroenxm]

Hi.. Can peoples confirm, how do you work out which wheel bearing is the one GROANING....

Should pressing car weight ONTO the offending bearing quieten it down, or lifting the weight OFF the offending bearing quieten it down??

Ive got noisy rear bearings, I changed the Off Side but its still there.. The symptoms when I turn right the noise goes.. that would tell me its the N/s... I jacked the car up and spun the wheel and the bearing was smooth (AT hand pace) but the O/s was slightly rough.. Im beginning to think both are worn, and the N/s still needs changing too...

I did use a GOOD second hand bearing by the way incase you ask.

Paul

[RichardW]

Conventional wisdom used to say that unloading a bearing (ie the inside one) quietened it down. Modern bearings don't seem to obey this though and can be noisy the opposite way round (ie when loaded) - or just noisy all the time! Sounds like you need todo the other side as well - check though that the rear tyres are not at fault - they can develop a stepped wear pattern on the inside edge that makes a noise like a wheel bearing - run your hand over the tread backwards and you will feel the steps.

[citroenxm]

Ah yes. The dreadded tyre wear.. My brother had this on one of his astras.. He had my change his rear hubs for two brand new ones and to his horror the noise was still there.. It was then he learnt it was his tyres... The tyres are showing no sign of wear just yet... Mind you.. Probably worh chucking a wheel on to see if it is bearing.. But at 197k I guess it could be...

Paul

[CitroJim]

Those bearings aren't really supposed to be reused Paul. Normally one inner race gets left behind on the stub axle and this invariably damages the bearing. You may have inadvertently compounded your issues by using a second-hand bearing.

If you can feel any roughness at all when spinning the hub by hand - with disc pads well clear - then the bearing is suspect.

[citroenxm]

Thats just it... They Do feel smooth when rotated hence passing her recent mot..

So.. The answer is...... Noise With weight ON them.. Or when OFF them???

Paul

[addo]

For a bearing to feel rough under rotation by hand, it is going to be massively brinelled. A worn bearing will make noise under load as the rollers walk slightly in their increased race clearance. However it may well still "feel smooth".

I'm presuming you used one of those thin edged pullers to free the race rear part off the donor stub. If you repacked the unit with grease and there is no axial play or wiggle possible, then you should be good until it fails - a long time in the future... Your customer can't have it both ways; if he wants it perfect he should pay you for a new set of bearings. If he wants it fixed durably for less, then it sounds like you have definitely done the right thing.

[xmexclusive]

Wear and rolling track break up are very different.
The MOT check only really looks for slack in the bearing.
This is usually caused by long term usage and wear.
Noise mainly comes from track break up.
Fine surface cracking (RCF) of the outer track groove is common in well used bearings.
The very fine steel flakes typically clear leaving a slight roughness to the running surface.
Noise levels depend largely on the number and position of the pits.
Pits are so small that they make little difference to the bearing play and so will generally pass the MOT.
Pits at the centre of the tracks will cause a general rumble.
Pits to the edges of the tracks will be noisey when loaded on curving.
In this case each bearing has two track sides that can pit and each track side will need a different hand curve to generate noise.
This apparent noise position transfer can occasionally pin point the wrong bearing.
I tend to live with a noisey bearing but check regularly for bearing slackness and rotation roughness of both wheels.

John

[CitroJim]

Xac and I swapped a rear wheel bearing on Cassy today. Then old bearing was just a little rough to turn and when it came off all the grease had dried and hardened...

[vince]

Paul, logic dictates that its noisy with weight on, or it would be quiet in normal operation : ) The easiest way i have found to check which side its coming from is to find a narrow road with walls each side (under a bridge for example) and drive down dropping each rear side window in turn. One will sound louder. Failing that, if you turn right and it gets noisier then its the rear left bearing and vice versa. Definately not a front is it?

One daft thing to note is i had a suspected rear bearing noise which turned out to be a bent brake backplate...it was only bend at the bottom edge (not sure how that happened) but it was rubbing when driving which sounded like a bearing. The new backplate from Citroen was £12 i think from memory....i know it was cheap

[citroenxm]

Did you use another second hand bearing or a new one?? New ones arent actually that bad to do.. if the back plate is out the way you can actually get at the inner race from behind with a chisel and bang it off...

The Off side bearing on my exclusive was rather - um, dry to say the least...

I did rear break pads and a front drop link on the W reg HDi taxi, which turns out from its RP number to be OLDER then my V reg Exclusive... My exclusive was a March 1999 model, were as the W reg Taxi is a Jan 1999 car! So some where between Jan and march they changed the roll bars...

Paul

Hi Vince.. Ah ha ! A STRAIGHT to the point answer.. thanks.. confirms my ideas then.. ~No its defenaetly NOT the back plate..

Paul

[CitroJim]

Used a new one Paul. What's your secret to reusing second-hand ones? Do you recover the stuck inner race and just reassemble the bearing with some new grease?

[citroenxm]

On MY OWN, and I stress my OWN car, yes, remove the hub, which useually comes off complete minus the inner race, examine the race thats left on the stub, which is useually in OK order, pack full the replacment with pleanty of grease both sides.. and reassemble...

Any customer car, now the price of NEW ones are down to 40 quid Delivered, a new one will be fitted.

Paul