testing wheel hub bearing

**flying brick** · Wednesday 30th July 2008, 18:24

thanks everybody for their input on yesterdays question .do any of you know if there is a way to test the bearings for wear?

**Tomcat** · Wednesday 30th July 2008, 18:33

The old method was to jack the car up, grab the wheel and try moving the wheel, if you can feel slight movement then there's play in the bearing, not sure if this is still applicable or the best way to check though..

**Jod T5** · Wednesday 30th July 2008, 18:52

Originally Posted by Tomcat

The old method was to jack the car up, grab the wheel and try moving the wheel, if you can feel slight movement then there's play in the bearing, not sure if this is still applicable or the best way to check though..

Yes this is the tested method, tho with hub bearings the feel is more difficult to gauge..IMO.....Hub bearings in my experience also tend to whine......
Cheers
Jod

**Tomcat** · Wednesday 30th July 2008, 20:23

I have a feeling one of mine is on it's last legs, it's ok most of the time but if I turn hard I can hear the disc scraping on the pads.

**nobananas** · Wednesday 30th July 2008, 20:32

If you've got a bit of front wheel bearing noise but are having trouble pinpointing which wheel what you can do is (WARNING this is can be dangerous !) jack up the front of the car and support securely on stands. Handbrake on start the car, slip it into gear and bring up the clutch, the wheels will obviously start spinning. Run it up to whatever speed feels safe (50mph should suffice) then out of gear and engine off. The wheels will keep spinning and hopefully you should be able to hear the bearing whine as the speed decreases and work out which side is at fault. You may pop up an ABS light as the system will get confused but it should hopefully reset after a short drive. Wheelbearing noise whilst driving normally follows that if it's louder turning left then a right hand bearing is at fault (the weight shifting increases the loading on that side) and vice versa for the other side.

**ged** · Wednesday 30th July 2008, 20:48

i had a problem with wheel bearing whine for some time but no matter how many times i jacked it up and checked it there was no play in the wheel.as this is the way i have checked wheel bearings form day dot i was unsure if there was another problem causing the whining.eventually i just changed the suspect bearing hub and all is well.
it cost £103 inc vat from euro car parts and i had to buy the bolts from volvo [4@£1 each.]it wasnt too hard a job but i did have to grind out the old bolts from the hub carrier.mines a T plate c70.

(WARNING this is can be dangerous !)

ill second that.