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front end grumbling noise

'97 Grand Prix Has a grumbling noise coming from the front end. The noise seems to get worse as I go faster. When I turn the wheel slightly to the left, the noise goes away until I straighten it out again. I thought it was the wheel bearing. Jacked up the front end and gave the wheels a spin, but no noise.( Maybe because there is no load on it?) Took it to a mechanic and he did the same thing and said wheel bearings were ok. Put on new front tires, still same problem. I still think it is the bearing. Any other ideas, as I would hate to throw money at something that doesn't help.

Thanks, Dave

Reply to
nospam
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How many miles? Were bearings cleaned and repacked at every brake service? The options really are two:

  1. Replace the bearings on our hunch.
  2. Ignore it till it gets worse and the shop agrees with you. GW

nospam wrote:

Reply to
Geoff Welsh

"nospam" wrote

It's probably the left front wheel bearing. You cannot do any maintenance to these bearings as they come as an assembly.... hub and bearing.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_kai

The noise seemed to be coming from the right side, but I was told the noise may actually seem like it is coming from the opposite side that you think. I will have to do some investigating on the left side.

Thanks, Dave

Reply to
nospam

"nospam" The noise seemed to be coming from the right side, but I was told the

You mentioned in your previous post that the noise "diminishes" when you turn left. This usually indicates that the left wheel bearing is the noisy bearing as you "unload" it when turning left. More of the vehicle weight is transferred to the right front wheel in a left turn.

Note: this works out about 99% of the time. I've seen it work exactly the opposite, but very rarely.

Ian

Reply to
shiden_kai

I agree completely. If you can make it change by shifting the weight of the car side to side it will be the wheel bearing. I have worn out several and I don't think any mechanic can diagnose these by turning the tire. The roughness required to make noise under load is much less than that required to be felt by hand at no load. Hope that makes sense. I like to cut them apart to see just what was wrong with them. It starts with one crater, and eventually you get a row of craters spaced at the ball spacing.

Reply to
Joe

I am getting the part tomorrow, putting it in tomorrow night.( Good thing it doesn't get too cold here in florida) I will let all know how it turns out.

Thanks all, Dave

Reply to
nospam

That was it. Put the new hub bearing in and the sound is gone. Thanks to all.

Dave

Reply to
nospam

just live with it, maybe you can take out the front brake pads and put silicon rubber behind them, but the problem will just come back. might toss your rotares up on the counter and yell "TURN"

Reply to
R F

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