Wheel Bearing trouble

Note to newbies - Your first stop with any problem should be Google Groups, use the advanced groups search to confine your search to this group.

in this case advanced search Google groups on "S series front wheel bearings" (8 results)

wheel bearing (147 results) or "wheel bearing" (216 results) or front wheel bearing (127 results) or "front wheel bearing" (32 results)

Probably left wheel bearing ??????? On level ground, set park brake and block the rear wheels. Jack up both front wheels, place in neutral, spin the wheels, feel and listen. This will work even better if you remove the brake caliper (to remove brake drag) and reinstall the wheel before spinning.

It is probably a metric nut. Use a 6 point socket and the size difference will be inconsequential.

Note caution regarding difficulty of removing and reinstalling of the bearing from the hub and also advice to make sure any shop hired to press new bearing has proper adapters to prevent applying press force through the bearing balls (or rollers).

Good luck, YMMV

You ABSOLUTELY need to buy a Haynes or Chilton manual for your car. It's $10 from any auto parts store. Not only will it tell you the size of the axle nut, it'll probably tell you how to diagnose if a wheel bearing is bad, and which one.

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]

Sounds like you have choppy tires on the rear.

My "nickle" is on the right front wheel bearing assembly

----------------- The SnoMan

I had the same problem with a 94 SC2. It got to where at high speed the whole car vibrated. On a curvy road turning left it would go away but turning to the right it got worse. It was like if the turn made me lean to the right, it was making the car lean to the right and it would take the load off the left side. It sounds like the same thing with yours. You might check it this way: After driving for a while you could reach around and feel the steering knuckle. I guarantee the bad one will be hot compared to the good one! If you want to do this job yourself, you will only be able to remove the steering knuckle, take it to a shop and have them press out the bearing set and install the new one. I paid $50 for the labor and $45 for the bearing at Autozone. But maybe you have your own hydraulic press - but ATTEMPTING to remove the bearing retaining springs was one of the most frustrating aggravating things I've EVER done on the Saturn. Removing the steering knuckle is no easy feat. Once you get that 1

3/16 bolt off, you'll have to push the shaft through the bearing assembly with a big pulley remover - first the steering knuckle will have to be disconnected from the torsion bar and the tie rod end. Of course you will have to have the car up on jack stands and multiple jacks will come in handy with the removal of the torsion bar and tie rod end. By the way... did you hit something with your front tire prior to the noise beginning to occur? I did. I smacked a curb pretty hard and I think it caused the grease seal to break, which eventually led to bearing failure. The guy that pressed out the bearing said it probably went bad because it had lost its grease seal.

You're most likely looking at the left side bearing. When turning left, most of the weight is transferred over to the right side. You will need a 30 mm socket for to take the hub nut off.

Alex