I have a 02 VW GTI with 80,000 miles and there is quite a lot of noise while driving. I replaced the tires and unfortunately, the noise has slowly gotten worse. I was told by the dealer the the wheel bearings and struts need to be replaced. Is there a test that I can do to confirm their assumption? Also, if the bearings and the struts need to be replaced, can I replace one or both myself? If so, how?
I wonder if the tire dealer used a hammer to loosen the wheels. I take a wheel puller with me now if I get tires installed.
For a front wheel bearing, the noise will usually change significantly as you steer left or right.
Rear bearings are significantly easier than front bearings. I suspect you will need help with struts or front bearings.
In changing rears, I got new brake pads and disks (which the bearing needs to be pressed into). It would have been efficient to have the pressing pre-done by the place where I bought the bearings and disks. You could consider the same for drums.
If the noise is the same regardless of rotating or replacing the tires and the noise is the same both in gear and in neutral, yeah it's probably the wheel bearings.
Bad struts are identified by one of two things...push down hard on each front corner of the car and get it rocking. When you let go, the car should come up and more or less stop very quickly, maybe with a slight bounce at the top of the travel but pretty much that's it. if it bounces more or longer, they're done. Also if they're visibly leaking anything, they're done. Same goes for shocks. You can replace shocks yourself. It's mostly a matter of unbolting the old and bolting in the new, however a spring compressor might be needed. That, plus you should get it realigned afterwards. All in all it's a bit of a pain for the DIYer unless you really have serious tools because the torque on the bolts can be pretty high.
honestly, as much as I'll DIY some stuff on a car, wheel bearings and struts are IMHO a little more trouble than they're worth and i'd just as soon pay someone else to do those types of items.
On an '02, the bearing is actually pressed in between the hub and spindle. The hub has to be removed with a suitable puller, and the bearing(s) have to be pressed out/in using a hydraulic press.
I dont hear or feel a difference when I turn the car left or right. Should I hear or feel one? Also, how do I know if I have to replace one wheel bearing or all of them?
Matt B. wrote:
On my Rabbit I have to turn hard to hear a difference. When the bearing unloads it get quiet. For my car I had a bad right rear so if I made a hard right trun it would get quiet. Of course I guessed front bearings when it was rear. You have to get a good bit of load off to guess. At least I did. Not just gentle turns to the left or right. A huge mall aprking lot late at night or early on a Sunday. Or a megachurch parking lot during the day makes for good testing grounds. My 2003 Jetta wagon has 160,000 miles on basically smooth roads and no signs of bearing problems. It is one bearing set per corner. My theory is if one corner is bad then both might as well be replaced. But I use that theory when a car is 10-20 years old and the bearings have over
200,000 miles >I dont hear or feel a difference when I turn the car left or right. Should I
I think that detecting the difference for a front would require less of a turn than for a rear.
I know people say it's worse in one direction vs. another but I myself have not experienced that. Maybe it's because it's only that clear when they're really bad/noisy? However I've always heard mine as "noisy" when they were barely more than the equivalent of the level of tire/road noise...it wasn't loud...just a humming or "rrrrrrrrrrrr...." noise that I knew wasn't normal. So i was never able to do the turn left or right test and get a noticeable result.
If you aren't doing the work yourself, just take it to your trusted (hopefully) mechanic and tell him that there's a noise and let him worry about it. If you've never had them replaced, chances are that if one is failing the other isn't all that far behind and you might as well replace both and be done with it.
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