HiHoeSilver
Away!
Best to get a helper to wiggle the wheel while you're under there and get a good look at everything that's moving.
Front Wheel Bad Bearing and Hub?
- Thread starter YukonCrazy
- Start date
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Best to get a helper to wiggle the wheel while you're under there and get a good look at everything that's moving.
vibration is more likely to be the tires or possibly worn suspension, the tie rods are pretty easy to do and not expensive at all, but like mentioned above you will need a alignment immediately after doing the tie rods. I would start with the tie rods and alignment, have your tires checked out re balanced and rotated if still good tires. I wouldn't move on to the wheel hubs until you have eliminated other more common problems first.
Scottydoggs
Full Access Member
while doing 12-6, look through your wheel and watch the rotor and caliper, caliper cant move, but the rotor is bolted to the hub, so if you see the rotor moving between the pads its a hub for sure. if its that loose you'll also get a abs light in most cases.
HiHoeSilver
Away!
Everything up there is a maintenance item in my book. Especially on a truck with 175,000 on it. It's not really "throwing parts at it" as much as it is doing stuff that needs to be done anyways. Or just throw some c4 under there and call it a day.
OP
OP
YukonCrazy
Full Access Member
Wishing I had a lift at my house.
Scottydoggs
Full Access Member
dont we all, but theres nothing you cant do with out one. you just get to lay down and work lol
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OP
YukonCrazy
Full Access Member
Every so often when backing up from a parked position while turning the wheel, I hear a single click from the front end. I wonder if that is a symptom of a bad tie rod end.
I had some shuttering at highway speeds that I swore was rims/tires. After exhausting that route I just threw the kitchen sink at the front end, lower ball joints, upper control arms w/ball joints, & tie rod ends. When I did my front struts w/springs about a month ago I did the end links. I have 118k.
From Rock Auto:
$38 ea for Moog Lower Ball joints
$76 & $77 for both Moog upper control arms with ball joints
$20 ea for Moog Tie Rod ends
$5 ea for new axle nuts
I have an AWD Yukon so I couldn't get a good idea on the bearings. When I pulled it apart my passenger side bearing made noise and sounded like it was lubed with a sand based material, drivers side felt OK. I said F it because I had it pulled apart and ordered up wheel bearing/hub assemblies @ $120 each. Those were the expensive parts.
Had to have a shop do the alignment after.
Really smooth now. If you are 2WD you won't even need the 36mm socket and axle nuts for the front end and if after you determine you need wheel bearings you don't have to pull the front end all apart because you don't have a driveshaft in the way of the bolts to get the hub/bearing assembly apart. I'm in Wisconsin so my shit was rusty and it took a good few whacks with a hammer to get the old bearings/hub out, but I bet you could get them out with a slide hammer if they needed encouragement.
For the lower ball joints I read up and watched some YouTube videos and I just pulled out my grinder and ground a ton of metal off of the lip of the factory ball joints and whacked them with a hammer and they came out. I bought a $50 ball joint press on Amazon that I used with my impact to put the new ones in and it was easy as pie.
Due to mine being an 09 and seeing salty Wisconsin winters the mounting bolts for the upper control arms were seized in. I didn't have a week to try and break them loose so I ended up paying the local guy $100 to do each control arm and I got charged $50 for new mounting bolts and alignment cams, he happily installed my parts. Good thing is worse case scenario and you cannot get them out you can still drive it to the shop.
Tie rod ends are stupid easy, it will take you longer to get out your tools and install the new grease fitting end in the tie rod end and grease it up than it will to swap them out. I just figured at my mileage and having a leveling block (which in theory places more stress on the upper ball joint, right?) that I would do both if I was going to pay for an alignment and then I saw how inexpensive the lower ball joints were so I went for the gold.
Sorry, long post, go for it and replace all those worn parts, it's very straight forward and you could easily do it in an afternoon.
From Rock Auto:
$38 ea for Moog Lower Ball joints
$76 & $77 for both Moog upper control arms with ball joints
$20 ea for Moog Tie Rod ends
$5 ea for new axle nuts
I have an AWD Yukon so I couldn't get a good idea on the bearings. When I pulled it apart my passenger side bearing made noise and sounded like it was lubed with a sand based material, drivers side felt OK. I said F it because I had it pulled apart and ordered up wheel bearing/hub assemblies @ $120 each. Those were the expensive parts.
Had to have a shop do the alignment after.
Really smooth now. If you are 2WD you won't even need the 36mm socket and axle nuts for the front end and if after you determine you need wheel bearings you don't have to pull the front end all apart because you don't have a driveshaft in the way of the bolts to get the hub/bearing assembly apart. I'm in Wisconsin so my shit was rusty and it took a good few whacks with a hammer to get the old bearings/hub out, but I bet you could get them out with a slide hammer if they needed encouragement.
For the lower ball joints I read up and watched some YouTube videos and I just pulled out my grinder and ground a ton of metal off of the lip of the factory ball joints and whacked them with a hammer and they came out. I bought a $50 ball joint press on Amazon that I used with my impact to put the new ones in and it was easy as pie.
Due to mine being an 09 and seeing salty Wisconsin winters the mounting bolts for the upper control arms were seized in. I didn't have a week to try and break them loose so I ended up paying the local guy $100 to do each control arm and I got charged $50 for new mounting bolts and alignment cams, he happily installed my parts. Good thing is worse case scenario and you cannot get them out you can still drive it to the shop.
Tie rod ends are stupid easy, it will take you longer to get out your tools and install the new grease fitting end in the tie rod end and grease it up than it will to swap them out. I just figured at my mileage and having a leveling block (which in theory places more stress on the upper ball joint, right?) that I would do both if I was going to pay for an alignment and then I saw how inexpensive the lower ball joints were so I went for the gold.
Sorry, long post, go for it and replace all those worn parts, it's very straight forward and you could easily do it in an afternoon.
OP
OP
YukonCrazy
Full Access Member
Thanks for the post. Planning on replacing the tie rod ends this afternoon. Having the car jacked up with the wheel off will be a good opportunity to inspect the ball joints. Pretty sure the tie rod ends are original so they definitely need replacement.
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