kurtwz

Does anyone know where to find info on how to replace the front wheel bearings? I have a clunk in the suspension and suspect it could be caused by loose bearings. I’m looking for a write-up on how to replace them and diagrams of how the parts fit together. Any info on where I could get that would be appreciated! (I searched! ;-) )

CLKCLK

The front is very easy! Just do it! There are some vids on YouTube on diff class but they are very much the same. The rear is more difficult that may require a press.
Good luck!

kurtwz

Hmm, I appreciate the confidence, but I'm not quite as confident in my ability to just set out and do it. :-P I need to have a pretty good understanding of the mechanics before I ever start the job. Also, I need to see how the pieces fit together before I'll know if this is even causing my problem. Got a link for the vids? Thanks!

CLKCLK

kurtwz

Holy crap that's easy! Thanks!

E55Greasemonkey

Jack up the front of the car until the tire(s) are off the ground, grab the top and bottom of the tire with your hands and try to move/rock it vertically. If it doesn't move or feel loose your bearing is not the noise. I have never seen a front wheel bearing cause a knocking sound. I would look elsewhere...Check your lower ball joints for excessive play, torque strut bushings and sway bar first.

kurtwz

Yeah it's not that loose. What do you mean to "torque strut bushings?" Is that on the bottom of the struts or the tops? Thanks

E55Greasemonkey

Those are the lower arms that run at an angle from the lower ball joint area to the front of the subframe. Can you make the noise occur by bouncing the front of the car up and down? You may need 2 people. If so you can try and listen for the noise that way, or crawl underneath the front while someone is bouncing it and put your hand on different parts of the suspension to see if you can feel where the clunk is coming from. I saw your other post, and I have seen a few of the Arnott struts making noise after we replaced them.

S13REMI

be a man and replace the bearing with a zero drag ceramic bearing instead!! only down side is they are big moneys! but i guess they make a huge difference. they are really popular on race cars. if under some crazy chance you actually do let me know, since this is the route i plan on taking once the time comes.

edit: on a side note id shake the front end down first with a friend see if you can replicate the sound. a clunk is more likely to be a ball joint as a opposed to a bearing. bearings will give you a growling/grinding noise. progressivly getting lowder as they get worse, to the point it sound like a jet is taking off in your car. just my .02

kurtwz

Thanks for the tips. Checked things out very closely today. Like the mechanic I took it to, I couldn't find a single loose part or a single worn part other than the bearings, which actually are pretty worn. No amount of prying, pressing could make anything move. I looked very closely at the sway bar bushings. They visually appear to be in good shape.

Made the call that I'm guessing it's the bearings. I tried tightening the nut that locks it in position and that didn't take the play out of it. To test bearings for sound I lifted front of car up a few inches and rammed my knees into the side of the tire. It produced a sound similar to the one i'm hearing (albeit much quieter, of course).

I ordered Beck 051-4216, which includes inner and outer bearings and races + seal. $72 delivered from AutoPartsNetwork.com.

Sorry to be a DRAG, but there's no such thing as zero drag bearings :-P Or zero drag anything! And sorry for the terrible TERRIBLE pun (no i'm not!). Sorry, homes. Can't afford extra fancy bearings right now. Just curious why anyone would upgrade their car with that component, tho. It's so close to zero drag anyway that in the scheme of total power loss you'd be making the car fractions of a ten thousanth of a percent more efficient. Must be some other benefit, right?

I fully accept I could've made the wrong determination here and i know what you're saying about the howl/grinding noise. i Can't deny the fact, tho, that the bearings are way looser than they should be and they make a clunk sound similar to the one i hear when driving. Hoping I made the right call--for once!

kurtwz

OMG I am NOT having good luck with the parts/tools I'm ordering for this. DO NOT get the Beck 051-4216 part above for this. It's wrong. the only thing that appears correctt about it is the outer bearing. I will say, tho, it seems like a nice kit, so you may want to consider Beck in general.

I see now that the company that makes the supercharger pulley bearing is the same company that makes these bearings. Here are the numbers:

Outer: NTN ETA-LM12710-2 JAPAN HN
Inner: NTN ET 32008XPX | OV6 JAPAN HL