Levsimus

iTrader: (1)

Edit: more searching, I found a post in another thread that appears to confirm that non-ABS and ABS axles only differ in whether they come with a ring or not, but that the housings are otherwise the same, so I'm good there unless otherwise noted! Phew, thats one of my concern gone. To clarify, I removed a bunch from this post, but the cliffs notes on what I removed is that I swapped to non ABS knuckles because I couldn't find any ABS knuckles. Retained my original ABS driveshafts, sans tone rings.

This was originally about the axles, but I thought of another thing mid post, so now its a double header. As usual, I ramble in my posts, I apologize.

I replaced my front wheel bearings in a pair, though I did one OEM and one aftermarket because I got cut off on my sweet sweet parts discount before I was able to finish ordering the last of my OEM parts.

I've got a buttload of bearing noise now, and I can't say for sure which side it might be on, since I replaced both bearings and it sure sounds like its coming from everywhere. More of a groan than what I've experienced with wheel bearings in the past that is 100% speed dependent, clutch in or out, any gear. I rotated and balanced the tires, no change. Everything about it still makes me lean toward wheel bearing, I'm just having a hard time saying the bearing/bearings went bad so fast. The noise didn't start immediately, I drove a couple thousand miles before I started getting noise. The absolute silence that comes with new bearings was bliss for as long as it lasted, though.


I followed FSM procedures to the T, I've done many wheel bearings on late model cars, no big deal. The thing I found MOST odd was the bearing design had a plastic ring holding the roller bearings in on both sides. They weren't a complete cover though, so there was a slot around the outer race that appeared to be a great way to stuff grease in there, but the FSM did not at all specify greasing the bearing - this seemed strange but at the same time, given that handy open area giving ready access to the rollers. It certainly LOOKS like a sealed bearing for the most part.

Hell, maybe I ****ed that up by not packing the bearings. I checked several times to make sure I wasn't missing a step, but it definitely didn't say to pack them or do anything with them, just press out, press in, the usual stuff.

Anyways, this noise prompted me to get on replacing my mounts - I can't be sure its not because my front mount rubber (unsure about the others, I haven't had a lot of time to deal with getting the car in the air and inspecting it, so I'll do them all) is collapsed and allowing a ton of play in the drivetrain as the motor flops all over the place, thereby maybe killing either the support shaft bearing on the passenger axle, or the output bearings on the differential instead. Its hard to isolate the noise to one side or another with 100% certainty to say it is or isn't the new bearings.

Can I rule out the axles being the source of any wheel bearing issue as far as being incompatible? I haven't been able to really find a clear answer on this aside from a post on an old thread. I don't want to buy new axles, so I'm really hoping I'm in the clear here. I'm also REALLY hoping I didn't retard my way through doing the wheel bearings and miss a step somehow by not packing them. I even had someone else look over the procedures and they agreed it didn't say anything!

James92SE

iTrader: (31)

Axles are definitely positively the same other than the ABS ring.

I'm not sure if you are necessarily expected to, as almost all modern wheel bearings come with grease already - but when I re-did my front wheel hubs and bearings about 5 years ago, I literally gutted both brand new bearings, took every single ball bearing out and cleaned it off and wiped the races totally clean with clean blue shop towels. Then I packed it myself with fresh new grease when putting it back together.

The reason I did this is because the bearings seemingly only had one little droplet of grease in them when I got them and I wanted to take no chances. Since I had no idea what type of grease it was in there I cleaned it all out and started out completely fresh. I'm glad now that I did that. Lots of comments online seemed to refute what I did because yes technically they came pre-greased but it was seriously a way-too-little amount of it in my opinion.

Levsimus

iTrader: (1)

So I wasn't crazy when I thought it seemed like it lacked lube. Well shoot. I guess it couldn't have hurt to do it, but great to hear someone else wondering. Thanks for the input, man.

I thought more on it too, we had some nasty weather with some flooding of roadways. Maybe I got water in the bearings, driving through the reasonable curb depth stuff.

seems a little quick for them to go bad but not impossible, I guess. It's been about 6 months. Won't know for sure until I get that mount swapped, see if it changes the noise.

James92SE

iTrader: (31)

If you re-do them, I wouldn't bother trying to source OEM bearings. Timken or SKF will do just fine - those brands have both long been aftermarket gold standard bearings.

I used Timken on mine (#510009)

Levsimus

iTrader: (1)

I want to say I went Timken, but I'm not 100% sure. I can't remember, but I've heard the same thing from others, so you no doubt speak the truth!

The good news is I got that front motor mount installed (I got laid off yesterday, on my birthday no less, so I can't afford to swing for the other mounts, this one was by far the worst one though.) and I realized the engine was still sitting funky. I got to looking, the goddamn transmission mount coming off the transmission to the left rail was missing one of the bolts that attach the plate to the case, the other bolt was almost completely backed out. No ****ing wonder it was shifting around in the bay so much!

Replaced the bolt with a random zinc coated grade 8 I had laying around, tightened the other, and wow, between that and the new mount it shifts like a brand new car and the engine doesn't flop all over the place when I engage/disengage the clutch, give it gas, etc.

The bad news is it didn't fix my noise, but it did help REDUCE the noise, rather make it more.... specific. I think I've narrowed it down to the left side/center, which means either a bad A/M wheel bearing (the OEM went in the RF) or the side loading of the engine moving around and sitting at a bad angle for so long killed something in the transaxle. Differential or output shaft bearings, maybe?

Not entirely sure myself, I will need to research the diagnosis process for the suspected transmission issues before I can rule it out as the source of the sound. Upon reflection, I should check my tranny oil level too, maybe its gone low enough to start eating itself, but it was great a few months ago when I checked, and while it leaks all over, doesn't leave more than maybe a single drip overnight at WORST.