Hey guys, just the other day I noticed a thudding/low thunder type of noise from my front-right wheel. I'm going to go out and say that it's a wheel bearing, but I was just curious to see what you all might think. By the way, the thudding seems like the wheel is loose and kind of wobbling. Thanks.

 

It's possible.

Have you jacked it up and felt for play in the bearing?

 

u can jack it up and let the wheel roll and actually see how bad the wobbling is, but most likely it is the bearing, sometimes its better to go out and buy a used spindle rather than trying to repack the bearing

 

I'm going to do that today, but I'm hoping that's all it is.

 

You can also find a straight section of road/empty parking lot and turn left and right and back again. If the bearing is bad, you will notice the sound get louder when you load the wheel (left hand turn for the front right wheel) and the sound will get softer or disappear completely when the wheel is not loaded. That how I diagnosed my wheel bearing. The turns don't have to be sharp, you just want to shift the weight of the car on to then off of the wheel in question.

 

Also, try rotating the tires to rule out the wheel bearing. Old/cheap tires will start making noises as they wear-down.

When my wheel bearings went bad, I could only hear them with the car moving. There was no play and no noise. This is not the easiest DIY project, but it's doable. Either spend 150 dollars roughly for a wheel bearing press at your local harbor freight or the like, OR call around some machine shops and check how much it would be for them to press the bearing out. It does require a relatively decent amount of know-how to get the steering knuckle off. FWIW, I thought this job was tougher then replacing belts, radiator, alternator, calipers, and shocks.