There seems to be far too much road noise in my '96 Maxima. I bought four new tires just last year, but I fear the bearings are going bad. I get the same sound no matter what road surface I'm driving on - a roaring at 30 mph which turns into a distinct low-pitched howl at 35 mph and gets louder from there. If the road dips, the howling becomes louder as the suspension compresses.

All of the sound seems to be coming from the front. Is it my bearings? How much does a set of front wheel bearings and installation usually cost?

 

Sounds like your bearings.. It's sort of involved to replace the bearing on these cars. I'd expect 300 each side. Also, only change the side that's bad.

 

300 bucks a side?? how much do just the parts run? ballpark..... ive got to do shocks and i have that noise too

 

When you change them, you may have replace the entire hub. I was quoted from Courtesy parts $275 for both hubs and bearings. That was the shipped price

 

Are you going to do the job yourself? If so, it can be a real pain. The snap rings can be stuck (rusted) very tightly. It may be easier to remove the whole knuckle assembly and take it in and have the old bearings taken out, and the new bearings pressed back in. I have had wheel bearings go out at around 140K on both 4th gens. I would do both sides if you are getting up in miles.

 

I have to do this too, so I'll just pop in with a few questions: how much time does it take to get the knuckle out? I'm planning to have a shop press the new bearings in; about how much would I expect to pay, and where would I go for it? I hear Timkens are decent, so I will probably buy those from Autozone. (Have to say it: alternatively, I'd love to be up to my knuckles in four **** )

Also, Autozone hubs: any good? I don't want to risk taking the car apart and finding that the hubs are busted, so I'll get a pair before I replace the bearings and return them if I don't need them. Are the Autozone parts acceptable, or is there a better source for these?

 

Yes, definitely sounds like you have a bad wheel bearing or bearings.

A couple thoughts:

a) you don't need to replace the hubs if they aren't bad. if you have caught the bad wheel bearing early enough your hub may be fine, but if it's gone on too long, the hub will be shot.

b) the bearings themselves are about $55 last time I checked from nissan, that was like a year and a half ago though. seals of which there are two on each front hub, are like $15 each. Whether or not you need to replace the seals is debatable. If you want to you can. Obviously it will keep your wheel bearings in good shape longer, but I personally didn't bother to replace them. Mine were not in bad shape and I don't plan on having the car another 150k miles either. Hubs are like $65 from nissan.

When I did mine I pressed the bearing off and discovered the hub was bad, so I just bought a good used hub from a junk yard. $25.

Alternately if you can find a junk yard that has a decent return policy you could just replace the whole knuckle (which includes the wheel hub, bearing, etc). That's what I'm going to do next time. $50 for a knuckle and a lot less time/hassle. Will it be good for 100k or more? probably not. but if it's not making noise you're probably good to go for another 25-50k, if not more. removing the knuckle itself is not hard, though separating the ball joint and tie rod can be a pain in the butt.

what route you take really depends on your budget and/or mechanical ability, but you have a lot of options.

I had a press and plenty of drifts and experience with snap rings and using a press. Getting the bearing off was not too difficult for me. for someone without experience using a press/drift it could take a while, just a bit of a learning curve. snap rings can be a ***** if you don't know how to do them or if they're stuck/rusted, but it's not a mechanically demanding task. anyone with half a brain can get it done. might just take you a while if you don't have the right tools immediately available or if you don't know how to use them.

I've got a bad wheel bearing on the passenger side of my summer car, and I don't plan on changing out the bearing. I'm going to just swap a known good knuckle on the car and call it a day. can do that in like 30-60 minutes, pressing the bearing off, pressing new one on, making sure hub is good, ****ing around with snap rings and seals, etc would take much longer.

whatever you do, you will need to get your car aligned afterwards.

sorry for the scattered nature of this post. I was just kind of typing stream of thought here, and it's late.

 

that is a freakishly good idea that i think i am going to do. It should be cheaper than buying the whole assemblies, too: I'm pretty sure I need new hubs, because the bearings have been shot since I bought the car several thousand miles ago. All 'round new bearings + hubs = $60x2 + $30x2 = $180 for parts plus god know how much to get em pressed in. I can probably pick up two "new" uprights w/(hubs+bearings) at the yard for like $60-80 and do the labor myself, plus an alignment for $50-60. Dope. Dope as heck. Thanks for the tip.