I am so ****ed. I had been having a humming noise from the left front for a while, and since the car was just under 60K miles, the dealer 'supposedly' replaced the left front wheel bearing.. The noise was still there, and they said it must be the tires... I drove it like that for a month or so, and finally decided to check things myself. I pulled off the wheel, caliper and bracket, and rotor. I can grab the hub and wiggle it around quite a bit... If I am not mistaken, there is not supposed to be ANY play there... Unbelievable. I can not imagine how this could have new wheel bearings in it, or else the moron tech didn't put it together right or something... Am I correct in assuming that there is supposed to be NO play in the hub assembly at all? I am taking it back next week to the dealer, but I just can't believe how bad they are.....

 

sounds like it could be the tie rod. Tell them to align it, and when they realize they can't, they'll figure out that something is defective.

 

If they replaced the bearing with a new one, then maybe the hub is bad?

 

Are you pulling on the top and bottom of the rotor, or the left and right sides of the rotor? There might be a little play from left to right... maybe some minute slop in the balljoints, steering rack, etc. But if there's ANY slop when tugging on the top and bottom of the rotor, then the wheel bearing is probably going. I can't imagine the hub itself going unless it was defective from the factory. Not like it's a wear part.

Anyway, good luck.

Ciao,
TOM

 

I removed everything (caliper, bracket and rotor). I can grab the hub itself with my hand and wiggle it all around, a LOT! It looks to me like the inner wheel bearing is disintegrated... The steering knuckle itself is tight, so I know it's not the ball joint or tie rod.. When I put it back together, I could grab the tire at 12 and 6 o'clock and move it in and out a good 3/4 inch or so. Unreal... If they truly did replace the wheel bearings (I have my doubts), maybe they only changed the outer one and not the inner one, that's all that I can think of... But that would be dumb, I would think you should change both at the same time... It goes back to the morons on Thursday, I told them I am not a happy camper. If it was not under warranty, my car would not go near that place.... Just wanted to vent a little.....

 

That's crappy. 3/4" of play is a huge amount, I can only imagine the kind of noise that was making as you drove! When my wheel bearing went, it made a god-awful howling sound for a day or two before I could get it replaced. And I only had a max. 1/4" of play at the 12 and 6 o'clock.

Hope they fix it THIS time.
TOM