2002 Cavalier front loud growling noise - Maintenance and Repair Forum

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2002 Cavalier front loud growling noise
Friday, November 20, 2015 9:08 AM
Hi all,

I just picked up a winter car. It's a 2002 Cavalier base model. When you accelerate, it has a very loud growling sound coming from the front. It's almost the noise/feeling you would get on a lifted Jeep with big beefy offroad tires.

Aside from that, the car actually drives like a new car. No other weird noises or anything. Some rust and dents, but nothing major.

I was trying to do some hard cornering last night in my subdivision. Seems like it goes away when you get it into a curve on one side.

I'm suspecting the hub/bearings are bad.

Just wanted to confirm this before throwing a ton of money at it.

Re: 2002 Cavalier front loud growling noise
Friday, November 20, 2015 10:43 AM
Based on your description (without hearing it myself) I think a bad bearing is likely. Please see the following thread that I created about diagnosing and replacing a bearing. It may help.

http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=11&i=166271&t=166271#166271
Re: 2002 Cavalier front loud growling noise
Friday, November 20, 2015 9:56 PM
Mine did the same. Wheel/hub bearring. If ur doing the work urself, make sure u torque the bolts to spec and clean everything up from dirt and rust to prevent premature wear. General rule of thumb to replace both sides cause chances are the other isn't far behind


ReD RaiN
Re: 2002 Cavalier front loud growling noise
Saturday, November 21, 2015 3:00 PM
I replaced both front bearings last January, and now only about 2,500 miles later one of them is already bad.
The replacements were cheapies.
I guess I'll go with the Timkens unless anyone has a better idea.

Grrr.
Re: 2002 Cavalier front loud growling noise
Saturday, November 21, 2015 10:32 PM
These cars are notorious for bad wheel bearrings. I've had to replace several myself in a short time


ReD RaiN
Re: 2002 Cavalier front loud growling noise
Monday, November 23, 2015 11:30 AM
Per my post and link above, I used a Timken 513017k ($55 on Amazon). It's lasted 25k miles so far. Timken is supposedly among the better bearings, and maybe the best.
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