Ok...so I have been dealing with some wheel bearing issues on my '97 Z24. I have replaced the FR and FL sides 3 times before the 3rd one finally worked. I used NAPA "lower grade" bearings and they seem to be failing instantly, I can here the hum almost before I leave my driveway.
The FR is now holding in there and the FL was just replaced yesterday with NAPAs premium bearing and guess what....same thing. I am driving myself nuts with this! It's only a wheel bearing and shouldn't be this tough lol
Here is what I did, pulled the wheel, caliper, rotor, 3 hub bolts, 1 axle nut, and took off the hub assem. Then reversed the order and put it all back together. caliper bolts were torqed to 45#, hub bolts=90#, spindle nut=a good bounce or two past 160# My wrench stops at 160
I am still hearing a bad bearing sound coming from the FL wheel, hums when going straight or left and goes away when turning right. If ANYONE can give me any kind of insight on what the heck is going on I would appericate it.
A bad wheel isn't going to take this ride down 220,000mi and going strong, well kind of!
I hear man. Ive had bad luck with wheel bearings as well. I just did my second set of front wheel bearings I started with timkin wheel bearings for the first time. Now I am getting hum or howel sound. I think its like a crap shoot, You get a good set then, You get crap shoot. Ive done few to many wheel bearings one day I will get the right set. I might try stockers if be. Just the $$$$$ is what hurts the pocket book.
Good Luck.
Check the torque specs on teh axle nut. I dont think they are that high. Seems to me you migh tbe damaging the bearing with high high you are torqueing it.
EvoFire wrote:Check the torque specs on teh axle nut. I dont think they are that high. Seems to me you migh tbe damaging the bearing with high high you are torqueing it.
i did just that on my 99 Z when i had it. next set i did right and no problems.
My car was made with wrenches, Not chopsticks.
Might want to look into your axle.Mine made a noise i thought was a wheel bearing on the drivers front,but it turns out the bearing was fine,but my inner cv joint was going out causing noise at highway speeds.It even made noise at lower speeds and turning the wheel.
I haven't checked the torq specs my self but I got 185# from 2 garages, a dealership, and a toyota tech at atuozone (he builds Z24's lol).
Blue02Z - So what was the give away that is was a cv? My boots and everything look fine and I hear no clicking. All I hear is a hum at low speed, it's there when at freeway speeds but not as loud. At any speed the sound goes away when the sheering wheel is turned any amount to the right, as soon as I go past 12 o'clock...quiet. Did you bad CV cause your bearing to go bad or was it just cv noise?
Thanks guys!
Yeah,that's what had me fooled on mine,if id turn the wheel to the left it would make less noise,if i turned to the right it would lessen the noise to,but i would hear it going slow and at highway speeds.So i thought it was a bearing going out.
After i replaced both front wheel bearings,i kinda just narrowed it down,it was the factory shaft and the car at that time had 170,xxx on it,so i figured change the shaft,it turns out the inner cv joint was wore out.But the boots and everything looked fine,so if you have alot of miles on your cv shaft,might look into replacing it.
