Rain_man

I'm hearing some really loud whirring noises (sounds like road noise) when I drive my car, so I'm worried I might have bad wheel bearings or something is up with the axle. Maybe the Intermediate shaft bearing is bad?

The reason I ask is because I recently swapped trannies, and replaced my old axles and internmediate shafts with another set of used ones. Also, is it possible that when they were popping out the axle that they damaged the wheel bearings?

GSRedline

Jack up the side thats making the noise and give the wheel a good spin. Or you can even start the car up with the one wheel off the ground and give it a little gas, but dont do it if you have a limited slip., you'll hear a definite scratching sound if your bearings are bad. Kinda sounds like there's dirt in the bearings and its scratching loudly.

Mr. Choi

hey.
you no those trucks when they pass down the road and their tire makes that weird, i dont no, sound, i guess something like uneven tire treads pounding on the surface of the road, thats what a bad bearing could sound liike, umm axles.... i dont no how to explaing it but it can be similar to the bearing noise, not much help but its something.

Rain_man

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I think I will try that this weekend.

ChoisVTEC, I do get that sound that trucks make when they pass down the road, sounds like wha, wha, wha, wha.

At how many miles do bearings go bad? I have 92k on my car...

Mr. Choi

hey Ein, yea that wha wha wha or whoa whoa whoa, kinda sound is what i ment, i dont really no how to type it out, but i think its something like what you described. bearings on a car go bad depending on the driver, driving conditions, all that crap, there is no set point on when it gives, like my car, 89 toyota camry ( slow POS but nice) had one bearing go bad after 126000 miles. it all depends on the situation and condition.

GSRedline

92k sounds about right Ein. On the GSR the bearings went at 77k and my old Si went at 85k. Its most likely your bearings. Do the wheel spin test its the same way shops diagnose bad bearings. If you can keep me updated, Goodluck!

Rain_man

Dang, that's it? Only 80-90k? I woulda thought they lasted longer. Did you guys change your bearings yourself? I looked in the service manual and it seems to require alot of special tools. Is it possible to do it without these tools? Or could I just take it to a machine shop to have pressed out and pressed back in.

I really would like to just do it myself since I'm sure the mechanic would rape me to do it... the bearings alone are like 150 right? While I'm at it, maybe I should replace the intermediate shaft bearing so that'll save me disassembling one additional time.

Plus I get to learn how to pop out the axles, yay!

Thanks again for all the help guys!

Mr. Choi

hey Ein,
its really not that hard to replace the bearing if you no what youre doin, the bearing on my camry i took off everything myself and took the hub to a mechanic to have the bearing pressed out with a hydralic press. then my teacher at school needed his replaced and since we had the press in the class, i had it pressed out and replaced with new ones in about 1 hour. its really not that hard to replace it if you have some tools, like a small tool box and a big breaker bar. jus remember where everything goes so you wont have extra parts left over.