EcivicG

so i have a 93 ej2 coupe, don't think most of the mods really have anything to do with my problem but here they are.

the car is lowered eibach coils, but not sure on the dampers. they came with the car, and they're mostly red, with gold on the sleeves.

motor wise it an essentially stock d15b7 w/ a shortram ghetto intake, noname header, and custom catback with an apex muffler. all pos mods that were already on the car.

after a while i noticed the clicking coming from my cv boots. checked out my axles and both boots were ripped. didn't have a job at the time, and rolled on em with the boots torn, then replaced both.

lets get to the point. when i turn the car on everything idles fine, nothing wrong motor wise, or when i rev it a little to check for noises, but when i start driving i hear like a deep humming noise. it'll be repetitive like a click click click but in a humming sound. kinda hard to describe. so as im driving ill press the clutch to see if its the motor and it goes straight to idle, with no change in the sound as im moving. i thought it was an out of balance tire but the car drives fine and doesn't bounce around like a tire blister or something would..

real noticeable when driving slow speeds and as i go faster say 30-45 the noise gets quicker from like a hum..hum..hum to a humhumhum as i go faster and faster until i hit around 65-70 then i can't really hear it anymore.

also everyone in a while while im driving i think i hear a metal on metal contact and like a scraping noise.

im not sure what the ploblem is, maybe a wheel bearing, or a suspension bushing, or motor mount?

does anyone may have some input that i haven't thought of or maybe had some actual experience with this problem before?

thanks for the input. and sorry for the long post.

trustdestruction

Sounds like a wheel bearing. And, driving around with the ripped boot supports my theory.

EcivicG

why does driving on the ripped boot support it? sorry, just trying to learn from experience.

i thought driving on a ripped boot was the bearings having no grease and when turning the bearings having metal to metal contact causing the "clicking" noise.

how hard are wheel bearings to replace, and how can you tell what a worn/damaged one looks like?

trustdestruction

The clicking is the CV joints clicking. The humming is a bad wheel bearing.

Not sure about the answers to your other questions.

EcivicG

i know the clicking are bad cv boots, or to the point of bad bearings, i was jsut asking why driving on bad cv's could support a bad wheel bearing.

i replaced both axles already, and the humming started a couple days before i replaced them.

anyone else have input on how to tell a bad wheel bearing from a good one. and distinctive wear on it?

trustdestruction

wait, which boots were ripped? the outer ones?

EcivicG

outers. the ones right by the hubs

trustdestruction

then your bearing could have lost too much grease and gone bad

EcivicG

i replaced both entire exle assembly's though, i didn't just replace the boot and apply new grease.

trustdestruction

the bearing is in the hub

EcivicG

sorry thats what figured but the way you said it made me think different for some reason..

why would the bearing loose grease? considering there's just grease inside the boot to keep the bearings nice and lubed up for when your turning and is sealed, im sure this is probably the case with my car, im just trying to figure out what happened for future reference.

trustdestruction

when you ripped the boot the grease that was being held inside the boot came out while driving and the bearing went out from lack of lubrication

EcivicG

bump

instructor74

Wow hold on there the cv boot has nothing to do with holding grease in the wheel bearing. all the boots do is keep the grease inside the cv joint. The wheel bearing is a sealed unit from the factory. Before I would go replacing wheel bearings I would lean more toward bad tires any ireguar wear how may miles on them? have you rotated the tires front to back to see if the noise goes away? I have even had new road surfaces cause humming from tires that don't hum anywhere else

Former User

With the front or rear end on stands, the engine in neutral, and the parking brake off (for rear wheel inspection), spin the wheels by hand in an attempt to reproduce the noise.

Your description of the noise seems like a bad wheel bearing, but what doesn't fit so well is that I would expect the noise to worsen with increasing speed. Therefore, also inspect the brakes on any wheel that makes noise. A simple possibility is that the brake pad wear indicator is sounding due to worn pads.

trustdestruction

Yea, thank you for the clarification. We already cleared that up via PM (but you obviously couldn't have possibly known that).

EcivicG

yeah, i had already thrown the car on jacks to try and recreate the noise, with the car on and with it off by hand, but we heard no noise at all. i've also checked the brake pads, and i still have plenty of meat left on them. i don't feel the steering wheel shake, when driving or braking. car doesn't bounce, my tires are good, i've rotated them to try and see if i hear a noise in the back, but its always up front..

EcivicG

evening bump

EcivicG

if it is in fact my wheel bearing which i think it is, how hard is the install? do i need to take the hub off, and have them press is out and press it in?

EcivicG

bump