yusoslo

My drivers side front wheel bearings are bad and are in need of replacement. The thing is there has never been a noise to signal a bad bearing, but when jacked up the wheel has serious play in it.

When I turn to the left for a U turn I hear a clunk. and thats it. I need to replace the bearings anyways, but could this be something else?

yusoslo

bump

JimmyAtlantis

cv joint for the clunk. That's probably where your play is coming from also. If it isn't making a noise, your bearing probably isn't shot. It's just the cv joint. Can it be a little sloppy when you drive?

FYI-you only have one bearing on each wheel.

2manycars2choose

Sounds like its time for some new axles! I just had to replace mine. Boy was it fun!!

Discosteak

iTrader: (1)

if you jack your car up and there is play in the wheel then you need ball joints not axles

yusoslo

yeah there is no noise at all, which makes me curious about it being the bearings.

I dont know why one of the axles would be bad,

I replaced both of my front rotors and pads and I still get a vibtration when braking, all of this seems to be from the front driver wheel.

And yes there is play when the car is jacked up.

The only time I hear the noise is when slowing down to turn into a driveway or u turn like I said.

and the CV boots look fine

yusoslo

to clarify this anymore when jacked up and my hands at 3 and 9 O clock

I can move the wheel towards and away from me......so when I pull with my right hand and push with my left there is play in the wheel.

and like I said it always vibrated while braking before and after the brake change

(the vibration is very minimal though)

Discosteak

iTrader: (1)

you need ball joints my friend

pdiggitydogg

I say balljoints

yusoslo

ok sounds good, is there a way to visually look at them, the passenger side has a small tear but thats it, or would the wear be internal?

pdiggitydogg

torn boots would probably mean its crapped out on the inside...resulting from the tear
You could unbolt the joint (leave the arm attached) and remove the boot and inspect the ball.
If it has a lot of play/moves easily then its bad

IVI

you have to get someone to shimmy the wheel like you were doing before. you have to see whats making the play, it CAN be the balljoints, but it can ALSO be the tie-rod end. Check the boots on the cv-joint. Also check all the bushings in the control arm. How many miles on the car? When was anything on the suspension last replaced or touched?

IVI

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by yusoslo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My drivers side front wheel bearings are bad and are in need of replacement. The thing is there has never been a noise to signal a bad bearing, but when jacked up the wheel has serious play in it.

When I turn to the left for a U turn I hear a clunk. and thats it. I need to replace the bearings anyways, but could this be something else?</TD></TR></TABLE>

if you know the wheel bearings are bad, start with that. replace them. if you have 3 little problems, they can be 1 big problem causing a bunch of diffrent things.
start fixing it up before you start assuming its all these other stuff. of course there might not have been a noise before, as the problem gets worse so do the indications.

yusoslo

well I dont know if the bearings are bad, I was assuming due to wheel play.

The problem is not noticable during driving, just with the radio off and doing a half lock or more turn at slow speeds there is one clunk that can not be felt just mildly heard.

I will check the ball joints

they do not need pressed correct? I would like to fix this myself and wont have access to a garage for a week.

also.......can ball joints cause the minor shaking from the brakes??