I have a 95 Del Sol and I think that the wheel bearings might be bad. I am unsure what signs they would give but when I was replacing my lower ball joint the part of the spindle with the studs wobbles around a lot. Is it broken?

Also, I was told that my tie rods were bad by a mechanic at NTB but I figured he was just jerking my chain so I went to another NTB and sure enough they didn't say anything about it and did my alignment.

How do I inspect the tie rods to see if there is anything wrong with them?

Thanks everyone for input!

 

For the wheel bearing jack that side in the air. Have someone get in the car a run it in first. Make sure you use all safety measures E-brake and block tires.

Have that someone run it up to only 2000rpm and you should hear a whirling noise the increases as the rpm increases.

As for the tierod... Jack it off the ground and grab tire at 9 and 3 o clock and wiggle it (Push with right hand and pull with left, back and forth) or better yet have that someone wiggle it while you look at the ends. Put your finger in there and see if it moves a bit. That is the way the shop does it.

 

if the part with the spindle wobbles alot then u have a bad hub bearing and hopefully ur spindle is still cool

 

um..
driving the vehicle jacked up may not let you detect a faulty wheel bearing.. theres no load on that bearing..

your best bet is to jack it up and grab it at 12 and 6 oclock and try to move it back and forth.. if it moves any your wheel bearing is most likely no good..
try it at 9 and 3 for the tierod as stated above by thesmogman..

 

Bad wheel bearings will have the same amount of play as you shake the wheel both up and down and side to side. But they do somtimes make noise before they actually have play. If you run it in the air like the thesmogman said and the bearing makes noise, it's bad. but it usually won't be as loud as on the road because there is no weight on the wheel. As for the tie rod, just leave the car on the ground and have someone wiggle the wheel back and forth while you look underneath at the tie rod ends to see if they have to much play.