noticed a few days ago while i was driving my rear driver side wheels makes this gurgling/wobbling sound. i first thought my wheels was loose but when i checked it, it was fine and i just came in from taking the wheel off to check if anything was loose and all the bolts were solid and nothing was loose, what could it be making that sound?

 

could be a number of things. check ur shock first, than ur tires. if still no good than buy a new car!

 

check your hub for play. hold your tire with both hands at opposite clock angles (not sure exactly which angle (I think 2 o clock and 7 o clock) and try wiggling it back and forth. If it does move, its your hub that loose.

 

shocks have less then 2k function form f1 and tires have 70% thread balenced and i dont want a new car haha

 

i did 12 and 6 and it had a little movement in it with a soft thud sound... how do i tighten the hub?

 

and is it still safe to drive and will it get worse if i continue to drive it cause it is my dd......

 

ttt

 

Being lose like that and making that kind of noise when jacked up sounds like tie rods. But the grinding when moving sounds more like a wheel bearing.

 

so is it still safe to drive and will it get worse if i do?

 

Depends on the actual problem. Heres the way i'd look at it if it were my car, the suspension is one of the most important things to have perfect on your car bc its one pretty much the #1 safety factor. So if it were mine I would diagnose it and fix it asap. If something were to come apart god forbid, like your tie rod, there is no longer anything to hold your wheel straight. As for the wheel bearing, I have never seen one of these go out completely so I don't know what would happen. I advise fixing it asap.

 

first let's look at the possible causes;
-the wheel bearing/hub (sounds like roaring, i compare it to skateboarding on rough pavement. volume increases with wheel speed)
-the brakes (should be distinctly metallic sounding, sound will change when brakes are applied [louder or diminished])
-tires (inconsistant tread should be apparent if it's bad enough to cause noise)

any looseness you feel with hands at 3 and 9 could be tie rod ends. looseness you feel at 12 and 6 can be upper and lower ball joints. but looseness is only a sign that something is wrong. you've got to pinpoint it by seeing the looseness as the wheel is being moved.

as far as safety, if it's the wheel bearing it's going to get a lot louder before there's any danger. as long as you're axle nut is tight and staked even in the event of a total failure the wheels would stay on and you would be able to control the vehicle. tie rod ends can break... but i've never seen it on a honda under normal driving conditions.

if you don't feel you can pinpoint the root cause, take it to a shop, have them diagnose it.. then replace the parts on your own if you want to save some money.

 

thanks thats what i needed to know

 

It's in the back so there is no tie rod. If it wiggles top to bottom it sounds like a ball joint. A ball joint will thud when it shot.

 

my bad i was thinking front this whole time..

yeah there are no tie rod ends, no ball joints. just bearings, bushings and brakes. you can test the brakes by carefully pulling up on the park brake to see if the noise changes. chances are good it's the bearing though.

"bearings, bushings, brakes, battlestar galactica..." haha, couldn't help myself.

 

In my experience, when bushings go south they creak. A bad bearing will also cause play in the wheel. When a bearing goes bad the wheel will fall off. I've been in a car when this happened twice.

 

what car did the wheel fall off of!?

on a civic even if the outer ring cracked open and all the ***** came out, the wheel wouldn't come off. if the spindle nut was threaded on but never tightened or staked.. the wheel could fall off, but would have nothing to do with bearing failure, just incompetence.

 

Not a Japanese car. The first time was on some pick up from the 60's (can't remember the make and model) and the second time was on an old malibu. Both times we were left in the middle of the road with the rear axle having gouged a nice trench through the pavement for 15' or so. These of course were not sealed bearings.

 

go check the axle boot or it might be the wheel bearing

 

wow, that's nuts!

 

omg I was sitting here this whole time thinkin "wasn't he talkin about the back?", haha. I agree on checking your wheel bearing and ball joint

 

This can happen with alot of solid rear axle vehicles depending on how the axle shafts are held into the differential. Most of them are held with 3/16 inch steel c clip or somethin of that style and when they get worn out this is a very possible scenario.