can you tell by looking at a wheel bearing if its bad or not?

also, I'm trying to figure out if the noise I am hearing is road noise from my shitty paradas (yeah I know they suck ***) or from the rear wheel bearing(s). There is a deep, loud, humming sound that slowly gets louder from about 30-40mph then sorta dies off at highway speeds.

any tips on how to replace them, and what to look/listen for?

this is on a prelude BTW

 

jack up the corner of the car and grab the wheel at the top and bottom.. and shake it... it it clunks... then you have a really bad bearing

 

heheh ok... what about 'sorta bad'?

 

While cruising at constant speed, weave back and forth, loading up one side of the suspension then the other side. If you hear the sound increase and decrease in volume, then it's likely a bearing. The tires would not do that, as the noise would stay even. But if you increase the load on the right side (by turning left) and the volume of the sound increases, it's likely a bad brg. on that side. To differentiate front and back, brake and listen.

 

Modified by CardDealer at 3:33 PM 11/16/2006

 

I found my bad rear bearing by jacking up that corner and giving the wheel a spin. Sounded raspy and scratchy. I made sure it wasn't the brake dragging. I pulled the hub and checked the bearing. It had a lot of slop/movement to it. In my case, the bearing had to be pressed out of the hub and the new one pressed in.

 

I have the same problem with my Yokohama Parada's from about 50-60 mph I was hearing a pulseing hum. (like huummmmm,------hummmmmm,------hummmmmm)well you get it. I was wondering the same thing because I just did my rear disk conversion and thought one of my rear bearing's were bad. Now I put on my winter tires on and it went away, I think it was that I put my worn out fronts in the back and had the tire pressure up?

 

I'll just rotate my tires and see the the 'bad bearing' moves to the front

 

I vote for the Paradas as the source of the noise too. I have them on my wheels too. And they make droning noises on certain road surfaces.

Andrew