Sebring wheelbearing update

I have a 98 Sebring that has a major growl from the left front at 35 MPH or better. Turn the wheels to the right and growl goes away. I suspect a wheel bearing, Is changing a front wheel bearing a major job? would I need any special tools. Thanks for any help.

 

Wheel bearings are a DIY job if you got some basic tools.

The only thing I can see happening is if your bearings are pressed in. If they are, you will have take the whole assembly to a machine shop or local mechanic and have them press out the old bearings and press in new. It's not a major deal and they should only charge you about $20.

 

From a site:

"A humming or growling noise. Sometimes due to inadequate lubrication in either the inner or outer CV joint, this symptom is more often due to worn or damaged wheel bearings, a bad intermediate shaft bearing on equal length halfshaft transaxles, or due to worn shaft bearings within the transmission."

 

The bearing in the that particular car comes as a Hub assembly. All you will need is a socket set and something strong like an impact gun to get the axle nut off and back on. no pressing required on this one.

 

Thanks for the help, doesn't sound like too bad of a job so I feel better about doing it now.

 

When you get your new bearings, make sure you use plenty of bearing grease. Take a hand full of the grease in the palm of your hand and take the bearing and pack the grease in. Don't be cheap with this stuff! Good luck and report back here with any questions you may have during your repair!

 

I'm no mechanic, so I'm not questioning anybody's advice. My first thought was that it was in the half shaft, because it the growling goes away when he turns to the right. Why would this occur with bad wheel bearings? If it was the wheel bearings, wouldn't the noise be constant? I'm only asking to try to understand.

 

It has to do with load on the bearings.......When the weight shifts on turns and puts extra strain on the weak side, the bearing will howl louder.........go in the other direction and offload the bearing and she gets quieter
CV axles usually clatter on turns...........

 

Patron is correct. This is a hub unit, which means the bearing is not serviceable (no regreasing) and the bearing must be replaced as a unit.

 

Bought the hub assembly and started to put it on and discovered I need a female torx socket set. Still cheaper than paying 90 bucks an hour and a additional 5% for shop supplies. Thanks for the help guys

 

I don't mean to hijack Jerome's thread, but apparently his problem's fixed and my question pertains to his situation. I'm also not trying to be a smart alec, but I still don't understand. Wrench you said "It has to do with load on the bearings.......When the weight shifts on turns and puts extra strain on the weak side, the bearing will howl louder.........go in the other direction and offload the bearing and she gets quieter" Jerome said that the noise was coming from the front left. The noise goes away when turning right. Doesn't centrifugal force shift the weight of the car more to the left when turning right? Again, I'm not questioning whether or not you're right. I'm just trying to understand. I'm here to learn....

 

Our company manufactures wheel bearings for Chrysler (and others), and I'm the one in our company that does warranty analysis for Chrysler wheel bearings returned from the field. I've analyzed hundreds of bearings that came through our lab.

Most of the customer comments I read describe a bad bearing as a roar or whine coming from the front (or rear) end of the car, most noticable at 30-45 mph.

Depending on where the damage is in the bearing determines under what conditions a noise becomes prominent. Cornering changes the dynamics of the loading within a bearing. Each car corner has two sets of races, an inboard and an outboard set. Usually it's the inboard set that sees the most load during cornering. Different parts of a bearing are loaded turning right and left. And even within a race, the balls can track on a different angle, higher on the race during cornering. Therefore, there is no hard and fast rule for relating increased noise with right or left turns to determine which bearing is bad.

 

Thank you Kestas, that answer makes sense.

 

When I had the growl from the front of the Sebring I jacked up each wheel individually and ran them at 30 MPH. The right front just sounded like the wheels on another car I have, the left front had a high pitched scream to it. I changed the left front and have the same growl. Could this be a bearing somewhere else? A bearing in the transmission on the other end of the axle would not have any weight on it if it was on the ground or raised up like when I spun the wheels. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks for the help

 

No more growl from the front end. The left side had a scream when raised up and spun the right side sounded normal when raised and spun. There was a vibration sitting in the passenger seat going down the road, I figured it had to be a wheel bearing so I changed the right side also. and the growl went away. These hub assembly's were not that easy to get off the car. I had to heat up the hub ear on one side to get the top bolt to turn. On both sides I had to use a slide hammer bolted to the wheel lugs to make it move a little. After the slide hammer made two pieces out of the hub assembly I used cold chisels to separate it from the suspension. There was a lot of rust around the bearing assembly. I reassembled it with never seize. Thanks for all your help guys