The new and the old

June 5, 2011Dan No Comments »

So for the last year or so my car has been making a humming noise, starting at about 30 MPH and increasing in pitch/intensity the faster I go. This noise has also been gradually getting louder, and I finally decided to do something about it. A consensus of mechanically-inclined people led me to believe the problem was the wheel bearing.

The noise sounded like it was coming from the passenger side front tire, so I grabbed a wheel bearing from Auto Value for ~$75. Swapped it out, hopped on the road…and my car was still making noise. I’m not sure if the noise changed at all or if it was just in my head, but it sounded like the noise was now coming from the front driver’s side wheel. Another $75 and a couple hours of work later, both the front wheel bearings on my car are brand new – and the noise is gone!

Picture 1 shows the old and new passenger side bearings…quite the difference. I’m not sure how bad the old bearing was, but the seals appear to be on their very last legs, so it didn’t have long to go even if it wasn’t bad yet. Picture 2 shows the bad wheel bearing from the driver’s side. It actually started coming apart when I used the puller to remove it. It’s for sure shot.

So happy to have a healthy-sounding car again!

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