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Noisy wheel bearings? (We'll see....soon enough)

CarMech1969

Full Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2016
Messages
498
Location
Scarborough, ON
Hey fellow Avy owners!!  :B:
CarMech1969 checking in here.
When going down the highway at about 60, I can hear a sort of groaning/roaring noise coming from the front end, that's not noticeable when puttering around town. If I get on it really hard and drive 80 or 85, it gets pretty loud, kind of like knobby tires on asphalt.
I am hearing that front wheel bearings are going out on these trucks, so wondering if you guys think that is it.  :help:
Thanks for any further insight you might have.
 
Only noise that I had like that ended up being a bad ujoint.  Mine started at 45
 
The only time I ever replaced the wheel bearings on my 05 was when it had 155k miles on it. They never made any noise at all. But get the tires off the ground & you could feel the slop in them by shaking the tire up & down.
 
Thanks MS03 2500 and AirJunky!

I did recently have the front end lifted up to do my oil cooler lines and grease the zerks and stuff, and I did give the wheels a shake and didn't notice anything unusual. Might have to give it another look.

The u-joints went bad in my GMC Sierra and it didn't make this kind of noise. It made a screetching squealing kind of noise, but it did it only when I had it in Reverse gear. That one was a mind boggler because I couldn't find any play there either. But figured that had to be it because after checking everything, there was nothing else. They were right rusted to bits. Needless to say, I replaced the U-joints with ones having a zerk fitting.

Anyhow, the noise on my Avy sounds a lot like tire noise, but I'm pretty sure it's not the tires as I had replaced them about 5000 miles ago. It sounds just like a loud humming/roaring/whirring. It is noticeable at highway speed and is kind of annoying. It would be nice to figure out what it is before the snow flies.

But as luck will likely have it....lol! Well, guess we'll see  >:D

CarMech1969

EDIT: Another thing I noticed was that my ABS light illuminated a bunch of times yesterday as well.
Could this be another indication of a wheel bearing issue?
Maybe the bloody things are grinding up as we speak and throwing ferrous material on my sensors??
Will have to get my worn out carcass out there and check.
Thanks again gentlemen!!
 
I bought my truck with 116K miles out it.

I started chasing noises almost as soon as I bought it.

With each part replaced, the noises reduced.

I replaced the worn E-Series tires, which helped quite a bit.

I also replaced both front wheel bearings and axle shafts, which showed signs of wear.

All of that helped, but as time when on, the noises came back and got worse.

Finally, the main source of the noise in the front of the truck made itself obvious.

My growling, but not quite grinding noise was a worn out front differential.

We knew that the front diff had some wear issues due to the amount of metal shavings on the drain plug when I first had all of the fluids changed.

Once I had the front diff rebuilt, 99% of the noise went away.

The only thing I hear now is the all wheel drive transfer case whining sometimes, and that is not very much.

Not enough to get the thing rebuilt.

My mechanic says he will rebuild it if I want him to, but he doesn't think it will help to a huge degree.

Just a couple of things to think about while you are searching for your noises.
 
CarMech1969 said:
EDIT: Another thing I noticed was that my ABS light illuminated a bunch of times yesterday as well.
Could this be another indication of a wheel bearing issue?
Maybe the bloody things are grinding up as we speak and throwing ferrous material on my sensors??
Will have to get my worn out carcass out there and check.
Thanks again gentlemen!!

Sounding more like the wheel bearings are your problem.

(y)
 
MS03 2500 said:
Only noise that I had like that ended up being a bad ujoint.  Mine started at 45

MS03 2500: Would it have been the U-joint in the front driveshaft?
I checked mine after warming up the truck really good, and there is a bit of side to side play in the U-joint at the transfer case end of the driveshaft.
I suppose I better get those switched out soon, and see what happens.
Or does the front driveshaft turn only when the truck is in 4X4 mode? Please excuse my ignorance  :D

Question: Would E rated tires make noticeable noise at highway speed? Just curious. It had P rated tires on it when I bought the truck, but they had sidewall cracking so I got rid of them, and decided to go with the E rated ones, as that's what the owner's manual calls for.

Another thing: The wiring on the passenger side front wheel hub assembly looks different than on the driver side one.
The driver side one is plain black with a black connector, and the passenger side one has a white plastic sleeve over the wire, and has a grey connector. Seems to me that someone already changed the passenger one, correct?
Had the vehicle jacked up and wobbled the wheels to check for play, and there is none. Spun the wheels by hand, and the bearings feel ok - could not feel any roughness or sticking or anything like that.

Thanks again all!  :wave:

CarMech1969
 
The problem may or may not be the wheel bearings.  They may be going bad, with little perceivable play.

To check for roughness or sticking, better to have wheel & shaft removed, before rotating hub.
 
UPDATE:

Got the u-joints done today - both front and rear drive shafts - and this is what the u-joint at the T-case end of the front drive shaft looked like  :eek:

PICT0006_6_39_22_PM.jpg


PICT0007_6_39_22_PM.jpg


As you can see, one bearing was completely rusted....

All the others were still OK.

The ones on the rear driveshaft had just a tiny bit of brinelling going on, but otherwise they were still serviceable.

I switched them out anyway, to side on the side of caution.

That's all for now folks!

CarMech1969
 
Glad you found the problem, when mine went out it did not make the noise but it did vibrate at 45 to about 65.
 
MS03 2500 said:
Glad you found the problem, when mine went out it did not make the noise but it did vibrate at 45 to about 65.

That's pretty much what mine is doing. You can feel it, but also hear it as well.

Well, that's one more problem licked. Soon we'll see what a highway drive is like hopefully. I don't get on the highway too often, as my work and home are very close together. May have to go for a test flight and see if there is any difference.

CarMech1969.
 
All right guys,

Went for a quick jaunt on the 401 and got it up as high as 90 - 95, and it seems to be much better than before.
A bit of noise can still be heard, but it's less. Could be just tire noise remaining now.
Going to keep tabs on it in the meantime.

In other news,

I recently threw my winter rims and tires on it (of unknown origin, they came with the truck), and I noticed that it has a slight pull to the left. Must be a bit of tire conicity going on there. I checked the date code and I think it said 2308, which would be the 23rd week of 2008, so they're pretty much junk anyway. Had a close look at them, and can see cracks forming in the tread area, so that's another thing on the shopping list.

Another weird thing that happened is that the deflector for the headlamp bulb fell off and was rattling around inside the headlight assembly    (n)
Took out the headlamp, and, reached through the bulb hole to put the deflector back on, and try as I may, I simply could not manage to do it. So I pried the thing apart, refastened the deflector, and used clear gutter seal to seal it back up. What a PITA. I thought it was worth a try, since it costs $150 for a freakin' new headlight. Hahaha!

Anyhow, good day to you all  :wave:

CarMech1969
 
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