Can a wheel bearing go from good to "holy crap what is that sound?"
 

My front driver side area of my car just started making a pretty noticable vum,vum,vum,vum,vum metal rubbing sound.

I checked the tire because it almost sounded like I picked up something metal but, there was nothing. I still need to check the brake pads and rotor but i am leaning toward a wheel bearing.

I had to replace a rear wheel bearing a few years back and just ordered everything from Subarugenuineparts.com but that will take a few days to get here and I don't want to drive it anymore until I identify and fix the problem. Should I only use an oem bearing and seals or would I be safe going with a kragen/napa part?

Advice please.

The WRX wheel bearings do tend to go suddenly. Jack the car and see if there is any play in the bearing by grabbing the tire at the top and bottom and rocking it back and forth. If a bad bearing stays on too long it will take out the hub too.

The Kragen/Napa stuff is National brand I believe and it is good OE quality and is what we use unless somebody specifies Subaru parts.

Matt

BTW we can sell you the Subaru parts at only about 10% higher + tax than SubaruGenuineParts.com. If it is in stock in Reno then you can have it the same day.

IIRC, Lithia tends to stock wheel bearings. I know they had the unit bearing for Lisa's Outback on the shelf, which surprised me.

I thought I heard Kevin M. say that Kspeed stocks the Nissan bearing last weekend. Regardless, do not drive on it if you suspect it's the wheel bearing. I destroyed the CV joint, rotor, ABS sensor, hub, and the bearing when mine let loose all by driving on it after it started failing.

Search up Dean's thread discussing the Nissan bearing. The first post indicates the two part numbers you can use to pick one up from Kragen. NAPA tried to sell me a cross referenced one that isn't as good but I believe Kragen had one that showed the correct part number on the box.

I also picked up Mobil-1 synthetic red grease and had Cory flush out the preexisting grease and replace it with that.

We have one of the superior Nissan bearings in stock. $75 + tax.

Matt

Juice, you should probably replace both... if one just went out, the other is probably ready to go too.

Here is my thread.
http://www.seccs.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4701

Be aware that the "Nissan" FW105 "0823" bearing is more difficult to locate, or maybe a better way to say it is every parts shop caries the FW176 "08A01" "Subaru" bearing and will try to convince you they are the same.

If it does not have the NTN 4T-CR1-0823 part number or the SKF FW105 part number on the box or better yet on the lip of the bearing itself, it is probably the "Subaru" bearing.

Heck, have them pull a FW176 too and make sure they are different. Apparently, even some boxes saying FW105 have the Fw176 parts in them.

Yes they do. My wrx bearing did that a couple weeks ago. On the way to the meet it was dandy. On the way home said exactly that "OMGWTFBBQ?! WHAT'S THAT SOUND?!", "That's a wheel bearing austin". "Dammit! :'("

That's usually how they go. Sorta like the rod bearings in my motors. :mad:

This.

Had one (well several) go in my rally car. the last one that went Ruined the spindle, axle, rotor i think the hub actually fell apart when i took the caliper off. :huh: somehow it wasn't making any noise but horrible horrible vibrations. felt like a massively out of balance wheel. Seems like my last 3 wheel bearings to go out all had different symptoms . first one felt like a rumble strip when i turned left. the next one was making noises , rumble strip again when turning , then this last one had horrible vibrations ... I should also probably stop fixing my wheel bearings by swapping in a junk yard spindle where the bearing probably has over 100k miles on it ...

hmm maybe i should switch over to using Nissan bearings in my rally car :?: hmmm

^Yep, every wheel bearing seems different. I had one that manifested as a slight squeak from the brakes at low speeds and lasted that way for months without any noticable movement when jacking up the car and trying to move the wheel back and forth from the top and bottom. Then one day, it turned to a grinding noise and within 2 miles I'd destroyed everything in there. I had to get an alignment too, since the first shop in Fernley completely F'd the reinstallation of my camber bolts.

I updated my Nissan bearing thread with some more info including the Timken bearing info. I still can't find a cross reference for the new Nissan part number back to the NTN or SKF bearing. :(

I did find that Summit carries the Auto Extra/Timken bearing that correctly crosses for a hell of a deal at $21 (Ignore the picture)
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/AXT-513015

If somebody can find a newer better cross reference chart than this, it would be helpful.
http://www.timken.com/en-us/products...eGuide7536.pdf

So I took off the knuckle and pressed in the new bearing. The old one didn't really look bad at all. Just discoloration across the center of all the rollers.

However I do have two problems now. I happened to break a bolt during removal. Its the bottom bolt that holds the caliper to the bracket. Does anyone have one or is this a bolt I can get from Home Depot? I know all brake parts get really hot so I don't know if that is an option.

Also, I think I may have pulled the cv joint apart? I don't know what it looks like inside but I think I either broke it or pulled it apart. I guess I have to get in there and look. I just doesn't seem right to me. Any advice on that?

Don't use a home depot bolt if you can help it... HD stuff tends to be low-grade crap, and you really don't want the brakes falling off. Ask sybir how that works out for you. Get a new bolt from the dealer. They're not too expensive.

It's possible to pull CVs apart. I know I accidentally yanked one apart on my SVX's axle. I had to pull the boot off and replace some damaged circlips in there after putting it back together. It's a messy PITA. :(

KSpeed probably had a bolt lying around.

CVs take a reasonable amount of force to actually come apart. They do move quite a bit in every direction including in and out a ways.

Again, Cory would know better how a normal one feels or how hard the Impreza ones are to pull apart.

Are you sure you didn't have a bad CV joint and that's what is causing the original issue?

I am going to take it apart right now. I would assume that it would be fine unless I borked it when I used a puller to free the hub from the spindle. I never had the clicking issue and there was movement in the wheel so I assumed the wheel bearing was the issue. I still think that is the case. I guess we will find out in about 5 minutes.

I called SUBARU and of course they don't have the caliper bracket bolt in stock right now. Joe is going to go out into the shop and see if they might have one lying around that I can buy.

You could always take the broken one to that fastner shop in town. (R&E?) They have a large variety of grade 8 and stronger bolts. I'm sure they'd have just the right one.

So I did end up getting a new bolt from SUBARU. However I now am faced with the problem with getting the broken off piece out of the bracket. I bought one of those extractor kits and immediately broke it when I tried to use it. I guess I will now try to find the piece that the bolt thread is stuck in. I don't know what its called but its the little metal plunger with the rubber boot on it.

sigh

EDIT
I guess its called a bolt pin kit and they have them at Kragen.



Is there ever an easy job when it comes to working on the subaru? :picard:

Can you get a chisel in from the other direction or something? It shouldn't be in tight, if you can get a little bite on the bolt, you should be able to turn it out like a slotted screw.

Those extractors that are just drill bits with a biting tip always break. I don't think they ever work except when the broken bolt offers zero resistance. Make sure you use PB Blaster on it...

Can you get some vice grips on the other end of the broken bolt?

Edit: The extractors that work are the ones where you carefully drill a hole in the center of the busted bolt and then hammer a splined rod in there that you can then use a special tool on to spin the entire bolt. I like Scotts idea. I'd even try a dremmel instead of the chissel but again, be careful not to hit the threads of the hole.

Yeah I tried guys. Gave it my best most patient effort. The bolt broke off flush with the pin and there is no other side to get to. I drilled a hole and then the drill bit caught and broke. Then I tried to use the extractor bit that grabbed and immediately broke even when I went super slow with the drill.

I don't know why this picture shows gold parts but, these are the parts in question.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62...2386a_7536.jpg

I think the only solution is better drill bits, a steady hand, and the type of extractor I described in my edit above. Sucks.