Wheel bearing or other?

[Pointman]

I hope someone can help me with this.

I have an 04 GT with 160k km (about 100k miles) on it.

I'm hearing a metallic pinging noise from my front passenger wheel, in time with wheel rotation. The noise is gone when turning RIGHT, semi-audible when straight, and quite noticeable when turning LEFT. The noise seems mostly independent of braking, although when braking hard it seems to get slightly louder.

I've pulled the wheel and brakes off to check for debris or something causing the noise, but found nothing. Rotating the wheel by hand did not produce any sound, but obviously I couldn't turn it as fast as I probably need to. After inspecting I cleaned everything up, put it back together, test drove, and the noise remains.

Since it doesn't seem to be any brake components, might it be the wheel bearing? Or something else?

Thanks for reading!

 

[Fivefingerdeathpunch]

sounds like the bearing to me. Buy a timkin wheel bearing, they are one of the best.

 

[postalc38]

Might as well just do both cause at some point they are gonna go. My Timken was $100 shipped to my house on RockAuto, compared to Autozone being $123. Still got one left to do on my GP.

 

[tc300]

sounds like the bearing to me. Buy a timkin wheel bearing, they are one of the best.

ya i thought they were also... i had a front set put on last summer, just a few moths ago while turning backing out i was hearing a click click sound. im pretty sure its the wheel bearing... only thing i can think of is they werent torqed right..????

 

[Pointman]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm concerned because I don't "feel" any effect for this when driving. If the windows are up, you can't even tell something is wrong. Replacing a wheel bearing that doesn't need replacing is an expensive mistake - I live in Canada and I'm betting I can't get a wheel bearing for under $160.

I'll raise up the car and check the front wheels for play... see if this wheel moves more or clunks when I try.

If anyone has anything more to add, I welcome it.

 

[postalc38]

Atleast check the wheels at 12 and 6 o'clock for play before you make a purchase.

You won't feel it right off the bat, you usually hear it to begin with.... Once it progresses it will get much worse. With my LF I didn't feel anything until a few days before I got my replacement. It's fun going 60 and the car just having a mind of it's own.

 

[Dtrick22]

Check the outside edge of the rotor for rust flakes before you go getting a bearing. I couldn't figure out why mine was chirping for the longest time and once I ground it down it stopped rubbing on whatever it was hitting around the caliper...I'd check it first just for the hell of it

 

[Pointman]

Check the outside edge of the rotor for rust flakes before you go getting a bearing. I couldn't figure out why mine was chirping for the longest time and once I ground it down it stopped rubbing on whatever it was hitting around the caliper...I'd check it first just for the hell of it

So, time for an update.

I did another test drive to make absolute certain of which wheel it was (what else are wives for, after all?). This re-confirmed it was the wheel I suspected. I lifted the vehicle, and tested for play (as postalc38 suggested). These tests showed the bearing seemed to be good.

I took the wheel and brakes off (all but the rotor) and continued testing, and still, bearing seemed fine.

Now, I did notice that the ABS sensor/bracket was very close to the rotor, but there always remained about 1mm clearance. Still, I decided to bend the bracket away from the rotor a little more AND file off the rust forming on the inside INNER edge rotor that goes past it.

Well shucks, it looks like that was the problem. I guess when turning left, the rotor/bracket/etc flexed enough that the ~1mm clearance was no longer sufficient, and rubbing was occurring.

So Dtrick22 was basically right.

Thanks to everyone that helped.