Hi all,

I've started hearing a weird noise that I think might be a wheel bearing (rear right). I was wondering, do you know how much it would cost to diagnose if it actually is the bearing, and if it is, how much would it cost to replace it. I will be calling mechanics tomorrow, but was just interested today.

Adi

jack the wheel off the ground, see if the wheel has any movement

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Long live the WRC

prob cost you about 500 bucks for a shop to do it thats including a new bearing had my left rear replaced not long ago but if you have a press oof somesort you can use to press the old bearing out and the new one in prob do it yourself

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race tape y pipe running .05 bar till spares turn up.

what does the noise sound like?

Just jacked up the car and realized that the noise (like something pressed against the rotor while turning as in "shhhhhhh") is probably something with the brakes as it happens on both front wheels and it did start happening when I changed the pads last time. It looks as though the pads are always touching the rotor.

The rear right wheel does have some play in it (front-to-back rather than in-to-out).

Adi

*edit* the other noise is squeek-squeek, thats the one that is not always present and it does not sound anything like anything brake related

edit: all of this is referring to the rear right

mine started off not always being present as well
98 percent certain it's not your pads or rotors, it's your bearing

i went through hell trying to troubleshoot the noise, when you turn the wheel by hand, at a certain spot in the rotation, does it get harder to push, and the pad almost grinds against the rotor?

it's either my hub being bent (hopefully not) from my accident, or my bearings, it's most likely the bearing but i'm getting another wheel alignment done this week to make sure it's not the hub.

just for reference, it sounds like this yeah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBT7rkqzY70 ?

Grab a hub and bearing from dtrally and see how you go.

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Straya

i did my rear bearings last month. i diagnosed it from the sound of a hum at about 80-90km that didnt go away with revs. and also could hear it when i spun the wheel by hand in the garage (awd makes this tricky btw )

i did the labour myself but got a mechanic to press bearings into the hubs. bearings were $170 and so was labour charge - which is a bit of a rip off i think.

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1997 green GC8 with the usual mild mods.

Jordiee,

It is exactly that sound. I completely forgot about your video mate. Mine is still very quiet, and it happens only 5% of time. It has exactly the same symptoms ie no sound when braking, turning the wheel by hand does become harder after a bit although it is the same on all of my wheels.
On MY99 WRX, which diff is open and which is VLSD? Do I have to raise all 4 wheels to turn one single wheel?

Adi

Hi guys, sorry to hi jack, but did a search and not quite sure if its related to wheel bearings so i'll post it here anyway.

I got a 99 wrx and its done about 163000km, one of the front brake rotor is showing excessive/uneven wear, and the car vibrates when braking from certain speed, most noticable from about 80km/h down to about 50km/h then the vibration will stop and car slows down smoothly as normal.

At first i thought it was the worn out rotors, as they're really old anyway i went and purchase a set of new dba 4000s along with a new set of bendix ultimate. I have also swap the front wheels with the back ones, and checked that all my suspension parts are nice and tight. Took the car out to bed the brakes in just to find out that the vibration is still there and behaved the same as before.

I'm gonna try get the car in for a wheel alignment and wheel balance soonish. But could it be the wheel bearings as well? Although i did not hear any obvisous noises like the video posted here..

Thanks guys!