Essential Tips to Find out Bad Wheel Bearing on a Car

Share  | 

• First of all, if you are the driver, drive your car in an area where there is less traffic and little noise. Roll down your windows and turn off the stereo or radio.
• Drive at a comfortable speed. In between raise your speed and then lower the speed. In other words keep changing the speed limits as per your convenience. At the same time, lightly turn your wheels left and right.
• While doing this, listen carefully. Just find out whether you have heard anything unusual. If you hear sounds like a growl, squeal, hum or whining noise, it means you have bad wheel bearing. At times you might hear more of a cracking or popping, then its more likely a bad CV joint and not a bearing. Just as a bad wheel bearing is dangerous, so also a bad CV joint. A CV joint delivers power from the transmission to the wheel and when it becomes bad, the car will not move. You are sure that your wheel bearing is not bad if you hear a noise when the transmission is in gear and do not hear it in neutral.
• If you do hear something, find out from where the sound is coming. You can find out from which wheel the sound is coming and you should also be sure whether the sound is from the bearing or from something else. Your work becomes more easier if you have a co-passenger with you. Bearing noise will reach your ears via the window, and hence it is easy to detect a bad bearing. If the sound is coming through the floorboard, then it is not your bearings problem.