Wheel Bearing Diagnosis

['89AccordLX(Rus)]

Hello,

Recently I started hearing a quiet but persistent whistling noise coming from the right side of my car. Since the noise wasn't affected by braking or engine RPM, I logically assumed its one of the wheel bearings. Because the rear bearings are so much easier to change, I decided to inspect the rear first. The protective cap on the bearing is covered in grease, as it has been ever since I got the car. There is also evidence of oil/grease around the edge of the cap. I removed the drum and spun the hub alone. No binding or rough spots could be detected, nor any noise. What surprised me though, is that the hub didn't rotate as easily as I imagined a ball bearing hub would. I could feel somewhat of a resistance while spining the hub. The whole time, the operation was smooth and quiet. Is it normal for the hub to spin with a slight bit of resistance? Also, since our wheel bearings are sealed, would the grease indicate that the bearing is heading south? Thanks in advance for your comments.

[Oldblueaccord]

Hello,

Recently I started hearing a quiet but persistent whistling noise coming from the right side of my car. Since the noise wasn't affected by braking or engine RPM, I logically assumed its one of the wheel bearings. Because the rear bearings are so much easier to change, I decided to inspect the rear first. The protective cap on the bearing is covered in grease, as it has been ever since I got the car. There is also evidence of oil/grease around the edge of the cap. I removed the drum and spun the hub alone. No binding or rough spots could be detected, nor any noise. What surprised me though, is that the hub didn't rotate as easily as I imagined a ball bearing hub would. I could feel somewhat of a resistance while spining the hub. The whole time, the operation was smooth and quiet. Is it normal for the hub to spin with a slight bit of resistance? Also, since our wheel bearings are sealed, would the grease indicate that the bearing is heading south? Thanks in advance for your comments.

Well its been a while since I even looked at my rears (thats bad) but I think the outer bearing you can take out clean and grease, Its a regular tapered bearing. The press in bearing or sealed usually if you see grease yeah its bad or going bad since all the grease it started with aint there any more. BTW i have drum brakes.

A tapered bearing if held with your fingers inside the race will spin freely but not just free wheel forever. You want to look for scratches on the rollers,rough feeling as you turn it and loosenees on the bearings/cage itself.

wp

[AZmike]

It sounds to me like it's fine. I just replaced the rear hub/bearing assembly a few months ago. The new one did have a fair amount of drag once properly torqued onto the spindle. If one of your bearings is about to go it will propbably slowly get worse and you'll have plenty of time to catch it before it really hurts anything. I'd just wait and see.

[w261w261]

I wouldn't call the sound of a wheel bearing going bad "a low whistling." When they go, it's more like a muted roaring that gets louder and louder. This is exactly what a tire sounds like if it is wearing poorly, which is what happened to me on my Se-i. The car has about 160k on it, and although the tire guy told me it was probably the Dunlops that I had moved from the front to the back, I went ahead and ordered new rear wheel bearings anyway. I put in the bearings (the old ones looked disgusting, but seemed to work fine), and the noise was still there. New tires made it go away.