Ideas to narrow down which wheel bearing is failing

[bloc]

Hello all,

I’m pretty sure I have a wheel bearing on its way out, with a pronounced groan between roughly 72 & 78 mph. I’m having trouble figuring out which one though.

I have put the truck on jack stands and listened to each hub with a mechanics stethoscope.. all four are silent.

I’ve read about a slalom to see if the sound changes, but the high speed required to get the noise to be pronounced makes this difficult.

Chassis ears might be an option but I’d like to avoid spending the money unless absolutely necessary.

No play on any wheel, or irregular wear.

Any other ideas?

 

[ramangain]

Rotating the tires helps or not?

 

[CharlieS]

I'd be happy to loan you my chassis ears if you cover the ride.

 

[bloc]

Rotating the tires helps or not?

No change

I'd be happy to loan you my chassis ears if you cover the ride.

If I don’t come up with something better I’ll take you up on this. Thanks!

 

[radman]

Sigh. You helped chase down a clicking sound on my front (which turned out to be a bad cv), but The past week or 2 I’ve been hearing clicking coming from the rear

I think I’ve been in denial about it, so haven’t really poked around very much. Maybe my 35’s are taking a toll
Nevertheless, you could strap a gopro (or iPhone ) at each corner and take some recordings...

 

[Karbon]

When my front passenger wheel bearing went bad on my 4Runner, I noticed it from vibration. To confirm before and after replacement I did a gentle slalom going about 40 mph. Vibration got worse when the outer side was loaded. I replaced the passenger side then repeated to find a significantly lower vibration on the driver side that I hadn't noticed, so I ended up replacing both front hub assemblies. The rears were fine. In that case I could feel the vibration through both the steering wheel and my left foot on the floor pan.

Another option is to jack the truck up and try rocking each wheel at the 12 and 6 o'clock positions to see if there is any play. And then lastly you could spread the brake pads off the rotors and rotate each wheel to see if there is an outlier that is dragging more so than the others. On the 4Runner mine were pretty shot so the wheel would barely spin whereas the new hubs free spun for a while. Thankfully no wheel bearing issues on the LC so far.

 

[bloc]

When my front passenger wheel bearing went bad on my 4Runner, I noticed it from vibration. To confirm before and after replacement I did a gentle slalom going about 40 mph. Vibration got worse when the outer side was loaded. I replaced the passenger side then repeated to find a significantly lower vibration on the driver side that I hadn't noticed, so I ended up replacing both front hub assemblies. The rears were fine. In that case I could feel the vibration through both the steering wheel and my left foot on the floor pan.

Another option is to jack the truck up and try rocking each wheel at the 12 and 6 o'clock positions to see if there is any play. And then lastly you could spread the brake pads off the rotors and rotate each wheel to see if there is an outlier that is dragging more so than the others. On the 4Runner mine were pretty shot so the wheel would barely spin whereas the new hubs free spun for a while. Thankfully no wheel bearing issues on the LC so far.

Thanks for the suggestions.. I have had the corners in the air to check for play and haven’t found anything out of line. In another thread someone posted the factory procedure which calls for a dial indicator.. that would be a lot more precise, and I have one, so that might happen if it doesn’t become apparent soon.

 

[bloc]

I did also just remember I have an infrared temp gun.. I might be able to compare the temps of each knuckle and end of the rear axle after a freeway run to see if anything stands out.

 

[grinchy]

I thought it was tires. Then front bearings. Then rear bearings. Proved to be the rear bearings. I also stupidly did the cvs while having the gear ratio change, just in case. They were fine.
to be fair, I think the front bearings were due, but it was the rear that made the noise. Like a low whine or whirr, and it wasn’t localizable.

 

[Taco2Cruiser]

Any other ideas?

Solid axle swap has worked for me... just a thought.

 

[REKCUT]

Most wheel bearing issues I've had would show up way before 70 mph.

 

[bloc]

I thought it was tires. Then front bearings. Then rear bearings. Proved to be the rear bearings. I also stupidly did the cvs while having the gear ratio change, just in case. They were fine.
to be fair, I think the front bearings were due, but it was the rear that made the noise. Like a low whine or whirr, and it wasn’t localizable.

No play in the rear wheel/hub?

 

[grinchy]

No play in the rear wheel/hub?

wasnt perceptible to me, but I’m not a professional. Passenger side ended up completely failing and caused an abs sensor to fail from grease.
it was so great driving away from the shop with a completely quiet drivestrain.

 

[bloc]

Solid axle swap has worked for me... just a thought.

I did this to a past minitruck. The 200 is a bit of a different build... as much as this needs to happen it won’t be me.. or I guess I wouldn’t have sold the 80