RTH wheel bearing failure canyon lands national park

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

I did talk to navteq and I'm sure they could help me out. It looks like I'm OK to head back to San Diego as is, since I know the spindle and bearings are good, double checked both sides. If the birf is going out, I'll deal with that at home. Will remove driveshaft and drive flanges if it becomes a consistent noise/problem. Thanks for the recommendations every one! Once I find the culprit, I'll update.
 
Hmmm. The symptoms are:

Sometimes when hitting a bump it 'pops' like a suspension joint bolt is slightly loose. Except they aren't. With my 24" breaker I can't tighten them any more.

Sometimes when I give it quick blip of throttle off the line, it makes the same popping sound. This happens when the wheels are straight or when they are turned.

Sound is coming from the passenger side front wheel area. All moving components have less than 7K miles on them, birfs, diff, bearings, u-joints, etc... literally everything except the ring/pinion gear has been replaced. An ARB air locker was put in at the same time. Symptom started after 120 miles of relatively hard off road driving, but not rock crawling or any abuse like jumping or anything. The symptom is intermittent, but it was doing it a lot on the trail. Not so much on the street. All the trunion stuff is tight (and new).
 
Have you checked the drive shafts and joints?

Can you jack the car up with the PS wheel up in the air and push and pull on it to see if it is loose somehow?
 
Dragos80 said:
Have you checked the drive shafts and joints?

Can you jack the car up with the PS wheel up in the air and push and pull on it to see if it is loose somehow?
Click to expand...

Yes I have done all that. I have had a wrench on all the fasteners that could possibly be involved. The u-joints are new with 1000 miles on them. I'm pretty sure it has to be something internal. :( It is still possible that the suspension bolts still need to be tighter though, I do remember hearing people talk about popping like this and that's what it ended up being. I will need a bigger bar to get them tighter. All of the suspension bushings are also new with 7K miles on them. After 120 miles of rock gardens and washes and climbs and descents and solid rock ledges, possible that a radius arm bushing is making the popping sound I just need to really crank the bolt down tighter.
 
Just to dot all the i's and cross all the t's check and tighten the shocks too, all 4 corners. It could even make a strange noise while stationary when you bounce the car up and down. The click could be loud and have a metal on metal sound.
 
sbman said:
Hmmm. The symptoms are:

Sometimes when hitting a bump it 'pops' like a suspension joint bolt is slightly loose. Except they aren't. With my 24" breaker I can't tighten them any more.

Sometimes when I give it quick blip of throttle off the line, it makes the same popping sound. This happens when the wheels are straight or when they are turned.

Sound is coming from the passenger side front wheel area. All moving components have less than 7K miles on them, birfs, diff, bearings, u-joints, etc... literally everything except the ring/pinion gear has been replaced. An ARB air locker was put in at the same time. Symptom started after 120 miles of relatively hard off road driving, but not rock crawling or any abuse like jumping or anything. The symptom is intermittent, but it was doing it a lot on the trail. Not so much on the street. All the trunion stuff is tight (and new).
Click to expand...


I had a similar issue last year, turned out a rotor caliper bolt had worked loose and the popping sound was the rotor caliper knocking around as I'd go over a bump, brake, accelerate, etc.
 
Last edited:
HAAANK said:
I had a similar issue last year, turned out a rotor bolt had worked loose and the popping sound was the rotor knocking around as I'd go over a bump, brake, accelerate, etc.
Click to expand...


Hopefully that would be it and that sounds more plausible as everything is new on OP's rig.
 
This isn't something simple like a shock bushing? Panhard bushing? If it's a threaded adjustable panhard tighten the lock nut again. If they loosen up it will "knock" when you hit a bump. It sounds like the major mechanical stuff is OK.

Please post up the outcome.
 
Have you checked your sway bar links? I have a quick disconnect on my front and it pops and bangs on trails when its connected (just the pins moving around). Could be that the bolt is loose and its just banging around a little. Also, I need to see this boulder thats blocking off the white rim, I was there not that long ago
 
HAAANK said:
I had a similar issue last year, turned out a rotor bolt had worked loose and the popping sound was the rotor knocking around as I'd go over a bump, brake, accelerate, etc.
Click to expand...


I meant caliper bolt :doh:
 
I've had the popping woes as well. First was the front control arm bolts, then adjustable panhard, shocks, and then lower trunion nuts. In that order. Checked everything every hundred miles after the Slee 6" kit went on, and every time there was something loose. After checking everything a handful of times it's all stayed in place. @sbman if you're coming through Sacramento and need any help I'm down to lend a hand. I'd bet you're heading south long before that though, I even get a really great price on parts at the dealer if ya need it. I have stock birfs and inners as well as I went chromo. Need help PM me, otherwise just trying to lend a hand!
 
So it really sounds like the loose pre-load on the wheel bearing was a red herring and the popping sound is coming from the suspension. Someone in Moab suggested it might be the birfs but we were unable to duplicate it with any combination of power/brake/turn and I think we would have been able to if that's what it was.. I used the tools I had to make sure everything was as tight as I could get it (I wasn't able to move any of the bolts) on all front suspension components. I never heard the popping sound in 800 freeway miles. Now that I'm home I'll go through it and follow up with some longer tools and check them aagain. @Phildoh, I'll go through all of the items on your list, these are likely candidates, thanks!
 
Front lower control arm bolts at the axle (4 total) work loose on my 97 periodically and make a popping over bumps, especially when turning. It's a terrible sound. A 1/2" 6 point socket and long breaker bar puts enough torque on there to fix it. I don't know what the factory spec is but it take gorilla strength to tighten them. Just checking for "tightness" is not enough. The forces on those bushings and bolts is tremendous and the bolts will let things slip around if they're not RFT.

This has happened twice in the last 6 months, both times after long rocky wheeling sessions.


..tighten the bolt head NOT the nut
 
Last edited:
jbatx said:
Front lower control arm bolts at the axle (4 total) work loose on my 97 periodically and make a popping over bumps, especially when turning. It's a terrible sound. A 1/2" 6 point socket and long breaker bar puts enough torque on there to fix it. I don't know what the factory spec is but it take gorilla strength to tighten them. Just checking for "tightness" is not enough. The forces on those bushings and bolts is tremendous and the bolts will let things slip around if they're not RFT.

This has happened twice in the last year, both times after long rocky wheeling sessions.


..tighten the bolt head NOT the nut
Click to expand...

These tighten to 130 ft pnds. anything less and they will get loose with lots of trail exposure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom