Wheel Bearing Help

[lude4life13]

I have a noise/drone/slight vibration that increases with speed and after researched I have determined it must be a wheel bearing. The sound is coming from the front, but I cannot tell which side.

My question is: how can I diagnose which side has the bad bearing? I would prefer not to have to replace them both. I tried jacking up the car and moving the wheels, and didn't get any movement on either side. I also took off the wheels and tried looking for movement within the suspension and got nothing as well. Is there anything else I can do before having to just replace them both?

In case it matters I have a 1990 S13 with 5 lug hub swap.

[Dustxking]

How i can tell is get your car in the air and stable dont just jack it up. Put it on jack stands or on a lift. Make sure wheels are free spinning aka not on a aligment rack.
And grab your wheel (not steering wheel) and shake it side to side and up and down see if there is any movement in the wheel.

How to: Check a wheel hub bearing assembly - YouTube

[lude4life13]

That is exactly how I checked it. Both sides on stands at the same time. Any other ways besides this?

[shalezzz]

may sound silly but are your tires shitty? do you have uneven wear?

[lude4life13]

Nope, hankook ventus evo v12's even wear. This problem somewhat popped up out of the blue. I noticed a bit of noise on the freeway at certain speeds in the past but now it comes up anytime I'm over 25mph. I also recently adjusted my camber a bit. Would that play into this at all?

[shalezzz]

Doubt it, just make sure all you lug nuts are tighted and and the directional tread on your tires are going the right way, when my bearing went it made a ton of noise and had alot of play so much so where without even looking at it it feels unsafe lol I would just keep driving till it develops further and you can clearly tell what side it is IMHO

[rb20240sx]

Its usually the passenger side. are your hubs from an s14? Mines bad now and I know its a common problem with them on that side

[ManoNegra]

what is your set up? S14 hubs or Ichiba/ebay?
how did you torque the hub nuts? impact? breaker bar or torque wrench

the torque requirements between s13s and s14s are different
I was experiencing similar issues and was about to replace the hubs
but decided to borrow a torque wrench from a friend and torque the nuts to spec
it did the trick

[rcdad123]

turn left or right at 25 mph or higher. if the noise is louder when making a right turn, it`s the left bearing, and if it`s louder making a left turn, it`s the right bearing.

[weissguy]

Some decent advice but if you feel no play in them, which is common for these type of bearings, the next best thing to do is to remove the wheel from the car and turn the hub by hand. It will almost definitely feel more difficult to turn than it should or make a grinding noise. To test without pulling wheel off you can use a stethoscope to listen for noise in the hub.

[lude4life13]

Ok guys thanks for all the information.

It turns out that the front hubs (which have the problem) are j30 hubs with s13 bearings pressed in them. Technically speaking, those bearings are removable from the hubs without having to replace the hubs as well right?

Also, if I decided to replace the entire hub, would I be okay with having one side with an s14/ichiba and the other with a j30?

Thanks again for all the help.

[lude4life13]

Originally Posted by rcdad123

turn left or right at 25 mph or higher. if the noise is louder when making a right turn, it`s the left bearing, and if it`s louder making a left turn, it`s the right bearing.

For the reference of future searchers, I tried this and it gave me a pretty solid idea about which side was bad.

Another thing I tried just to be 100% sure was jack my car up, turn the wheel to the outside (this would only work for front wheels), I grabbed my BMX bike and put it on the ground upside-down so that the rear wheel on the BMX bike was touching the cars wheel. I turned my bike pedals which spun my car wheel fast enough to clearly hear the bad bearing. Trying to spin the wheel by hand to check the bearings usually doesn't get it fast enough to determine whether they are bad or not.

Also, I still never had any place in the hub, so that does not always tell you if the bearings are bad or not.

[az_240]

Originally Posted by lude4life13

Ok guys thanks for all the information.

It turns out that the front hubs (which have the problem) are j30 hubs with s13 bearings pressed in them. Technically speaking, those bearings are removable from the hubs without having to replace the hubs as well right?

Also, if I decided to replace the entire hub, would I be okay with having one side with an s14/ichiba and the other with a j30?

Thanks again for all the help.

Wouldn't fit, spindles are different sizes... you'd need different knuckles/balljoints.
S13 wheel bearings = S13 knuckles and ball joints
S14 wheel bearings = S14 knuckles and ball joints

Also I thought J30 front hubs only fit on S14 knuckles? correct me if it's the other way around.

Originally Posted by lude4life13

Another thing I tried just to be 100% sure was jack my car up, turn the wheel to the outside (this would only work for front wheels), I grabbed my BMX bike and put it on the ground upside-down so that the rear wheel on the BMX bike was touching the cars wheel. I turned my bike pedals which spun my car wheel fast enough to clearly hear the bad bearing.

^not a bad idea. It's true a wheel bearing doesn't always have to have play in it for it to be bad.

[KiLLeR2001]

If you make a slight left turn, and the noise presents itself, then the right side bearing is bad. And vice versa. I would replace both though.

[lude4life13]

Originally Posted by az_240

Also I thought J30 front hubs only fit on S14 knuckles? correct me if it's the other way around.

I think the J30 front hubs fit the s13 knuckles, which is why people do it as opposed to going z32/s14 hub on s13's. Does anyone know for sure to clarify?