Front wheel bearing assembly noisy 2003 STS

[Golfer]

Hi guys, does anyone know if the front wheel bearing assy can make a humming noise without any appreciable movement when rocking the wheel. I have this humm/whine when driving. I suspect the wheel bearings but am not sure which one of the front bearings is making the noise.(if any) I have tried rocking the wheel with no movement. The noise does vary with the speed of the vehicle.

No visable grease. Any comments welcome.

[airmike]

Yes! I had a 2000 trans am that I couldn't figure out either. Both sides were the same part#, (yours may be also) so finally I replaced one figuring if nothing else I would move the one I replaced to the other side. The first one stopped the noise though. Even after taking it off and spinning it by hand you would swear it was not bad. You had to spin it over and over to finally feel the slightest click in it. Can you turn the wheel while driving and make it get quieter or louder?

[KHE]

On an isolated road at speed, do some "S-turns". You will hear the bearing noise come and go. If it goes away when swerving left, the right front bearing is bad. If it goes away when swerving right, it is the left front bearing.

[Daniel Evans]

I found on my 03 when one goes bad the other is sure to follow.

[Golfer]

No change when turning. I have just finished a front brake job yesterday and even tried rocking the wheels No movement at all. I am now thinking it might be a bearing in the output shaft of the transmission. The noise is definately related to road speed. Are there any bearings on the drive shafts at the transmission housing? If I can't pinpoint the noise I may have to put it in for an evaluation at the dealer. Not to repair it, just to confirm my suspicion.

Thanks

[Logan]

My money is on one of the hubs and not in the trans. They can get noisy and feel perfectly fine. You will not notice any play.

Every FWD GM car I have had in the last 20 years has required at least one hub bearing replaced..some have had multiple bearings replaced. The exception would be our 2010 Traverse.

[Eldoradoman2001]

My Dad has had five GM fwd drive cars in the last twenty years,four Buick's and one Oldsmobile, no hub bearings replaced .All cars were ran well over a hundred thousand miles except for the current one a 2011 Lucerne. He also is a mechanic, maybe he is just lucky ,or maybe you have been plagued . I've owned eleven GM vehicles in those twenty years eight GM pickups and three cars . I've replaced one front wheel bearing in a GMC sierra Duramax .That's it!!!!

[airmike]

I have also replaced multiple wheel bearings on fwd gm cars, as well as the trans am. I would put my money with Logans.

[Logan]

1987 Buick- 2 bearings

1992 Pontiac 3 bearings

1993 Cadillac 2 bearings

2001 Cadillac 2 bearings

2003 Saturn 1 bearing

That said...I often drive my cars into the 200k mile zone.

[KHE]

I guess I have had better luck with the hub bearings on the FWD GM cars I've had/currently own.

1986 Buick Park Avenue: 1 rear bearing. Sold at 210,000 miles

1996 Cadillac Seville - none. Sold at 150,000 miles

1997 Cadillac Seville - 2 front bearings. 1 was frozen to the axle half shaft and was ruined during disassembly. The opposite side had a bad seal and I replaced it since it was apart anyway. 187,000 miles.

2005 Cadillac Deville - none.

The old style tapered roller bearings on the RWD cars last forever. I've never had those go bad as long as the tension is set correctly whenever a rotor is removed for resurfacing.

[Eldoradoman2001]

None of the cars my Dad owned or I owned were ran over 125 or 130 thousand miles which might explain why no wheel bearings were replaced.The one replaced which was on a 2001 GMC Sierra was replaced at 54000 miles. The one on the other side was still running fine when I traded it off with 113,000 miles .Of course this was a truck not a fwd car ,I was just thinking of all GM vehicles we have had over the last twenty years. The twenty years before that we ran a used car lot of our own and did all of our own mechanic work.FWD cars were pretty new as far as GM went then.The first I remember back then was a Chevy Citation .Boy that sure brings back some old memories. I still wish I was back then.LOL!!

[winterset]

My advice to anyone replacing a hub is to remember that you get what you pay for. On another vehicle, i tried some low cost hubs on ebay, and they didnt even last 2000 miles. Oem lasted 100,000. My deville has the original 18 year old 111k in the front. One rear hub was replaced due to a stuck caliper boiling the grease out.

To answer your question: Yes, even though it is tight, if can still be noisy under load.

[Eldoradoman2001]

There are probably a lot of hub bearings out there whining that need to be replaced but most people out there can't hear them.But if you can notice that whining inside that Caddy you can bet they need replacing pretty soon .You can check those rear ones somewhat with the wheel on and jacked up and spin them.Those front ones are much harder.Sometimes it's like winterset says under load with the weight of the car that makes them whine. If I thought it was in the front I would replace them with some high quality bearings and go from there if you can do it yourself.

[KHE]

My advice to anyone replacing a hub is to remember that you get what you pay for.

That is true! When I replaced the bearings on my '97 STS, I used Timken bearings which is a top brand.

[SevilleDorado]

Okay , I was going to start a topic on this today myself with a question, but will add it here.

I was thinking the hummmmmm was from a front half shaft issue but now aftre reading this not so sure........?

I get a very loud growl/hum from the front when driving straight or into a left turn, wether it's a sweeper or tight, wether straight at low or high speeds.

When I turn right under the same circumstances it goes away........I did just order a half shaft , both sides are the same part#.

Was thinking that was the problem because when I had it apart recently for front strut replacement I did not feel any play in it by hand. It did make the noise before , but its getting worse....

So the vote is on a hub then ?

[KHE]

Okay , I was going to start a topic on this today myself with a question, but will add it here.

I was thinking the hummmmmm was from a front half shaft issue but now aftre reading this not so sure........?

I get a very loud growl/hum from the front when driving straight or into a left turn, wether it's a sweeper or tight, wether straight at low or high speeds.

When I turn right under the same circumstances it goes away........I did just order a half shaft , both sides are the same part#.

Was thinking that was the problem because when I had it apart recently for front strut replacement I did not feel any play in it by hand. It did make the noise before , but its getting worse....

So the vote is on a hub then ?

Your right hub bearing is bad. When you turn left, it loads the right bearing and makes the noise louder.

Unless the boot is torn on the axle half shaft, it is probably fine and it would be a waste of time and money to replace the axle half shaft.

[Texas Jim]

Okay , I was going to start a topic on this today myself with a question, but will add it here.

I was thinking the hummmmmm was from a front half shaft issue but now aftre reading this not so sure........?

I get a very loud growl/hum from the front when driving straight or into a left turn, wether it's a sweeper or tight, wether straight at low or high speeds.

When I turn right under the same circumstances it goes away........I did just order a half shaft , both sides are the same part#.

Was thinking that was the problem because when I had it apart recently for front strut replacement I did not feel any play in it by hand. It did make the noise before , but its getting worse....

So the vote is on a hub then ?

Your right hub bearing is bad. When you turn left, it loads the right bearing and makes the noise louder.

Unless the boot is torn on the axle half shaft, it is probably fine and it would be a waste of time and money to replace the axle half shaft.

I agree with what Kevin said...

[airmike]

Yep the hub. And as stated, the half shaft is not gonna be bad if the rubber boot is good.

[SevilleDorado]

On an isolated road at speed, do some "S-turns". You will hear the bearing noise come and go. If it goes away when swerving left, the right front bearing is bad. If it goes away when swerving right, it is the left front bearing.

Okay so now I am confused - lol - I have 2 different answers to this as pertaining to wich side.....not bieng argumentive, just that the post replies ,and or original posts , say two different things from KHE .I am just trying to clarify wich side, as I jacked it up and yes under a no load condition there is no noise or noticable play....the "hum" if you will is really loud, not just a slight background noise.

Thanks - SD

[Logan]

It can be difficult to pinpoint which bearing is in fact the noisy one....the sound can transfer thru the drivetrain in strange ways. I have seen them where you would swear it's the left one...and it turns out to be the right side one.

The bearings only take about 30 minutes. You can replace the suspect one....if the sound is still there swap the other one with the removed bearing.

[KHE]

On an isolated road at speed, do some "S-turns". You will hear the bearing noise come and go. If it goes away when swerving left, the right front bearing is bad. If it goes away when swerving right, it is the left front bearing.

Okay so now I am confused - lol - I have 2 different answers to this as pertaining to wich side.....not bieng argumentive, just that the post replies ,and or original posts , say two different things from KHE .I am just trying to clarify wich side, as I jacked it up and yes under a no load condition there is no noise or noticable play....the "hum" if you will is really loud, not just a slight background noise.

Thanks - SD

Sorry - My post #3 was incorrect - follow post #16.

[SevilleDorado]

Thanks Kevin , I will do the right one first and check the half-shaft also. I "rented" a hub puller from AutoZone just in case needed, happened to be a brand new setup with the slide hammer and adapter. Really can't beat it , bring it back and you get a full refund or else don't bring it back and you own it. It seems to be the one thing I don't have in my tool cache !

I will let you know how it goes.

Leaning towards doing them both in the end , because if one is bad , the other can't be too far behind.

So I will do the right one first and test drive it , and go from there.

Thanks again - SD

[SevilleDorado]

Well it ended up bieng the right side half-shaft. It had gone dry with no apperent leaks ?? I just replaced it when I did the struts so it appears it was never fully packed at manufacture ! - they replaced the part free.

So I now have both sides with new half shafts and wheel bearings.

Drivers side took over 6 hrs. to get apart ! 2 different pullers , and broke a 3 jaw I had. Used heat - PB Blaster - everything known to man - it fought me the whole way off to the last 1/8".

Passengers side apart, half shaft and bearing replaced in 1 hour.

Now looking at outer tie rod ends and upper and lower ball joints - then it should be good for another 100,000 miles !

Thanks for all the help and knowledge.

[airmike]

Well thats a first for me. I am just a home diy guy, but had never heard of that. Glad you got it changed out. How did you decide it was the problem? Take it off and then feel the roughness in the bearings?

[Golfer]

Thanks for all the input guys. I took the car to the Cadillac dealer for a road test. They said it was definately a wheel bearing. They wanted over $600

to replace it. I had already replaced the right bearing in January this year so I assumed it had to be the left one. So out I went and bought a new bearing for the left. Put it on and still the noise was there. I then took it to the Chevy dealer who had replaced the right bearing in January and asked them to road test it. Came back and said it was a wheel bearing, but could not pinpoint which one until they put the car on the hoist and use a stethoscope. Sure enough it was the right one which was bad. They replaced it under warranty.. All is good now.