What do you guys think , is this a bad wheel bearing ? A lot of the bad bearing clips I've seen the wheels wobble too freely. This "play" in the wheel that I have requires me to apply some weight/effort on it to move. I checked a few of the bolts behind the hub area and they where tight.

There aren't any noises that I'm aware of. Im not sure if this is a related side effect but the steering sensitivity/quickness/snappiness is quite a bit less.

The driver side is the same maybe slightly less. The rear wheels are solid and don't have any play.


Thanks,

 

My front wheels are solid and don't have any play. If the ball joint isn't moving, the strut isn't moving, the lower control arm isn't moving and the axle nut isn't loose, that leaves wheel bearing.

 

Thanks for the info. I didnt think about the axle nut. I'll check the axle nut if it's loose or not . I'm pretty sure it's the bearing just wished it wasn't so I can spend the money on mods instead of maintenance .

 

I would say so. You can try and hit the axle nuts with a impact gun. If it dont help put bearings in it.

They are bolt on. Easy money

 

If DIY the bearings, I can tell you how I did mine.

 

From what I’ve seen it seems pretty straight forward from the video i found below. But if you have any additional info or shortcuts your advise is appreciated.


I will be doing one additional step of installing extended wheel studs. And what i found searching evom is instead of pounding them out I can use the ball joint removal tool . Maybe even using a C-Clamp with a socket as an alternative to buying the ball joint tool.

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...safe-easy.html

 

Good video but here's some bonus footage:

Rust is 2.5 times the volume of steel - the world's best loc-tite. My car had both bearings rust welded on. Rather than trying to fight these I just pulled the knuckles and carried them to a shop with a press. If the bearing is rusted in then the abs sensor is rusted in too. There's a connector in the abs wiring directly above the rotor. The fender liner has to be removed for access.

 

I would think that the wheel bearings would be hellaciously noisy if they were that loose, so my guess is something in suspension. Take the wheel off, and bolt a bar to the hub so that you can see what's moving.

 

Tips provided on these pages are from people telling us how their wheel bearing failed. The more general case is that a wheel bearing can fail noisy or quiet and noisy bearings can be loose or tight. Also, swerving left or right to tell which bearing is bad works about 50% of the time.

I do agree any play needs to be isolated to the bearing. Otherwise, the wrong part may be replaced. For a very experienced mechanic this amounts to no more than a shake and a glance. Less experienced people need to look more carefully.

A noisy but tight bearing transmits vibration through the spring which can be felt while spinning the wheel.

 

I'll be looking more closely before replacing the hub . Other than the brake pad noise on the rotor I don't hear anything out of norm when just spinning the wheel. My exhaust is on the loud side so I didn't hear anything before when I was driving it. Right now it's on jack stands preparing for winter and some mods I'll be doing in the mean time.

The interesting part is , all the videos I've seen of the bearings going bad , the wheel is easy to wobble. Although it may not look like it in the video , I am putting a good amount of body weight/force to have it move like that . I'll keep you guys updated on what I find.

 

Update:
After I bought 2 oem front wheel bearings/hub units , I found that it's not the bearing lol . It just didn't feel right to me that only pushing the top of the wheel resulted in this movement. Also it required a lot of body weight to get it to move compared to all the bad wheel bearing videos I've seen.

I decided to do one more inspection and this time i was feeling on different areas for movements instead of just visually searching. That's when I found the source to be the coilover. It's bolted on tight to the chassis and hub. But the nut below the spring is loose and I felt some play that was also visible. I'm not sure if it's the height adjustment lock nut or for the spring. Later when I get more time I'll work on it and update this thread .

 

Alright fellow Evo enthusiasts, all is fixed now. It was caused by only that loose lock nut on the coilover that locks the height adjustment. I tightened it down and wheel is solid now.

So if any one out there reading this with similar wheel movement, before you buy a new wheel bearing/hub I suggest checking your aftermarket coilover's height adjustment nut.

 

Nice info! Going to check my coilovers before I replace the wheel bearing.

 

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