humming and vibrating in front driver side wheel

[flyweed]

Hey guys..wasn't sure if I should put this in drivetrain or wheels section. Anyway, I have a 2004 Envoy XL, and have had a bit of vibration and a very noticable "hum" in the front driverside wheel/tire. I thought at first it was a tire that had a slipped steel belt in it, as it sounded and felt like that...so the other day I was doing an air suspension to Coil Spring conversion, and since I had the rear tires off, I thought I'd rotate all the tires, and see if the vibration and hum moved to the rear passenger side, where I moved the front driver side tire. NO LUCK.

The front driver side is STILL making the same vibration and humming noise. It goes away when I turn to the RIGHT, but when I turn to the LEFT I hear it..OR, if I am driving down a straight away, and I turn the steeringwheel counterclockwise about an inch I'll get the noise and vibration too.


What's going on? I know now it's not the tire or wheel....something in the steering must be outta whack or something.

Any thoughts???

Thanks
Dan

 

[jrSS]

Bad wheel bearing easy fix. You do not have a 4.3 v6. U have a 4.2 i6

 

[The_Roadie]

Factory wheel bearings have been known to die anywhere from 50K miles on up. How many did you get?

 

[flyweed]

how many of what did I get?

So it's a bearing if I turn to the left and I get vibration and a humming noise? So this is the front driver side bearing? Do they come in sets, or do you buy them seperate? are there bearings out there that are better than others?

Is there a DIY on how to replace them?

Thanks Guys

Dan

 

[The_Roadie]

Well, typically, the noisy bearing is the one on the outside of the turn, but I got fooled once and changed the wrong one. Many, many discussions if you search for the phrase "wheel bearings". Timkens have been discussed as a good brand. Are you a DIYer or a pay-the-mechanic, or worse....a pay-the-dealer person?

 

[flyweed]

I am a total DIY'er. Like I said, I just got done doing a rear end air suspension swap out to a coil spring and shock conversion to it. I replace my own brakes, etc. FIgure I can probably do this too, but just need to know if I should JUST replace the bearing, or get a complete bearing and hub kit.

I just don't wanna buy two, and don't want to rip apart both sides if I can find out beforehand which side is the bad bearing.

Dan

 

[Sparky]

The bearing is sealed and one piece. You have to get an entire hub unit, there is no way around that.

I was fooled once too on the bearing thing, but one way I found that seems to be very helpful is to jack up the front end so both front wheels are off the ground, then grab a hold of the coil spring from underneath while spinning the wheel (maybe have some spin it for you, faster you spin it the easier it is). Do that on both sides. The side that you can feel the roughness in the spring is the side that is shot.

 

[NYFlapjack2]

Mine tried to fool me.......
The last 2-3 weeks I had a bad hum at 30-40 mph and it would go away in shallow left turns, & back to noisy steering centered and on shallow right turns. I could rock in my lane, to left center & to right. Noise off (LH turn) & on (center to RH turn) respectively, play it noisy or not,on demand and I thought it was getting worse.

Armed with the photo knowledge, the steps from posters off the forums, using my bros lift and all his awesome air tools it made quick work of them
Today I installed new (SKF-NAPA,thanks again bro) front hubs.
I planned on doing both sides just because I was there and knew after 6 years of rust it won't be any easier to take off later if I did just one.
Using these forums it sure sounded like diagnosis was the RH hub so I attacked the RH side 1st.
Before wheel removal it rolled, offered no wiggle & seemed to be fine.

Then I tore into the Left side, it too rolled & seemed to turn fine so not obvious problem without weight on it there.
Upon removal though I found that inner wheel bearing had the seal ring off (see picture) and sure looked real dirty & dry in there.
That inner wheel bearing seal ring was already off the bearing and it fell off when I pulled the hub away and off the CV drive shaft spline.

Not happy that a 2006 SAABlazer 97x with only 48,485 miles on it as of today needed this done, but as you can see Syracuse the "salt-city" sure doesn't help these things either.
Road test a complete & quite success... : )

 

[flyweed]

Looks like maybe if I have to have the car jacked up, I may as well do both sides. Mean hums and makes road noise, when I take left turns, or go around curves that turn left...if I make a right hand turn, or turn the wheel a little to the right or clockwise in a straightaway, the noise goes away. But sitting in the driver seat, I "feel" and hear the noise on my side of the car.

Anyway, I'll jack it up and see what I can find.

Dan

Mine tried to fool me.......
The last 2-3 weeks I had a bad hum at 30-40 mph and it would go away in shallow left turns, & back to noisy steering centered and on shallow right turns.
I could rock in my lane left to right and make it on & off respectively, play it noisy or not on demand and it was getting worse.

Armed with the photo knowledge, the steps from posters off the forums, using my bros lift and all his awesome air tools it made quick work of them
Today I installed new (SKF-NAPA,thanks again bro) front hubs.
I planned on doing both sides just because I was there and knew after 6 years of rust it won't be any easier to take off later if I did just one.
Using these forums it sure sounded like diagnosis was the RH hub so I attacked the RH side 1st.
Before wheel removal it rolled, offered no wiggle & seemed to be fine.

Then I tore into the Left side, it too rolled & seemed to turn fine so not obvious problem without weight on it there.
Upon removal though I found that inner wheel bearing had the seal ring off (see picture) and sure looked real dirty & dry in there.
That inner wheel bearing seal ring was already off the bearing and it fell off when I pulled the hub away and off the CV drive shaft spline.

Not happy that a 2006 SAABlazer 97x with only 48,485 miles on it as of today needed this done, but as you can see Syracuse the "salt-city" sure doesn't help these things either.
Road test a complete & quite success... : )

 

[X97chevy]

[video=youtube_share;yZ13Qet234c]http://youtu.be/yZ13Qet234c[/video]

Hope that helps its actually pretty easy.

 

[flyweed]

Got my bearings and will be changing both front bearings out this weekend...BUT, I found something else broken...Over on the passenger side...I don't know the name of the part, so I don't know what to order...can anyone help me out with the name of this "link" that is obviously broken.

 

[The_Roadie]

Anti-sway bar end link. Sometimes called a stabilizer or sway bar.

 

[Enderbygrandpa]

I would change the swaybar bushings while your at it.