squeaky wheel bearing - aww, do i hafta fix it?

[manoverboard987]

this is gonna sound like a horrible question, but how long can i drive on a bad wheel bearing?

i've got the vibration and the squealy noise, but it's nothing thats gonna shake anything apart.

i swear - i'm not one for putting off maintenance and repair, it's just that i'm kinda stuck using my car for a while with it. i'm locked in to an 80-mile round trip to the Sebring 12 Hour Race and back, and i've gotta drive another 250 back up to Tallahassee either sunday or monday. i can skip monday's classes if need be to have the work done here before i take the long trip up to Tally. everything's closed before tomorrow's trip though, but i think it will survive at least that long since it squealed all the way down from Tallahassee today.

[AmyJane]

I'd say if you werent driving it that much then it would be ok to put it off. But with all that driving you're going to be doing I would def get it fixed sooner rather than later.
If it breaks while you're driving it could cause the wheel to seperate from the car and or cause a loss of steering control. Seriously, thats alot of driving to do on a bad bearing. I would do it now.

[from Margaritaville...]

I drove on a bad bearing for a while and ended up with the remains of the bearing assy. "welded" to the axle from the friction. Had to replace the axle...

[Oyveychris]

Not a good thing if it's noisy. Maybe you can just pack some fresh grease (keep in mind I've never done wheel bearings on a NB) in there until you can get a new bearing and race assembly...

[manoverboard987]

thanks everyone

just so you know, i didn't take the beetle to sebring (i drove my aunt's hyundai instead - it's a quick little gas sipper, but it doesn't hold a candle to the NB), and i'm skipping monday's (and probably tuesday's) classes to get it worked on.

i just hope that driving down from tallahassee on it didn't do too much damage (if any).

[manoverboard987]

as it turns out, the repairman determined that it was the driver's side wheel bearing that was goin bad, and was the source of the vibration. he was right, and the vibration is gone. i thought it had fixed the squeal too.

since i've had it back up here, however, the squealy squeal in the passenger side front wheel has returned. remember, this is a squeal that occurs when i'm not braking (well, if it occurs when i'm braking i can't hear it over my brake squeals), and it's not a constant squeal (as in it goes "squeal-silence-squeal-silence-squeal-silence-squeal"). and it's not loud either.

since it's not constant, i'm wondering if it has to do with my brakes? as in the brake pads aren't retracting all the way after i let off and it drags on the rotor as it starts spinning up. i know that it's definitely at its worst when i start out from a stop.

any ideas?

or is it the passenger wheel bearing going bad too?

[fohveh]

Sounds like the pad/rotor are squealing, the bearing is more obvious as it does its own thing like you just learned on the drivers side. I have a squeaky rear right rotor/pad contact, when I changed my brakes I didn't retract the piston all the way in so the set point is a little higher then it should be putting the pad up against the rotor just enough that it squeaks. You don't hear it when you brake pretty much sums it up. Your sliders may be seizing a bit, not retracting all the way when you let off the brake, rotor is warped, cheapy brake pads; a number of nuisance type things. You would have to jack the car up and take the carrier off the caliper and clean it up to see if its the slider or what. If you spin the tire with the car off the ground it may not squeak because the load of the car creates different forces so just take it apart anyways and relube the slider.

[manoverboard987]

Originally Posted by fohveh

Sounds like the pad/rotor are squealing, the bearing is more obvious as it does its own thing like you just learned on the drivers side. I have a squeaky rear right rotor/pad contact, when I changed my brakes I didn't retract the piston all the way in so the set point is a little higher then it should be putting the pad up against the rotor just enough that it squeaks. You don't hear it when you brake pretty much sums it up. Your sliders may be seizing a bit, not retracting all the way when you let off the brake, rotor is warped, cheapy brake pads; a number of nuisance type things. You would have to jack the car up and take the carrier off the caliper and clean it up to see if its the slider or what. If you spin the tire with the car off the ground it may not squeak because the load of the car creates different forces so just take it apart anyways and relube the slider.

does it make sense that it would get worse (louder) as my trip goes on?

cuz it does.

but it resets every time my car is parked for a while.