Wheel Bearing Failure?How can I tell for sure?

[vtsquid]

Wife told me her car was making a "scraping" noise from left rear wheel area.I just assumed that the brakes were on their last legs (original pads/rotors with 70,000 miles on them).No big deal since I have pads and rotors ready to go on.I told her not to worry and drive it anyway and I would get to it on Saturday.Well yesterday,she gets home and tells me that her car smells hot coming from left rear wheel area.Sure enough,the wheel is quite warm to the touch.I pulled off the wheel to check if the brake caliper might be seized a little,but it wasn't.Brakes are definitely used up though.I thought maybe the wheel bearing might be the cause but could not detect any unusual play in the shaft.How can I tell for sure if the wheel bearing might have failed? Car is parked right now and she's driving my lifted Duramax (not too happy about that).Thanks for any help guys.

[swaggerwagon]

Take it around a turn. When you shift weight onto the side with the bad wheel bearing, it will get louder. When you shift weight onto the side that doesn't have the bad wheel bearing, you really won't be able to hear it. Also, a bad wheel bearing will more than likely lead to cupped tires, depending on how long you've had it.

[vtsquid]

Take it around a turn. When you shift weight onto the side with the bad wheel bearing, it will get louder. When you shift weight onto the side that doesn't have the bad wheel bearing, you really won't be able to hear it. Also, a bad wheel bearing will more than likely lead to cupped tires, depending on how long you've had it.

Thanks.I'll try try this.

[vtsquid]

Assuming it turns out to be a wheel bearing,is there a "DIY" on this somewhere?I consider myself to be more of a "diesel head" than a Audi mechanic....I tried a google search but it wasn't really helpful.

[MacFady]

Jack up car for suspect wheel, grab it at 12 and 6 and try to rock it back and forth, shouldn't be much play at all. Also, like mentioned above, go for a drive and turn the wheel to swurve back and forth a little bit. If you here the sound come and go with the weight transfer then that can also be a good indication. The sound in my experience has been more of a grinding sound at low speeds or a howling sound at higher speeds that comes and goes.

[Dirt Yota]

Here is a quick video I found(Skip ahead to show how the bearing comes apart). Looks like the rear wheel bearings on these cars are similar to like a Toyota pickup front bearing in that you take it off with the rotor(Bearing attached to the rotor) and have to repack with grease/swap out the race and set to a certain torque while spinning the wheel.

If you look up my example Toyota pickup front bearing replacement I bet you will find it's almost the same exact process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWvARnYtW0A

[vtsquid]

Thanks guys for the replies.As suggested I will jack the car up and rock the wheel back and forth and check for play.I'm going to change the brakes anyway on Sat.I'll update this thread in case anyone is interested.-Andy.