CV going bad?

Hello,
My '97 Riviera is having some issues: When I turn the wheel to the right and I accelerate, I hear (and feel in the form of a high frequency vibration) a humming noise. The noise instantly disappears the moment the wheel returns towards the center. At about the same time this began, I started hearing a clunk when I went from coast to accelerating, specially at low speeds or coming from a stop. I am feeling a vibration in the steering wheel, but this may be unrelated.

Is my CV going? I just got under the car and both boots were intact and there was no noticeable play. Thanks,
Mikel

It sounds like two possible problems at the same time. (How many miles are on the car?)
The humming noise while turning and accelerating could be a bad wheel bearing and the clunk could be some other front end part that is worn i.e., ball joint, control arm bushing, etc. Or it all could be a bearing starting to fail.
You need to jack the car with a floor jack from under the control arm (do one side at a time) and try to move the wheel / tire assembly by pushing and pulling from the 3 and 9 o'clock position and and see if you can feel and/or hear any play in the front end. Also, try the same thing from the 12 and 6 o'clock position. You will be able to feel the wheel bearing if it is worn and/or loose.
Finally with control arm jacked up and wheel an inch or two off the ground use a pry bar and quickly lift and let drop the front wheel / tire. If a ball joint is worn you will feel the play as you jerk the pry bar up and release. It is always best to have 2 people doing this. One to move the wheel and another looking at the front end components with a flashlight to see if any thing is moving or has excessive play.
If you don't have a floor jack, any shop will do this for you free, if they think they are going to get to replace components for you.
Just ask to have your front end checked for play and tell them what your experiencing, any half decent mechanic will isolate the problem for you.
A place like Sears might be a good place to have the check done if you don't have a local mechanic / shop that you regularly do business with.

I suspect the humming could be the starting noise of a bad wheel bearing. Is your ABS/Trac light on?

To the clunking - I have a similar clunk and I strongly suspect a transmission mount, but I haven't been able to prove it yet.

Car has 134K miles. Another sympton: When I turn the wheel at a stop, sometimes I hear a click-click-click. I just got in the car and tried to replicate it, but could not reproduce the noise - I tried to advance the car a foot at the time, to try it at different wheel/CV angles.

No ABS lights.

I have thought about a wheel bearing, but why does it only happen when I turn to one side?

I will lift the car tomorrow and check the items you guys suggested.

Thank you.

Mikel,
When you jack car up, Also try to turn wheel from left to right (stop to stop) and right to left, and listen / feel for upper strut mount bearing binding or clicking.
Do you know how old the struts and upper mount bearings are.???

Click-click-click does indicate the CV joint. Doesn't have to have a ripped boot for a joint to go bad...

I checked everything and saw no obvious play anywhere. I replaced the right hand side CV (where the noise seemed to come from) and since the hub bearings seemed to be OK, I cleaned, repacked them with grease and reinstalled them. Noise is still there

At least I won't have to worry about that CV going bad for a while...

Mikel wrote:

I checked everything and saw no obvious play anywhere. I replaced the right hand side CV (where the noise seemed to come from) and since the hub bearings seemed to be OK, I cleaned, repacked them with grease and reinstalled them. Noise is still there

I thought the hub bearings are sealed. How did you re-pack them with grease.?
Were you able to inspect, listen to or feel the upper strut bearing. I think you said you get the noise when turning the wheels and seems to be coming from the right front, correct.?
The upper strut mount and bearing assembly could be dry and/or worn out and will give you noises when trying to move the wheel. The problem with inspecting that is it is very difficult if not impossible to grease or properly inspect it while installed.
You may have to remove the bolts or nuts (depending on the year) from the upper strut tower under the hood and then lower the strut and bearing and get a good look at it. Or if you have someone turn the wheel left to right while you try and feel, listen or look at it. They should be replaced when struts are changed but not everyone does that. So even if your struts were replaced sometime in the past, that doesn't necessarily mean the bearing / mount assy was replaced also.
You need to remember the weight of the car is on this bearing normally and takes a beating over time. It is what the suspension pivots on.
There is no grease fitting to use but I have a needle type adapter for my grease gun that i use to grease things like that. But I've only done it with the mount / bearing assembly removed from the car.

wait, what car is this?!? you cant repack wheel bearings on a 95+ riviera. they are a sealed unit that must be replaced as a hub assembly.
The hub will make noise during a turn because it puts strain on the bearings opposite to the direction you are turning. (driver bearing if there is noise on right turns and visa verse)

damn rick, you beat me to it by like a second!

No you can't repack wheel bearings, but I assumed he meant he repacked the CV joints with grease...

It's a 97. When I pulled the hub, I could see the balls inside the hub, right next to the targets for the hall effect sensor. I hit them with brake cleaner and then added new grease. There was something that looked like a seal on the knuckle, but I didn't pay much attention to it. The bearing turned smoothly, with no abnormal play. I'm assuming this isn't normal...?
Thanks,
Mikel

You aren't supposed to disassemble the bearings, they are intended to be sealed units and not serviceable. Not saying that you can't do it, but you aren't supposed to.

deekster_caddy wrote:

You aren't supposed to disassemble the bearings, they are intended to be sealed units and not serviceable. Not saying that you can't do it, but you aren't supposed to.

Like I said, when the hub came out, the bearings (at least the outer one) were completely unshielded and the balls were exposed. wish I had taken a picture...

Mikel wrote:

deekster_caddy wrote:

You aren't supposed to disassemble the bearings, they are intended to be sealed units and not serviceable. Not saying that you can't do it, but you aren't supposed to.

Like I said, when the hub came out, the bearings (at least the outer one) were completely unshielded and the balls were exposed. wish I had taken a picture...

If you saw the balls you really need to replace the hub assembly (the bearing/wheel sensor) pronto. This won't be apparent until you get a new hub and look at them side by side.

Albertj

The hub/bearing assembly unbolts from the backside of the knuckle and comes out as a unit. Did you just pull the outside of the hub out? It should not come apart that easily. None of the balls or the wheel speed sensor should ever be visible.

speaking of hubs, who uses Timkens, SKFs, or the Chinese hubs?

Albertj

I've only purchased Timkens. They are reasonably priced at RockAuto and locally.
Would never buy a Chinese bearing, your not saving any money in the long run.
I would buy SKF's as well without worry.

I prefer Timkens, they really know how to make stuff roll and they even research th emetallurgy themselves. First class.

THese folks claim to sell TImken bearings and I think also bearings made elsewhere in the US but they are not clear on who nor on if hteh are casting the metal or assembling parts. Tthey don't really say.

http://mibearings.com/

As for the Chinese bearings, I dunno. I bet that if GM is having them made over there for the Shanghai GM Regals they are pretty good. But that also means that there are about 25 other foundries making knockoffs that are not so good... probably impossible to tell if you have good ones or knockoffs.

Albertj

Until recently I would only consider a wheel bearing from GM, after having several bad experiences with wheel speed sensors, but that was many years ago and I think things have changed in the aftermarket.

albertj wrote:

As for the Chinese bearings, I dunno. I bet that if GM is having them made over there for the Shanghai GM Regals they are pretty good. But that also means that there are about 25 other foundries making knockoffs that are not so good... probably impossible to tell if you have good ones or knockoffs. Albertj

As far as the bearings, or any parts for that matter, that are Chinese I have yet to see quality being exported from there to here.
If they are capable of manufacturing anything with quality I have to assume they are not exporting to us.
"Fair Trade" ; I don't think so.

The quality Chinese parts will probably never crowd out the inferior Chinese parts if only becuase there are always buyers (parts jobbers) who want to save a buck (autozone?!?) and end users who buy on price because they can not tell if parts meet specs beyond the observable measurements (they are not metallurgists, for instance) or are not willing to pay for the quality.

Albertj

Mikel - I noticed when recently replacing a front hub they can come apart while being removed (that's a sure indication they were bad) mine gave little indication it was bad other than a slight drone sound at speed and I too thought CV... isnce it's more likely the wheel bearing go ahead and replace both, if the click is still there ten you"ll have to do the CV but start with a chronicly bad component in our cars, they pretty much all need replacing after 120K

According to the mibearings.com web site - one way to reckon if your hub is going bad, supposedly, is to drive a mile or two stop-and-go, then get out and feel the hub. Popping off the hub cover is fine for this. Point is brake disc shoudl be warm and hub should still be cool. If hub got warm in a mile or so of driving, it's supposedly going bad whether it is making noise or not.


Albertj