reasons not to ignore chirping noises from the front wheel...

[Randall]

Hey guys, I just thought that I would put this out there since I am a seasoned SHO vet, and yet nearly drove right into tragedy by mistaking a noise my SHO had been making for a week or so as just squeaky suspension. I was driving around hearing what sounded to be a small bird chirping from my front driver's side wheel, with really no other symptoms. Then, a few days ago as my brother was watching me pull out of his driveway, he saw my front wheel "shimmy" a bit too much as I went into reverse, so out of curiosity we jacked up the front end to take a look, and as we were about to take the wheel off, we noticed it moved around like all the lugs were loose, but they were actually all tight! Long story short, I had a wheel bearing failure, and this picture below shows what happened as soon as I took the front axle out of the hub!


I was lucky that I found this in time as I commute about 70 miles everyday with this car, and it could have gotten really ugly! I also replaced these bearings with new Timken units when I did the '96 brake upgrade a little over 70,000 miles ago. So hopefully someone can read this and save themselves a big headache if they hear birds chirping while driving their SHO, lol!

 

[rubydist]

another example of the Timken fwb not lasting in our application.

glad you found it before an accident occurred.

 

[stangeater]

another example of the Timken fwb not lasting in our application.

It lasted 70,000 miles....

 

[SHOYAY]

I just did both my front wheel bearings today when I replaced the strut/spring assemblies. The bearings had a tiny bit of play in them but wasnt going to take a chance, replace them now while its apart

 

[icemaneric]

Glad you got it back together Randall, now its just a matter of passing the smog test.
Let me know if I could be of any help to you.

 

[lowc]

glad to hear that your wheel didnt pass you on the road. i havent found a bearing that will last on mine either.replaced the passenger front less than a year ago and it needs to be replaced again

 

[Randall]

Thanks Eric! I passed smog today, so now all that is left is getting new axles in there and some tires, and I am all set for a road trip/ mini meet!

Iowc, I had a similar problem on my first SHO, a '94 ATX, and it turned out that the spindle was bad, warped or something on the ****** where the bearing sits so that it never mated correctly. I replaced the spindle with a new one from Ford at the time, and the problem never came back, hopefully it's something easy to fix for you! (if not, try the AutoZone brand Valucraft bearings, it seems several members on this forum are having better results with those than the Timkens!

 

[TopGunnYFZ]

Timken was FTL! For me. I replaced with a national bearing from oriellys and had zero problems as well.

 

[JRA2000TL]

Wow...this post just helped me. I have the "bird chirp" noise coming from one of the front wheels of the 95...and I get a nice vibration at highway speeds. Time to jack up the car and to the 12 and 6 wheel shake. :theyareontome:

How difficult are these to replace if you have air tools? I will buy the whole hub assembly with the bearings integrated and do both sides while I'm at it...National brand, of course.