…The answer is YES!! I have been plagued with a noisy car for about a year now. It’s been slowly getting worse. At first, I thought it was the cheap used tires I had just purchased. Up till now, I would only buy used tires but this episode managed to change my mind. So I tried having them re-balanced. It seemed to help but hardly got rid of the noise I was starting to hear from my car at various speeds. It surely seemed to be bad tires –I’ve heard similar noises in the past and that was exactly what the problem was. So I just kept driving with the noise, I’d turn the music up or just talk louder on my bluetooth headset and wait for the tire to finally blow… Well that moment never came! After nearly a year of a progressively louder problem, I finally had enough money to break down and buy brand new tires from Affordable Tire in Palmdale. First of all, these guys managed to replace my tires AND two broken lug nuts in less than 20 min –and all for a fairly reasonable price. Well you can imagine my dismay when I drove off their lot with the EXACT same noise as when I arrived!! I could just about cry. So now I started looking into what the source of the noise could possibly be now: bearings, ball joints, drive axles, etc…
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I figured it was time to call a professional. I called a friend of mine that works on International Harvesters named Isa (check out his website for more info). A quick check of the car revealed that there was a noise coming from the right wheel when it was the only one turning. That surely meant bearings. A quick check around town told me that a new assembly would cost me about $80 to order. I happen to own the factory manual in PDF for my car so I was able to quickly determine the part I needed… I also started checking around eBay for sources to see if I could save any money buying directly from Detroit (apparently all the vendors for these sort of things come from Detroit exclusively). As t turns out, it’s possible to purchase either the entire front hub assembly or just the bearings alone. I figured that if that was possible, the bearings should slide off of the hub without any problem…
Boy was I wrong! After pulling the front hub assembly, I spent the next 4 hours pounding and pounding to try and get the bearings off the hub! I was desperate because I now had my car parked diagonally in my driveway, jacked up, with a wheel and various parts removed and I just wasn’t willing to now order new parts! I guess it would have been smarter to spend the extra $10 to get the entire bearing assembly as opposed to the $30 bearings. Well, I was committed now and had to find a solution… I slept on it and started making calls in the morning and managed to find a machine shop in Lancaster called “AV Bumper-to-Bumper” that was more than willing to pull the old bearings and press in the new ones for a measly $40. If I had just done my homework before taking the car apart, I would have learned that no one does just the bearings! Oh well, chalk it up to a $40 learning experience! Also I think you should take a look at these old models of Mustangs if you’re planning to buy a classic car. You could also check the interior, and to maintain the classic look, contact Wet Okole car seat covers. Here’s a few other lessons learned in this process…
1) YouTube is a fantastic resource for learning just about anything you want regarding working on your car. But If you need brake repair, it’s still best to trust a mechanic do the job. Here are the videos that got me through the process:
This little tip video showed me how to remove the hub nut without any straining at all! I happened to have all the necessary tools to pull this job off without a single hitch. Very ingenious trick but sure made my life much easier! I’ve pulled hub nuts in the past and they are a real pain without some very expensive air tools (or this tip).
Although this is a video meant for a domestic car,the principles are the same and some of their tips for loosening bolts around the bearing assembly really helped me not work so hard or improperly… Great video!
This guy is actually working a Mitsubishi so that was nice. In his example, he shows tapping the axle shaft back so you have access to the bolts behind the bearing assembly. That was invaluable to me! I was absolutely at a loss as to how to do this otherwise.
Lastly, this video was a good indicator of just what I was lucky enough to avoid! Had the bearing failed completely, I’m sure I would be replacing a LOT more parts than just the hub assembly!! I really dodged a bullet here…
One final note here worth mentioning is the value of owning good tools. Most of all my tools are brand-name quality like Snap-On or Craftsman. I heard it mentioned in these videos and have experienced for myself the value of good tools and the curse of using cheap tools. In this last exercise, I’d have to say that I put some of my socket tools and breaker bars to the test and had not one issue with them. I can also attest to previous experiences in the past where things didn’t turn out that well using cheaper products!
All in all, this was a good learning experience for me. I will say that next time I will be sure to check out all the YouTube videos I possibly can before even ordering any parts (and check out the discussion forums related to the project for additional tips). $40 isn’t a bad price to pay for my education this weekend!