Wheel wobble from wheel bearing replacement?

NYSpeed Automotive
1

I just kind of put this out of my mind for a long time, but it came back up after similar symptoms happened to someone else I know. Had wheel bearings replaced almost a year ago, and afterwards I noticed a wheel wobble at highway speeds. Figured it was just poor wheel balancing and I only noticed it because I was looking for it. It’s not super harsh or anything, but certainly noticeable.

So time goes by, decided to get an alignment and wheel balancing, the problem still remained. Thought eh, maybe uneven tire wear, but since have gotten new tires and new wheels and it still remains. So that takes out tire wear, balancing, alignment, bent wheel as possibilities.

Additional note, on some occasions I can get up to highway speed (70mph or so), and it will not wobble at all until i hit a bump and then it will remain consistent wobble until I hit 80 or drop below 65 or so. I realize its pretty random but it is literally the exact same situation I heard from someone else post wheel bearing replacement…

I don’t doubt that the problem may have existed prior to the wheel bearing replacement and I just never noticed it. just giving all of the info :stuck_out_tongue:

What else could cause this ?

2

Drivetrain related, half-shaft/drive-shaft out of balance perhaps?

3

Do you have aftermarket rims? If so they might not be hub-centric.

4

Check for rust between the hub and rotor. I’ve seen new bearing be installed and someone dosent clean the inside hub of the rotor and cause this.

5

This is the part that concerns me. Any kind of balanced induced wobble happens all the time. If the wheel/halfshaft/rim/wheel mounting is out of balance or out of round the wobble would happen all the time since all of those things don’t change.

If you wobble only happens sometimes I would assume something is loose or worn and giving the wheel enough play that sometimes it’s rolling perfectly round and other times it’s rolling slightly eliptical.

Jack it up at each corner and start shaking each wheel looking for play.

6

i’d have to venture a guess of a worn bushing. As Jay stated it should remain constant for it to be something else. Definitely time to have her up in the air and give it a good once over.

7

I imagine they didn’t replace the inner tie rod end when you curbed the car last year. I would be willing to bet that it is worn.

I have seen this multiple times.

8

iirc it was replaced, however i have a hard time remembering now since it was from a while ago

also, it is rare when it does not happen. i’d say 90% of the time it happens every time :wink:

Either way I know that only 2 of 4 bearings were replaced and its certainly possible that the other 2 have started to go bad. Have not checked in a while

9

i recently had a problem with my tl with a wobble like that, and it ended up that both front cv’s were no good even though neither had broken boots, one was noisy and loose and the other was just about seized. After both were replaced the wobble went away.

10

siezed joints in a cv will cause a wobble and so will loose steering parts. Wheel bearings generally do not give you a wobble. Unless of course they are falling out of the car but if a wheel bearing fails it usually gives you a tell tale groaning sound that intensifies with road speed.