Wheel bearing?

Hi guys,

I'm trying to diagnose a 'whine' from what sounds like the front nearside. It's gradually getting worse.

It's there all the time, varies with road speed, no change when cornering or braking. Gear choice makes no difference. Tyres are fine, with even wear, same tread depth front and rear. VCU runs cool.

I suspect a wheel bearing, or god forbid IRD. 95K miles.

A search did not turn up very much that was helpful other than wheel bearings are not a quick job to change or easy to confirm.

Anyone had bearing probs?

How should I go about confirming this? I've jacked up and tried rocking the wheel but can feel no play.

According to Haynes this is not the easy check/adjust I thought it would be.

Last bearing I did was a front wheel on a rear wheel drive Escort - a piece of cake - adjust and replace split pin, and grease the cap.

This is very very different.

They only give details of replacing.

All ideas welcome, except those involving matches or fire-lighters.

Thanks, Singvogel.

they are difficult to diagnose ,the only way to be sure is change them ,requires a press

Anyone else?

Please?

what do you want to know ive done hundreds and what i said is true ,they arent like defender disco 1 wheel bearings as you last did ,they are like modern car bearings were both bearings come in one sealed unit ,they have to get really bad before free play shows ,noise is the first indicator ,you can try removing brake pads and spinning disc but it doesnt allways show then ,bearings are cheap but you do need a good press to change them

what a lot of people do is buy bearings and remove hub assembly from vehicle and take it to good mechanic/local engineers and get them to remove/refit bearing ,usually cornering shows which bearing ,lh bend rh bearing, rh bend lh bearing as car weight is placed on that wheel

Nearside driveshaft is also worth a look, this happened to me.

Sadly it turned out to be indicative of the IRD which was broken.

Thanks for the extra info folks - I'm a good bit clearer on it now.

Singvogel.

Hi Singvogel. I have what i think is the same problem as you. Mine is a whine from the front nearside and it starts at about 30mph up to 40 mph and the same back down the speed range.Am also trying to locate the culprit.

I had a rear bearing go - I cannot believe how much noise it made and how quickly it came on. I got it changed at the same time as the clutch job.

It needs a press do as not to damage it - I changed both fronts ony last Freelander 2.0DL and it was a real pain to do - no ABS do easier than the later one I have now.

They have to be fitted with the magnetic side facing the abs sensor and without a press you will very possibly damage them - I did on the old car.

I have the same wine so am watching the thread with interest. I have a floor standing press in my garage with a 12Tonne bottle jack on it (From machine mart) - will this be enough to press the bearings?

Is'nt it possible to use a vice to press the bearings in? I did this on a Clio sport saving £25 a bearing the garage wanted to do it.

joe27979 said:

I have the same wine so am watching the thread with interest. I have a floor standing press in my garage with a 12Tonne bottle jack on it (From machine mart) - will this be enough to press the bearings?

Click to expand...

yes , but not an easy shape to fit square in a press ,refitting is easier than removal, and remember you ned to support inner part of bearing when prressing in wheel hub

hi guys,

new to forum but i just suffered with the same noise being described. turned out to be the bearings failed in the IRD. luckily i only purchased car 3 months ago and took it back to where i bought it. i ended up having a brand new IRD fitted as most suppliers of recon IRDs where not doing them anymore due to lack of availability or quality internals. i paid £300 towards the £1600 repair bill which i was hppy with.

one thing i have noticed that before the IRD was replaced when my freelander was moving on full lock i could hear noises coming from the car. now i have had ird replaced there is no noise what so ever. the normal "tightness is still there" but no noise.

just a note....drop the oil on your IRD as min was full of metal filings which caused the drivshaft oil seal to fail and leak.


hope this helps

Hi, and welcome to LandyZone.

I sure hope it's not the IRD that's making the noise.

I'm actually set to change the oil in the IRD on Monday.

The drain plug is magnetic I believe, so we will see if it comes out looking like a miniature metal Xmas tree!

You're right about the scarcity of recon IRDs.

Bell Engineering certainly don't do them any more.

Caio,

Singvogel.

well mine came from bearmach in the end £950 ish + VAT....looks out of place though as its nice in shiney!!

i hope its not the IRD fella but i originally thought it was the front passenger side wheel bearing also

fingers crossed no metal filings

hey guys.. i had same whine front offside wrecking my head for last few weeks.. couldnt find any play in the wheel so put it up on the lift and with wheels on i got a guy to sit in it and start it up and drive in mid air and vwolla..
clear as day noise of a beaing gone AND imbalanced wheel..which prob caused it in the first place.. easy enough to changed granted you have proper tools but beware the three amigos.. as i have found out..

it could be the vcu bearings I had a wine which I thought was coming from the nearside front until the wife said it seems to be comeing from undernieth so I got it inspected and it was the vcu bearings we have also changed a bearing on offside front you can knock them out but you do need to press them in I used a tube bender hydrulic of course I anaged to stap the stub axel down and do it that way hell of a job though you do really need the proper press

teddywood1 said:

it could be the vcu bearings I had a wine which I thought was coming from the nearside front until the wife said it seems to be comeing from undernieth so I got it inspected and it was the vcu bearings we have also changed a bearing on offside front you can knock them out but you do need to press them in I used a tube bender hydrulic of course I anaged to stap the stub axel down and do it that way hell of a job though you do really need the proper press

Click to expand...

Thanks for that - it's very difficult to correctly pin-point the source of any noise when on the move.

I'll check the bearings tomorrow when I can get it on a ramp - what exactly am I going to look for, and how to decide if they need to be replaced? The VCU itself is fine just gently warm and no apparent probs.

S.

If its not too late to tell you, undo the IRD level/filler plug first as these are sometimes difficult to undo and head corners have been rounded off. You cant use the vehicle with an empty IRD!!!

I am with Teddywood on this one as the first thing to check.
I had the noise coming from what I thought was the nearside front.
Previous owner had even changed the wheel bearing to try to cure it.

As for checking,if you can drop the VCU just enough to spin the bearings without pulling on the front joint you should be able to tell if they are the problem.
If they spin to easy but slightly gritty,thats the problem.

There seems to be a lot of whirly bits on a Freelander which transmit noise fron one end to the other,making it hard to detect where the noise is coming from.Diagnosis is the biggest part of the problem.

IRD oil.Definitely undo the level plug 1st and be prepared for a loud crack when it gives.