Signs of Front wheel bearing failure?

[James Crivellone]

So during the tech inspection today the tech noticed that my 2 front wheels can move in and out a tad (you can feel it move) However after looking everything is tight and nothing seems out of place.

Could this be this sign of worn out front wheel bearings? They make ZERO noise and the car handles/drives fine without anything seeming wrong.

I'm pulling the motor in July so I was going to re-torque EVERYTHING. I have never replaced the wheel bearins since i've owned the car..currently the chassis itself/hubs have 219K miles on them.

Any ideas? or is there another thing I should check?

[T.Dot E30]

Yup, if you are sure its not the tie rods or ball joint, the play is most likely coming from the wheel bearing.

[James Crivellone]

Yup, if you are sure its not the tie rods or ball joint, the play is most likely coming from the wheel bearing.

all suspension (bushings, balljoints etc) has been replaced, so yeah it sounds like a wheel bearing.


Any special tools needed? I know the rears are a bitch (no play there though =) )

[AdamF 88iS]

Yup, if you are sure its not the tie rods or ball joint, the play is most likely coming from the wheel bearing.

all suspension (bushings, balljoints etc) has been replaced, so yeah it sounds like a wheel bearing.


Any special tools needed? I know the rears are a bitch (no play there though =) )

There is a special tool for putting the new bearing on, if you're not careful it's easy to ruin the bearing on installation. I'm sure people have done it with regular tools though, they arent nearly as hard as the rears.

[James Crivellone]

Hrm, I was checking BMA and on the website I only see the bearings with the hub...

I assume those are built as one?

[benDASHDASH]

JC, your post count is quite leet.

[nando]

you can use the same tool for installing the rear bearings I believe. I'm planning on buying the $250 tool from bavauto and doing both my fronts and rears soon.