Anyone replace their own wheel bearings (hubs). It sounds like my front right bearing has gone bad - howling noise that increases and decreases with speed. My mechanic also told me to replace both ? Not sure why and don't want to spend the $ unless it is a good idea.

 

CV Joints in the front end. It's usually far easier and sometimes cheaper to replace the whole axle assembly with a rebuilt unit.

If there IS a bearing in there outside of the CV joints (don't have my manual handy), I wouldn't worry about replacing both sides.

 

But, he's talking about hub/wheel bearings. Not axles. Axles will usually either pop or click when they're bad. Bearing whine or howl with speed. Another test, grab the sides or top and bottom of the wheel and rock it. See how much deflection you get.

 

I've never done them on a MINI. but on any front wheel drive I've ever done them on, they must be pressed in. You have to take the hub completely off and take it somewhere to get the bearing pressed out and then the new one pressed in. Your tech is probablly telling you to do both sides because there is either a history of MINI's either going bad at almost the same time or a preventive maintainance thing.

 

i replaced my driver's side wheel hub last July. I'm considering doing the passenger side this week!

02-06 S 31226756889 these retail for $206 each

At these prices I'd replace one at a time! It is very easy to do and there is no bearing pressing etc!

 

If you're getting a howling noise, it's definitely the wheel hub bearing; they go bad on occasion.

The wheel hubs are held on with 4 bolts you have to access from behind the hub/knuckle assembly. The hubs themselves are $161/each from Classic MINI, but be sure to get a new axle nut and 4 hub bolts while you're in there. It's a bit of a frustrating job to do, but not impossible.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

Here's a possibly related question: I have a 2002 MC with about 40,000 miles on it. I've noticed lately that there seems to be a sort of rhythmic but light grinding sound when the car is in motion. It really sounds like someone is rubbing one piece of metal across another one. It's not very loud and I can only hear it when there is something around the car to reflect sound back to me. For example, I hear it while driving at about 10mph when I pull into the parking lot at work that has narrow aisles and lots of cars in it. For a while it seemed like it only happened after I had been driving the car for a while, not when the car was cold, but I might just have not been hearing it right away.

When I step on the brakes it seems to stop, but I know it is not the brakes because I just replaced the front pads and the rears were fine. It sounds like something that is rotating.

Since it's not the brakes, is there anything else it could be besides the wheel bearings?

 

If either of you would like to get rid of the old hub/bearing assembly let me know.
I need it for experimental purposes. Thanks.

EDIT: Of course I would pay the shipping and for the part. Thanks.

 

Just had my driver's side bearing replaced the other day. It was clicking at low speed, not howling. I thought it would have been the axle/cv joint, but the clicking is gone now.

 

Did you have the rotors ground when you replaced your pads? if not, the new pads may be settling into the shape of your rotors, or not fully springing back to the rest position (i.e. rubbing on the rotor - remember, the floating portion of the assembly is now sitting quite a way from where it was when you replaced the pads) causing the rubbing sound.

 

The front rotors looked good - a very, very tiny lip (I plan on new rotors next time the pads are low) but the old pads didn't show any sign of anything unusual (strange wear, grooves, etc).

Now that I think about it, I didn't really look hard at the rear rotors. I had the rear wheels off so I could check both the inner and outer pads, but didn't specifically check the rotors once I saw the pads still had about 80% of their original thickness.

I hadn't considered I might still be getting rotor noise. To be honest, the sound really does remind me of a brake problem, that's what got me in there to realize we needed new front pads in the first place.

 

My pass. side wheel bearing went out a few weeks ago at 11,000 miles. In just a few days the rumbling noise got quite bad. Dealer fix was under warrenty but they has to order the part and would not let me have the car back citing a safty hazzard until fixed. Not somthing you want to put off...PEZ