How to tell if wheel bearing or ball joint is bad?, Updated! Options

[GriffGirl]

There are bad, evil, rubbing/grinding noises (sounds dirty heh heh) coming from my rear passenger wheel. Actually it sounds like the backing plate is rubbing against the rotor, but I'm pretty certain that's not what's going on. The sound is definitely related to the rotation of the wheel; it's louder when I go slower too although that could just be because there's less road noise to drown out the sound. The noise sounds not unlike when brake pads are completely worn and it's metal on metal - it's that grinding noise, not a squealing or high pitched noise at all. It's really loud from the driver's side though, I can only imagine what it sounds like outside the car!

I'm leaning toward bad wheel bearing but I wanted to check with you guys first to get some tips and ideas before I go buying the wrong part.

This post has been edited by GriffGirl: Feb 2, 2009 - 12:11 PM

[richee3]

When I swapped my suspension out, I had to cut my end links off. So the sway bar wasn't connected at all for a couple of weeks. Every time I went over a bump, it would make a nice thunk like you are talking about. But no grinding noise. However, if your strut is blown, and the end link just gave on that corner of the car, then that could be a possible cause for the car sitting lower. Maybe you have something like I had, where one strut is better than the other, and as long as the sway bar is connected, they help each other out in a way. But if the end link just broke, that strut could be on it's own and not be able to hold any weight. I hope that makes sense to you... If not, just send me a PM lol.