wheel bearings or CVs?

[Suba9792]

Ok, so I orginally thought my loyale had bad wheel bearings, well jacked it up, and guess what I was able to pull the cotter pins with my gerber and loosen the Castle nuts by hand!!!! how the f does that happen. So I put them back on and re-torqued them to 145 FT Lbs as stated in the repair manual. No more sound form the rear, but still have a roar from the front, the CVs are pretty new only less than 20k on them, my guess is the front bearings are truely shot since the nuts were so loose, and the previous owner drove it for god knows how long like that, causing too much play therefore bearing damage.

Anyone else agree?:-\

[idosubaru]

My XT6 had loose (came off by hand) front axle nuts. It had been driven thousands of miles like that - friend drove it from Texas to GA to WV like that when I got it. It was fine after all tightened up, no bearing issues. But I guess, like you, prolonged use like that would cause some kind of problem.

 

If you have a roar up front then that sounds like wheel bearing.

 

If it's a vibration then axles might be a thought. And if so, if they aren't MWE or Subaru axles then there's no telling as aftermarket axles are low grade. Leaking, vibrating, shaking, clicking, failing, short life spans, etc are common.

 

I tigthten the axle nuts more than the manual says.

[GeneralDisorder]

The roaring from the front is a good sign of bad bearings. Typically a loose axle nut is because the last time the axle or bearings was done - they didn't get it pulled all the way through the bearings or one or both of the bearings wasn't seated in the knuckle. This usually ends up stripping the splines out of the wheel hub.

 

Sounds like the knuckles need to come off and everything inspected. There might be a lot of wear to the hub splines so those might need to be replaced with used one's. New bearings, seals, etc - and inspect everything else.

 

GD

[GeneralDisorder]

My XT6 had loose (came off by hand) front axle nuts. It had been driven thousands of miles like that - friend drove it from Texas to GA to WV like that when I got it. It was fine after all tightened up, no bearing issues. But I guess, like you, prolonged use like that would cause some kind of problem.

 

It should be pointed out that XT6's use the legacy style knuckle/bearing/axle setup where the axle nut only keeps the drive axle from moveing around inside the hub splines. In the GL's the axles is pressed through the bearings rather than the hub being pressed through the bearings.

 

GD

[Suba9792]

yeah the splines on the driver side front hub are a little worn, I may buy a new hub as well, my grandfather has the car now and is trying to re machine the hub(he was a machinst for ge for 28 years) hopefully he has good results it wasnt too bad but was showing obvious wear.

[GeneralDisorder]

It's not worth trying to machine it - they are about $10 or less at the junk yard. You don't have to buy new one's since they are not a wear item unless the nut has come loose. Otherwise they last the life of the car.

 

Machining it would have to involve adding material (welding) and then cutting new inner splines..... which is a lot of work when the replacement part is common as dirt and super cheap.

 

GD

[UI Vandal]

Are worn splines very obvious? I assume one could look at each of axle but if one was especially lazy...

[Suba9792]

the splines dont look too bad, but the bearings are for sure shot, going to do the work myself, I figured I will never learn unless I make the effort.

[GeneralDisorder]

Pull the knuckles and buy your bearings/seals and bring them to my garage - I already have a driver tool built specifically for EA series front wheel bearings. Without it, it's a pain to properly install them.

 

GD

[MilesFox]

make sure the flat washers ar enot on backwards, ans this might be why the nuts were loose to begin with. the washer is bowl shaped, hwere the rim of the bowl is against the hub, and the bottom of the bowl against the nut.