Wheel Bearing trouble

Hello all. I am new here ,and I need some help.

My 99 Saturn SL1 is making a roarring noise, and when I turn the wheel to
the left the noise goes away, but going streight, or turning right it
still makes the noise. Somebody told me is was the wheel bearings.

My problem is I do not know witch side it bad. ALSO can anybody tell me
what size the Wheel Hub NUT is?? I have tried 1 1/4 is to big, 1 1/16 is
to small, 1 1/8 is to small, THANKS!!

"Falcon4life" > wrote in message
lkaboutautos.com...
> Hello all. I am new here ,and I need some help.
>
> My 99 Saturn SL1 is making a roarring noise, and when I turn the wheel to
> the left the noise goes away, but going streight, or turning right it
> still makes the noise. Somebody told me is was the wheel bearings.
>
> My problem is I do not know witch side it bad. ALSO can anybody tell me
> what size the Wheel Hub NUT is?? I have tried 1 1/4 is to big, 1 1/16 is
> to small, 1 1/8 is to small, THANKS!!
>

Note to newbies - Your first stop with any problem should be Google Groups,
use the advanced groups search to confine your search to this group.

in this case advanced search Google groups on "S series front wheel
bearings" (8 results)
http://groups.google.ca/groups?as_q=...=2006&safe=off
or
wheel bearing (147 results) or
"wheel bearing" (216 results) or
front wheel bearing (127 results) or
"front wheel bearing" (32 results)

Probably left wheel bearing ???????
On level ground, set park brake and block the rear wheels.
Jack up both front wheels, place in neutral, spin the wheels, feel and
listen.
This will work even better if you remove the brake caliper (to remove brake
drag) and reinstall the wheel before spinning.

It is probably a metric nut. Use a 6 point socket and the size difference
will be inconsequential.

Note caution regarding difficulty of removing and reinstalling of the
bearing from the hub and also advice to make sure any shop hired to press
new bearing has proper adapters to prevent applying press force through the
bearing balls (or rollers).

Good luck, YMMV

You ABSOLUTELY need to buy a Haynes or Chilton manual for your car. It's
$10 from any auto parts store. Not only will it tell you the size of the
axle nut, it'll probably tell you how to diagnose if a wheel bearing is bad,
and which one.

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]
---
Visit my Saturn Car Audio and Performance Page at http://www.evilplastic.com



"Falcon4life" > wrote in message
lkaboutautos.com...
> Hello all. I am new here ,and I need some help.
>
> My 99 Saturn SL1 is making a roarring noise, and when I turn the wheel to
> the left the noise goes away, but going streight, or turning right it
> still makes the noise. Somebody told me is was the wheel bearings.
>
> My problem is I do not know witch side it bad. ALSO can anybody tell me
> what size the Wheel Hub NUT is?? I have tried 1 1/4 is to big, 1 1/16 is
> to small, 1 1/8 is to small, THANKS!!
>

Sounds like you have choppy tires on the rear.

--
Steve Barker


"Falcon4life" > wrote in message
lkaboutautos.com...
> Hello all. I am new here ,and I need some help.
>
> My 99 Saturn SL1 is making a roarring noise, and when I turn the wheel to
> the left the noise goes away, but going streight, or turning right it
> still makes the noise. Somebody told me is was the wheel bearings.
>
> My problem is I do not know witch side it bad. ALSO can anybody tell me
> what size the Wheel Hub NUT is?? I have tried 1 1/4 is to big, 1 1/16 is
> to small, 1 1/8 is to small, THANKS!!
>

On Fri, 14 Apr 2006 20:43:23 -0400, "Falcon4life"
> wrote:

>Hello all. I am new here ,and I need some help.
>
>My 99 Saturn SL1 is making a roarring noise, and when I turn the wheel to
>the left the noise goes away, but going streight, or turning right it
>still makes the noise. Somebody told me is was the wheel bearings.
>
>My problem is I do not know witch side it bad. ALSO can anybody tell me
>what size the Wheel Hub NUT is?? I have tried 1 1/4 is to big, 1 1/16 is
>to small, 1 1/8 is to small, THANKS!!


My "nickle" is on the right front wheel bearing assembly
-----------------
The SnoMan
www.thesnoman.com

I had the same problem with a 94 SC2. It got to where at high speed
the whole car vibrated. On a curvy road turning left it would go away
but turning to the right it got worse.
It was like if the turn made me lean to the right, it was making the
car lean to the right and it would take the load off the left side.
It sounds like the same thing with yours. You might check it this way:
After driving for a while you could reach around and feel the steering
knuckle. I guarantee the bad one will be hot compared to the good one!
If you want to do this job yourself, you will only be able to remove
the steering knuckle, take it to a shop and have them press out the
bearing set and install the new one. I paid $50 for the labor and $45
for the bearing at Autozone. But maybe you have your own hydraulic
press - but ATTEMPTING to remove the bearing retaining springs was one
of the most frustrating aggravating things I've EVER done on the
Saturn.
Removing the steering knuckle is no easy feat. Once you get that 1
3/16 bolt off, you'll have to push the shaft through the bearing
assembly with a big pulley remover - first the steering knuckle will
have to be disconnected from the torsion bar and the tie rod end. Of
course you will have to have the car up on jack stands and multiple
jacks will come in handy with the removal of the torsion bar and tie
rod end.
By the way... did you hit something with your front tire prior to the
noise beginning to occur? I did. I smacked a curb pretty hard and I
think it caused the grease seal to break, which eventually led to
bearing failure. The guy that pressed out the bearing said it probably
went bad because it had lost its grease seal.

You're most likely looking at the left side bearing. When turning left,
most of the weight is transferred over to the right side.
You will need a 30 mm socket for to take the hub nut off.

Alex