So my car has 54,000 miles on it and my rear driver's hub bearing wore out so I had it changed early month or late May, can't remember off the top of my ahead. I went ahead and used Chevy [not aftermarket] parts and changed both the rear's since it was just easy to do both. That was about 1,000 to 2,000 miles ago, probably a lot less since I generally drive about 17 mi per day for work and maybe about that much, if that, Saturday and Sunday. Anyway, so what prompted me to change it was I was hearing a sort of grinding sound when I braked and though I've had many brake issues I knew it wasn't the brakes. My theory was that as I braked, the wheel was exerting different force on the hub bearing [remember I am not mechanical] and causing it to pull the bearing. I was right, the driver's rear was SHOT.

So after I changed it, sound went away, car's fine and dandy. Then last week I started hearing the sound again. WTF!!!


So let me ask, what's going to cause a hub bearing to last 52,000 miles and then all of a sudden a new one goes out in less than 2,000 miles? I don't race, I don't brake hard at all, and I don't beat on the car. Aside from a defective part could it be anything else?

 

First off, A bad wheel bearing itsn't going to only show itself while you brake. When a wheel bearing starts to go out its a loud humming noise like a roar and increases in loudness as you go faster. How do you know the old bearing was shot? Did you do the work yourself or did whoever worked on the car just tell you that? Sounds like to me honestly you got something else going on with the brakes that you or whoever is working on the car didn't pick up on.

 

Venom09 replaced his, and had the new one go bad, but he tracks his car hard. I wouldn't expect the new one to go bad for a daily driven car, unless it wasn't installed properly. Not sure what else to say.

 

I would have to agree. A wheel bearing would be heard all the time as speed increased. Brake issues will be heard while stepping on the pedal though you can have issues with brakes that happens at all speeds

 

Yes the last time I heard the humming sound and my friend did the work with me present. I was there when we pulled the wheel off and spun the old one. The one one was definitely, without a doubt, shot. I know I got a Chevy part as well as I was in the shop the whole day when it was ordered and when it was delivered and I viewed the bill of sale to the shop.

Now I've had a ton of problems with my brakes, I've had rotors warp on me several times and no it isn't due to my braking, like I said I brake lightly and I really do mean lightly. The past issue with the brakes was I used EBC Greenstuff and new rotors. They were installed properly and the right way, rotors cut prior. The EBC pads had less surface area than the OEM pads causing the rears to heat up excessively and I gather using the ebrake when the rotors were hot led them to warp in the rear. I had the rotors recut and the EBC taken off and the OEM pads put back. Now I also do not use the ebrake when I park unless it's 100% necessary and only then after the pads have cooled down and the rotors have not warped since.

Now this doesn't do it all the time, it does it mainly when it appears that the rear components are hot. It is the exact same sound and exact same conditions as when the rear hub was worn the last time. There is no humming this time though but that also may be because I cannot hear it as it was hard to hear last time. I'm surmising here that it would be the hub bearing since the conditions are practically the same and that is a logical choice.

Of course it could be something else contributing to the wearing of the hub bearing or something else entirely that coincidentally sounds exactly the same, I am sure that is possible. So that's why I'm trying to find out what would wear a hub bearing out and maybe that could lead me to a new area of the car that must be replaced.

 

You know this has me thinking now after reading through. What if the problem isn't the hub bearing after all but rather something with the pads themselves. Here's my reasoning on it:

What if the problem was there before and when we changed the hub bearing when everything was put back together it temporarily resolved whatever the issue was since obviously the calipers were removed and now that things are "settled" back into place the problem has returned. I mean I've had nothing short of hell with the brakes on this car and the EBC Greenstuff move was about as bad a move as any could be, aside from actually saying, "Hey I want a Cobalt."

Perhaps I'll just swap out the pads on the rear because I have a viable set at home that I can just slap in there and try those out for a month and see if anything changes. If not then I know it isn't necessarily the pads and since the rotor's not warped [nor do I anticipate it will be now] I can't think of what else it would be in there.

 

Alright I swapped out the rear pads to an older but still usable set I had. EBC Greenstuff = worst decision I've made on car parts that's for sure!

Hub was fine. Whatever we did changing out the hub bearing must have provided a temporary fix to the noise I was hearing and then it returned. Definitely not wrong to see the two as the same given. Now we'll see how this does and I'm hoping not to hear it again.

 

i trash a set of rears every race weekend- fronts about twice a year, hell in 40K in my street car i've been through a set of rears already,

 

Completely understandable and while our roads have been like Afghanistan as of late that shouldn't be enough. I don't race either. It's just unnerving I've had so many problems with this car and I far from beat on it. Hell I usually get people passing and cutting me off because I gradually stop for lights instead of flying up to them and jamming on the brakes.

 

poor installation =p

 

Of?

 

Well the grinding sound is still there, FML!

What the hell else could it be!?

I'm wondering if it's something in the caliper maybe?

 

Caliper would make the brakes grabby and you would feel a resistance. When did you replace your brakes last?

 

I actually had the pads done not long ago and even swapped pads and the sound persists.