What is the best way to tell if you have a bad front wheel bearing? I also have uneven tread ware on the inside of my drivers side front tire, like every other tread is wearing .
02 F250 4 wheel drive manuel hubs, 7.3.
My first thougth was to have the tires rebalanced and rotated to see if it is tire noise?Forgive me i have hearing damage on top of the noise from the 7.3, hard to be sure! Joe

 

Mine begins to howl at about 50 miles per hour and gets louder as speed increases. I do not have any grinding or lateral movement at my tire and have eliminated the spindle bearings as the noise continues when I manually engage my 4x4 and take my truck for a spin. You will find a ton of postings on this all over FTE with varying symptoms. Seems like this is a major weakness in PSDs. I intend to change my hub this weekend.

 

This was kind of interesting. After I did the tear down and lubricated through the hole for the ABS, the noise actually became louder and more constant. Then I discovered posts from others who experienced the same thing. It is like, if the bearing is having a problem, lubing it makes it worse?

Thanks

 

Yes. I have seen this before at work. Lubed some bearings on an electric motor and it made it louder! I think once the bearings are shot, its too late.

 

Doubt it's a bearing problem...there are an abundance of old long held myths about these kinds of perceived problems. Most likely what your hearing is noise from your tires. One of those myths is to have the tires and wheels balanced...waste of money. Why, because the weight of the tire and wheel combined and given the placement of the weight on the wheel provides a minimal effect due to the closeness of the weight to the center of the hub. Modern tires and wheels are not usually in need of a balance unless it involves light weight configs, ie wheel and tire combo, combined with high speed aps. Not what you typically get with a f250 etc. The most common mistake that many owners make is to get a aggressive tread design because they believe it allows for the best overall performance in all situations...not true. Aggressive tread designs by their nature over time result in uneven wear and create excessive road noise.

 

I do not have an aggressive tread and have rotated tires with no effect. The noise is also new, the tires are not. Lubing the bearing through the ABS hole resulted in an increase in noise level. Fairly consistently reported in posts.

 

Interesting and i hope your right in my case. If i rotate the tires and the noise moves might tell me something. My truck is at 120K, but i guess no real way to predict beaing life. Now in my case the noise is getting louder, i have the stock size Goodrich AT. I also forgot to mention that my break rotors are bad and need to be changed. Maybe that is part of it ? Joe

 

My f-350 is an 01 that only had 60,000 miles on it when the front left wheel bearing went. the noise was similar to intermittent running over a rumble strip - and it kept getting worse as I drove. It definitely sounded like a u-joint going - and it would show in the rear view mirror as the rumble occurred. I was disappointed to find it was a cartridge bearing - and not the old two bearings held on the axle by an end nut...........but if you're wondering how to tell - pull the wheel and rotate it -if you have a bad bearing - you'll feel it grumbling/running rough. When you go to change the bearing cartridge if bad - you'll need to determine which ABS system you've got as there is a sensor wire that feeds out from the cartridge.

 

RV tech...I was responding to the OP as he stated he had uneven wear.

 

And I have a 2009 2wd and just repacked the front bearings, that should be standard maintenace, no?

 

Got it, didn't understand

 

The symptoms for this vary and are all over the map. My wheel runs smoothly, but jump in my truck and you will have no doubt where the noise is coming from. There is quite a bit about this on the Internet. I think it depends on far along things are. I am betting mine is just starting to go dry. When I lubed it, the noise actually increased, something that several other folks have also reported.