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Drove 4 months with a bad wheel bearing hum and fixed it with a $28 part in my driveway
So my daily driver had this low hum starting around 45 mph and I just figured it was road noise from the cheap tires the last shop put on. For about 4 months I turned the radio up and told myself it was nothing, even drove it from Columbus to Cleveland twice like that. Last Saturday I finally jacked the front end up in my driveway just to check for play in the wheels, and the passenger front had a tiny bit of wiggle when I grabbed it at 12 and 6. Pulled the tire off and the bearing was rough as heck when I spun the hub by hand, you could feel the grind. I went to the parts store and got a whole hub assembly for $28, plus a $20 loaner torque wrench from the same store, and had it swapped in maybe an hour with a YouTube video on my phone. The hum is completely gone and honestly the car rides quieter than it has in half a year. My question is how long do bearings usually last after you swap them, because I keep thinking I'm hearing it again even though I know it's just the tires now.
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mitchell.shane8h ago
The part about turning the radio up for 4 months hits home. We all do this with stuff we don't want to deal with, not just cars. I had a buddy who ignored a dripping water heater for a whole winter because the fix meant moving a bunch of junk in his basement. Same with that weird noise your fridge makes, or a tooth that only hurts when you drink cold stuff. Small problems stay small right up until they don't, and then you're stuck on the side of 71 waiting for a tow. You got lucky and it only cost you 28 bucks and some driveway time.
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