Bad wheel bearing

[Twixboy]

I've been hearing something resembling a loud tire noise coming from the rear passenger side. The interior parts in that corner also vibrate at higher speeds. My mechanic gave it a test drive and tells me it's a bad wheel bearing. Labor and parts comes out to nearly $400. Make it $500 if I need a new hub too. Does 3 hours of labor sound reasonable for this job?

Is there something I can do to easily check it? Can I jack up the rear and see if both wheels spin with the same ease? I'd feel terrible if I shelled out $500 and that didn't fix the noise/vibration problem that I have.

[Vanne]

how many miles on the car? how shitty is your rear tire? i had a de-lemenation in my rear tire that sounds exactly like a rear wheel bearing, swapped all four wheel bearings and still the same noise.. it wasn't until i changed rims/tires that i noticed no more high pitched noise… freakingly weird.. that said, my wheel bearings probably needed changing anyways..

3 hours sounds fine..(thats for both rears right?) don't just swap out 1 rear bearing.. are you gonna do the fronts as well then? can't really check to see if they spin with ease as you have the diff in there.. but you could jack them up and check for lateral movement.. which if there is, its shagged, but if there isn't, could still be shagged.. lol

jack it up, have a pull on the wheel.. see whats what.. vibration could also of course come from wheel imbalance… driveshaft imbalance… rotor imbalance… Missing wheel lug...need i go on?

if you can combine the wheel bearing with something else, diff rebuild/suspension upgrade/rcabs..., you'll save cash in the long run as it has to be dismantled anyways.

[Twixboy]

Only 59k miles which is why I'm wondering if it's really a bad wheel bearing. My tires are almost at the tread line and scalloped on the inside. Maybe just get new tires before I decide to do anything w/the bearing.

That quote was for just my rear passenger wheel bearing, so it sounds high? I can call up my local dealer to see what the book hours are on this job.

[Shipkiller]

Three hours labor 'can' be conservative for a rear wheel bearing. It depends on how much corrosion is internal.

[dc_wright]

Originally Posted by Shipkiller

Three hours labor 'can' be conservative for a rear wheel bearing. It depends on how much corrosion is internal.

^This^

Pay the $400 and smile while you're doing it. IF nothing is corroded 2-3 hours per side isn't unreasonable. These two videos show the job on an E36 3 series but it's essentially the same on any Bimmer. Take note of some of the parts of the process that are required but aren't shown such as removal of the e brake parts, as that's another place where corroded parts can bite you in the arse. The first video has audio of what a bad bearing sounds like so that might be helpful to you.

[Twixboy]

I just jacked up my car and there's no play on the wheel. However, I noticed there was a large gap in the wheel well when i put the car back down. This is the rear passenger side we're talking about. The spring is broken and the wheel bearing is supposedly bad as well, do they have anything to do with each other?

I went around the car and found my wheel gaps to be different all around.
RR = 4 finger widths between fender and top of wheel
RL = 2 fingers
FR = 1 finger
FL = 2 fingers

This is jacked up. I just ordered some Eibachs and will be ordering some Koni yellows tonight. Stupid question, but can I fit all those parts in my trunk?

[Twixboy]

Thanks guys, that job looks too big for me. I'm not patient enough for that. So if I'm paying a shop to replace my wheel bearing, springs and shocks, is there anything else I should get done while I'm there?
FCAB - should I go with OEM or Meyle?
Should I also replace the RCAB, RTAB or RSM?

[StickMon]

If you're doing rear shocks I would recommend the RE RSM.
It'll make it a lot easier next time since the nuts are on the bottom.
Supposed to have better performance than OEM, as well, and they're cheap.

[Twixboy]

Originally Posted by StickMon

If you're doing rear shocks I would recommend the RE RSM.
It'll make it a lot easier next time since the nuts are on the bottom.
Supposed to have better performance than OEM, as well, and they're cheap.

Well hopefully there is no next time. The Koni yellows should last me for the life of the car since I only drive a couple thousand miles per year. I'd only replace them for the performance aspect. How much extra time would they add to a rear spring/shock installation? I've read they are a pain to install because you have to take apart your trunk. I was quoted 1 hour per corner for just the shock/springs.

[StickMon]

I hour per corner sounds reasonable.
I took 8 hours to do all four, but I doodle around a lot.
At least with the roadster, getting to the top rear mounts was the most complicated part of the job.
Tough on the back, too. Everything else was easy-peasy.
I also spent way too much time trying to get the new rear spring pads to sit flat.
I finally gave up. When I put the car down on the ground they flattened right out.

[Shipkiller]

Originally Posted by Twixboy

I just jacked up my car and there's no play on the wheel. However, I noticed there was a large gap in the wheel well when i put the car back down. This is the rear passenger side we're talking about. The spring is broken and the wheel bearing is supposedly bad as well, do they have anything to do with each other?

I went around the car and found my wheel gaps to be different all around.
RR = 4 finger widths between fender and top of wheel
RL = 2 fingers
FR = 1 finger
FL = 2 fingers

This is jacked up. I just ordered some Eibachs and will be ordering some Koni yellows tonight. Stupid question, but can I fit all those parts in my trunk?

A wheel bearing does not have to have excessive play to be bad. Usually, water got past the inner seal and started to corrode the bearing, and that starts the noise.
As for the wheel gap, if you just put the car on the ground after having it in the air, then the car needs to settle back into its normal stance. You have to drive it a mile or so.
The most accurate way I know of to measure, is from the ground to each jack pad on the sides.

A broken rear spring is somewhat common on Z4's for some reason. Especially if the salt the roads in the winter.

[StickMon]

^ Yep
I had a rear wheel bearing go bad on my MR2 on the side nearest my automatic lawn sprinklers.
A light sprinse every day for about a year was all it took.
Never had any play, just a squeal.
I was totally jazzed when an indie replaced the bearing and spindle for $250.
I was expecting it to be closer to $400.

[dc_wright]

Originally Posted by Twixboy

Well hopefully there is no next time. The Koni yellows should last me for the life of the car since I only drive a couple thousand miles per year. I'd only replace them for the performance aspect. How much extra time would they add to a rear spring/shock installation? I've read they are a pain to install because you have to take apart your trunk. I was quoted 1 hour per corner for just the shock/springs.

1 hour per is a fair estimate. You have to remove the top storage compartment tray and it's associated side pieces. Even though you don't plan to replace the Koni Sports for the life of your car, you may not like your initial setting, and you'll need to take them off again to compress them and change the setting, so I'd still recommend the Rogue Engineering RSMs. There's no difference in the time it takes to install the OEM RSMs or the RE RSMs so it shouldn't add to the cost of the install.
On the front struts, a shop quality spring compressor makes the job pretty quick compared to futzing with a hand held spring compressor on those short springs, so they should be able to do those in a bit less than an hour per. The rears may take a bit longer due to the dis-assembly required to get to them so it should even out.

Originally Posted by Shipkiller

A wheel bearing does not have to have excessive play to be bad. Usually, water got past the inner seal and started to corrode the bearing, and that starts the noise.

^This^
These aren't like you're typical spindle design with an inner bearing and a smaller outer bearing which is the one that usually goes bad and allows some wobble. This is a single, big a$$ bearing, and they get very noisy long before you get to the point of wobble. At least hopefully one would notice the noise before that point.