ckwasi92

Hello! I'm kind of new to the forum, I've looked around a bit but never posted at all. I'm hoping some of you guys could lend some advice. I bought a 1996 ES300 about 5 weeks ago for $1300. Honestly, it' my first car. It had around 169,700 miles on it, and now has over 171k as I've driven it quite a bit and it seems to run fine. Of course, being an 18 year old car it has several issues. The previous owner said his two teenage girls had been driving it, so they probably drove it rough. I TRY not to, though I am a new driver.

I've gotten new tires, it needs a timing belt / water pump change (doing that in two weeks), definitely needs new all suspension (creaks, moans, real bumpy and rattly), the power steering leaks and I need to put some in every 1-2 weeks (previous owner said he changed all the hoses, so it's probably the pump), and some very minor body work. The one issue that seemed the most urgent to me other than the timing belt was this growling / grumbling / rumbling noise coming from my rear right. I think it might have started after I turned a little sharp out of a parking lot and that wheel may have dropped off the curb and hit the road sort of hard, but maybe it was already like that and I didn't notice, I'm not sure! It's sort of on and off, and it is worse on rougher roads. I kind of *think* it almost gets better when I some weight off of it by turning somewhat sharply, but it's iffy. After doing some research, I figured it was a wheel bearing.

I found an independent mechanic who worked at a Toyota dealership for 6 years, he's legit, but I kind of jumped the gun and basically said I needed a wheel bearing. He jacked it up, didn't find any play in the wheel, but said from the noise I'm describing he's pretty sure it's the wheel bearing. I went in today, he got it replaced real quick, said he heard some noise when turning the hub itself and showed it too me. Looked kind of gnarly, but the damn thing is old enough to vote and buy cigarettes, so of course it does. Leaving, I still hear the noise!! $130 down the drain? Not a bad price, but I probably didn't even need to spend it! I took it back and had him drive it, and he tells me that noise is the struts, but that I should just drive it and listen, as the noise is probably a bit less. It's still the same damn noise though! I'm getting all of the suspension replaced, but that's going to take me months to afford.

I'm going to be living paycheck to paycheck affording the repairs on this car. I tell myself it's better than making payments costing even more on a car I'll have to pay to repair when it's payed off anyway. It's getting me around, it runs well, but I feel like I screwed up, especially today. Any thoughts on what the noise could be? And was $1300 for a car I'm going to spend $2-4k on even a good idea? Thanks for the patience to read my little essay. Haha!

LeX2K

It could be something as simple as the tires, swap the fronts to back and see what happens. Also paragraphs, use them.

ckwasi92

My bad, I tried to divide it up a bit just now. Easier to read maybe? Heh. Anyway, the tires are two weeks old, and the sound was the same with the previous mixed / mismatched tires.

Mythotical

In my nearly 20 years as a mechanic, I have run into a time or two where I swear I pinpointed which rear wheel bearing was bad, but it ended up being both of them. I think this may be the case for you. I am about to replace my 220k mile 98es right rear wheel bearing, but I know that because it is on my own car, I'll need both...lol I think it would be justified in your case. Let us know how it goes.

ckwasi92

Thanks for your input Mythotical. The mechanic was saying some people say you should change them in pairs, but he only prefers to do them "as needed". And he said the noise I was still hearing was the struts. Maybe it is just the other bearing though. Either way I plan on replacing all of the suspension eventually, front first, then rear. But when I do have the rear done, I was thinking I'd have him replace the other wheel bearing regardless, just so I know I won't have to worry about either as long as I own this car. Maybe that'll do it! For the time being, the car's running fine. I drive around 300 miles a week, driven it up South Mountain (tallest mountain in Phoenix, biggest urban park in the US) twice, and it's running great. Just need to get that timing belt/water pump done, then the suspension, but for now I'll just have to try to ignore that damn noise. At least now I know my wheel's not about to lock up or fly off! xD

IzzyB

I know this is a little late, but make sure you do your rear stabilizer bar bushings and mounting hardware when you do the suspension. It can make that same sort of noise.

Mine was clunking over bumps etc. just replaced them. Easy and cheap fix, and yours probably needs them.

treblarefi

Stabilzer bar bushigs check that for sure most common. Mine is a 93 es300 with 200k I have had to replace both outward rear facing lower control arms due to bad bushings and when it goes bad its loud in the car over bumps like a rattling noise fixed it all myself each arm was around 50 a piece. Ive also replaced 1 rear strut that the rod was just banging around. its quiet for now anyway. That rear control arm I have had 2 bad ones I bet that's a pretty common item on these cars.

ckwasi92

The mechanic was recommending replacing everything in the front, but just the struts in the back, and said that it sounds like the struts. Should I save up a little longer and do the other wheel bearing, stabilizer bar bushings, etc, also back there?

IzzyB

Stabilizer bushings are cheap. I think i got OEM for 15-20 for the pair. Just make sure if you do it yourself that you"

1) completely release tension on the bar - ie. neither rear wheel on the ground
2) Use PB-Blaster on the bolts

its like a 15 min job. Don't even need to remove the rear wheels.

ckwasi92

Yeah... that's tempting but kind of intimidating. I'm not much of a DIY-er but I know if I worked up the guts to attempt it I could save some cash. I might run that by the mechanic and see what he says. I was nervous adding power steering fluid and coolant, so yeah.