THXDOC

1993 LS400 210K miles - Recently have been hearing a muted howl from left front hub area. I wanted to eliminate caliper drag so I compressed the 2 pistons on that corner and brought the car up to speed without touching the brake (secret- leave car in neutral before you compress caliper- start and roll out on a gentle drive drop)
Still had the howl, starts around 25-40 mph increases with speed. Not engine or trans, stays constant even when engine shifted into neutral at speed. First plan of attack is to replace that spindle and hub with a lower mile yard unit and see what happens.

If you have heard this howl before please advise. Would like to catch this before it becomes a parts free for all. Tire rotates readily when jacked up, slight scratchy sound when rotated with no tire mounted. No noticeable end play or other related symptoms others have posted wheel their wheel bearing shoots craps.

Thanks!

Gene01

My guess - wheel bearing.

rick1987

iTrader: (1)

does the sound change at all if you sway the car left and right?

Shmee

iTrader: (3)

put the car on jacks, remove the front brakes on both sides and spin the hubs. if there is any sort of roughness you probably need new wheel bearings. if they feel smooth, you can try putting JUST the wheel back on and rocking the back at forth at 12&6, 3&9 and either or both 1:30&7:30 or 4:30&10:30. often you can feel play in the bearings before they get bad or start making noise.

If you do end up needing new wheel bearings, replace both front wheel bearings at the same time. if one is going, the other is usually not that far behind.

qha_vn

jack the front wheel, spin it with your right hand while your left hand touch the top of the coilover/ strut. if you feel any roughness (like ggrrrrr) most likely the wheel bearing

THXDOC

@ rick1987 and thanks to all who replied, yes it does change a bit when I load left and then right side. It looks unanimous, it's just got to be the wheel bearing, and if not, at 210K on her, no harm in a changeout.

Will post after r&r to clarify if this was source of howl.

python

iTrader: (4)

there is ur answer right here

LScowboyLS

It does sound like a wheel bearing, although this is a very rare issue for an LS400 with 210K miles

python

iTrader: (4)

Yes...these usually last a lot longer,ive rarely heard of one failing before 300,000..driving habits play into it im sure

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

one of my fronts was gone at ~160k, im swapping both out

Gene01

Someone posted a question regarding wheel bearings in the LS430 forum, and I was wondering if premature failure could be caused by driving in salt water (at the beach, perhaps). Any opinions?

Shmee

iTrader: (3)

Premature failure can be anything! Long periods of sitting, improper installation or reinstallation, accident damage or driving into curbs (even just while parking), submerged in water, seal failure, bad part.... lots more....


trying to guess at what would or did cause it, without the part in your hands, is pointless.

python

iTrader: (4)

Having spacers that put ur wheels out further will also have an adverse effect

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

this is due to the change in roll center, not the spacers themselves.

In my case it seems one of the rear seals partially failed, there's a big wet spot at the bottom of the backside of the hub.

THXDOC

Yep that was it- bad wheel bearing. I had purchased a used spindle from a yard which arrived in a lumpy box. It was junk but the guy stood behind it and refunded my $. More on that part in a minute. So a new bearing assembly was purchased. Let me tell you, you need ALL the right stuff to do this. A ten ton press, a torch (not propane, not hot enough), and several deep well sockets and lengths of thick wall pipe to press with. Even with all this, we buggered up the lug spud and had to use the one out of the junkyard spindle. It's far easier to pull the bolts out of the lower A-arm ball joint mount than to split the lower ball joint itself by the way. All up and running for under $100.00 but have decided it is prudent to replace the other side when it warms up a bit. It will warm up right? Happy motoring. THXDOC