How can you tell if you have a bad wheel bearing? I have slight shaking going on in my front end, sometimes the shaking gets worse like the wheel wants to come off. I had the suspension checked and everything checked out fine. I had the driver side wheel checked to make sure it was balanced properly. The shaking feel like and unbalanced tire and I feel it on the drivers side. I dont know what else it could be, since I had it checked by two shops and they couldnt find anything. I had to car align about a month ago, and til has a tendency to pull to either side. Please Help.

 

Could be the tires. How big are your wheels? Can you rotate your wheels,back to front.

 

If there is no squeaking and if you can rotate the wheel by hand, the wheel bearing probably isn't shot. Instead, go to a different shop to check your alignment as well as wheel balancing. Also, once again, check all your ball joints to make sure there isn't any kind of play (shake the wheel and if you feel it move, something's wrong). Lastly, check to see if your lug nuts are fully torqued down to 100 ft-lbs.

 

I've had a wobble before from incorrectly torquing the lug nuts, not significant but enough that I noticed it and after pulling the wheel to see if something was stuck in the tire or bent (there wasn't), it went away. finger tighten all lugs first, then torque in star pattern in 2-3 steps.

 

This is how you tell if you got a bad bearing...!

 

if you have a bad wheel bearing you'll hear all kinds of either really low pitch grinding (this is when you should pull over before you lose a wheel) or a high pitch squeal and a low pitch grinding. The latter case is mega bad and suggests increased damage being done.