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Check Your Bearings

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by auto parts addict, Mar 27, 2009.

  1. auto parts addict

    auto parts addict New Member

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    If you want to check your bearings for wear without removing the wheels, do the following:


    1. Jack up your car and support it on safety stands. If you've been checking your brakes, your car is already jacked up.
    2. Grasp each wheel at the top and bottom and attempt to rock it. There should be minimal movement. Excessive play may indicate that wheel bearing is worn and needs adjustment or replacement.
    3. Put the gearshift in neutral if you have an automatic transmission, or take your manual transmission out of gear.
    4. Rotate the wheel, listening for any unusual noise and feeling for any roughness as you rotate the wheel. Any unusual noise or roughness may indicate that the bearing is damaged and needs to be replaced.
    5. Shift back into gear (for a manual transmission) or park (for an automatic transmission) before lowering the vehicle to the ground.
     
    #1 auto parts addict, Mar 27, 2009
  2. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    That's the old-timey way to check for a bad wheel bearing, and it still works well
     
    #2 jayman, Mar 27, 2009
  3. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Sorry for hijack but hey Jayman I see the floods are reaching Manitoba too. Are you anywhere near the Red?
     
    #3 edthefox5, Mar 27, 2009
  4. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    We used accelerometers and an FFT to get a spectral response, but that might be overkill for a car.

    Tom
     
    #4 qbee42, Mar 27, 2009
  5. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Almost an hour east. I'm on relatively high ground, so no worries here. It will cause HUGE problems due to the sudden and massive Spring blizzard we had Wednesday and Thursday. Almost 2 ft of snow

    Folks only 20 km west of me are in deep s***. I mean that in a literal sense. The large hog and cattle barns use lagoons to hold the animal s***. Most of the lagoons are already overflowing

    So, when the flood waters reach the lagoons, folks will quite literally be up to their mammary glands in s***.

    Folks in ND are really screwed, I hope they come out of this relatively dry
     
    #5 jayman, Mar 27, 2009
  6. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Just *mention* of a fast fourier transform and I get a hot flash all over ...
     
    #6 jayman, Mar 27, 2009
  7. richard schumacher

    richard schumacher shortbus driver

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    #7 richard schumacher, Mar 27, 2009
  8. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Old timey isn't always the best way, certainly not the most accurate way. For old caged tapered bearings, it worked ok enough. Modern sealed ball bearings, not so well. The hub would have to be completely trashed before the "wiggle" test would work
     
    #8 jayman, Mar 28, 2009
  9. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    That what I was thinking there too Jayman. I think the hub would go up in flames if it had wiggle in it from bad bearings. See that down here all the time from idiots with there boat trailers where there wheel bearing's are so bad the wheel is wobbly...and smoking. In a car the noise would be really loud.
    The op's test was more a bad ball joint test actually.

    Flood: I thought of you when our local newspaper front page picture was from a bar on the Red River "Cats on the Red" in Manitoba from
    bar's patio with the river full of huge ice chunks and water almost to the patio.Don't look good.
     
    #9 edthefox5, Mar 28, 2009
  10. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    I'm ok where I am, high and dry. Just 18 miles west of me, a lot of flooded basements. Folks in places like Emerson and Morris, St Adolphe and St Agathe, are really worried
     
    #10 jayman, Mar 29, 2009
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