Wheel Bearing
 

Hey, I asked several months ago about a power steering rack & pinion leak, and managed to stop that leak with some stop leak fluid (at least haven't seen any new spots, and fluid seems to be holding level just fine now..

But last month when I took it to Les Schwab for a tire repair they told me my wheel bearing on driver side front was going out.. Then on the way home that day I almost lost control and went into a ditch.. The steering just was weird for a minute or so.... Was the loss of control from just the wheel bearing, or is the R&P going down hill to? I'm sorta in a bind here... if its just wheel bearing I may have it fixed, but if its the bearing and R&P, I gotta try to sell this thing and find something more dependable... I don't have the time, money, or energy to sink another $1,000+ into repairs on this car...

EDIT: Alot of the DIY's and videos I've watched show that the Ball Joint is often messed up, or going out around the same time as the bearing, True or False, and how much extra is that going to cost?

Thanks.

Pull the wheel off and inspect everything. The bearing would make a humming noise while driving usually when bad

I haven't noticed any humming when driving it, but when I took it to Les Schwab for a tire repair they said when they raised the wheel it was wobbly which meant the bearing was going bad, and told me it would cost almsot $350 for them to repair it... then I almost lost control on the way home...

Do what civicrcr said, inspect it yourself. Find which part has slack in it causing the wobble. Lift one wheel off the ground and turn the key to the first click so the steering is unlocked. Then grab the tire and try to pivot the raised wheel side to side (as if the car is making turns). There should be no looseness or clunking. Any motion should be immediately transferred to the other wheel that is still on the ground.

A bearing that is so bad that the wheel wobbles usually makes a lot of noise.

Being nearly out of fluid would make the power steering work intermittently, the car is hard to control that way. If your rack is still leaking just take the belt off of the pump and drive manually.

Good news is the r&p isn't leaking anymore... fluid levels have been staying up for awhile now... I got some of that honda specific stuff with stop leak like you all suggested.. took a few times pouring it in there, but once the whole bottle of stop leak fluid went in, no more leakage..

As for the bearing, I'll check in sometime in the next few days and let you know!

Who suggested stop leak? I would never...

Maybe it was the dude at orielly auto... either way, i wound up gettin some honda ps fluid with stop leak and that worked...

Wobbly wheel could be a lower ball joint (unless of course the actual hub itself is wobbling on the knuckle - then it's definitely the wheel bearing). A bad lower ball joint would also explain losing control.

Hmm... Yeah I've still got to get out there and raise the wheel like cvccrr99 said... Though, with the absence of a humming noise, the ball joint could be more likely.... All I know is the dude at Les Schwab said that when they jacked it up to take the tire off for repair that the wheel was 'wobbly'

I'll try to get to the check before the weekend.. if I can get this thing back on the road so I can get job hunting I'll be happy!

Hate rezzing an old thread, but update:

Took it to a mechanic... $210 later, as the mechanic said "The wheel bearing is gone..." Soooo relatively cheap repair I guess...

Oh and my loud exhaust is a hole the size of a baseball in the 'new muffler' Or I guess one might call it a redneck glass pack? Either way... taking it to meineke asap..

These repairs in your signature seem like a huge waste of money aside from the windshield. All the other could have been done by yourself.

Anyway,don't worry about reviving this thread, it's not even old and you are of course the OP.

I can agree with you to a certain extent... I don't have the tools, or mechanical knowledge to do any of those repairs myself.... So unfortunately I suffer the costs of mechanic shops...

But yeah.. car is costing me way to much... I wouldn't worry about the exhaust except that its getting louder, and I don't want to get pulled over for it... In the mean time, its my A to B car, and I can't afford anything that wont nickel and dime me to death yet unfortunately... I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Oh, and I got lucky... shop got the bearing cheaper than expected, so it only cost $190 total.