Front wheel bearing replaced due to noise

[Ivan Chou]

Keywords: Front wheel bearing / cricket noise / flat spot spotted tires /
Datsun Dynamics / B13

I have had a wheel bearing noise for the past several years.  It was not
like the other symptoms I have read about on this list (no wheel play,
grinding, squealing) so I thought I would provide a write-up for anyone
who might have this alternative noise like mine.

Several years ago I had removed my driver's side axle to replace the CV
boots; had to put wheel back on and roll the car down the driveway to let
someone out of the garage.  Of course I found out later from the list that
you should never do this (doh!)  When all was back together I had a
chirping noise at low road speeds which sounded like exactly like a
cricket scraping its wings.

Just last month I had to replace my transmission (different story, trashed
forks), new clutch and rear main seal from Datsun Dynamics (very
reasonable labor and good work).  Upon picking the car up I noticed my
wheel bearing sound had gotten much worse, probably on account of having
the axle out again.  This time it sounded like a flat-spotted tire, with a
loud, rhythmic WOH-WOH-WOH-WOH sound starting from low speeds.  I tried
rotating the tires just to be sure, the roar still came from the front.
Went back to DD for a new wheel bearing, even though there was still no
play in the wheel.  Ah, no more sounds.

Ivan - '93 SE-R 110k, '95 M3 108k
http://ichou.freeshell.org/se-r.html