Rear wheel clicking = wheel bearing about to crap the bed?

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

Was switching over the the throttle body on the Miata, and I shook the car a bit and heard the rear passenger wheel click a bit. I'm guessing this is the classic "your wheel bearing is toast" scenario even though there's no movement in the wheel when shaking it.

Please do the needful: please advise.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Sun Apr 21, 2013 2:36 pm

Andrew Jonell wrote:

Was switching over the the throttle body on the Miata, and I shook the car a bit and heard the rear passenger wheel click a bit. I'm guessing this is the classic "your wheel bearing is toast" scenario even though there's no movement in the wheel when shaking it.

Please do the needful: please advise.

Axle nuts? Parking brake? Have you driven it yet bc shaking the car while its sitting is not going to tell you a whole lot.

Bernie Baake · **Posted:** Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:28 pm

Jack the car up and shake the wheel to check the wheel bearing.

JamesMilko · **Posted:** Tue Apr 23, 2013 11:15 pm

Set your parking brake, or un-set it if it is already set. One of my rears clicks like a bad wheel bearing if the brake is either on or off, can't remember which way.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Also, in case it hasn't been said before, a bad wheel bearing will almost certainly make a grumbling sound when driving, and will get worse when loaded (go slalom down the road and see if it gets louder in one direction than the others).

Like others said, my guess is parking brake or something else loose or otherwise innocuous.

jeremy gast · **Posted:** Wed Apr 24, 2013 8:44 am

something real crazy. My front's click but it is because of the rotors. i put some napa rotors and they are not snug on the wheel studs and the rotor will actually rock back and forth with no brakes applied.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

I think it's the parking brake, but I still want to replace all 4 wheel bearings before CMP. Preventative maintenance, yay!

RickyBeam · **Posted:** Wed Apr 24, 2013 5:29 pm

Indeed. Having a wheel come off is Not Good(tm). It'll do much more damage than replacing a $25 bearing.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

Drove the car into work on Friday without the hardtop on, and it had a nice vibrating at cruise around 70mph. I expect to see something awesome when I pull off the bearing.

Jordan Normark · **Posted:** Tue May 28, 2013 10:55 am

Andrew, Have you seen the rear hub thread on MT.net? Scary stuff.

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

Yeah, I talked to Andrew Kidd (Trackspeed Engineering) about it. I'm ordering ARP wheel studs from him and some AMSoil 2000 to repack some Chinese front hubs.

For anybody who's wondering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQHyjr-ybJk

Alec Moody · **Joined:** Fri Feb 15, 2013 9:02 am **Posts:** 299

Andrew Jonell wrote:

Drove the car into work on Friday without the hardtop on, and it had a nice vibrating at cruise around 70mph. I expect to see something awesome when I pull off the bearing.

wait- there are NAs that DONT do that?

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Rear wheel clicking = wheel bearing about to crap the bed?

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