Thread: shaking steering wheel after wheel bearing replacement

Hey guys replaced my drivers side wheel bearing today. Everything went smoothly. We took it for a 60 mile round trip drive then came home and everything was great. My wife just went to work and said her steering wheel is shaking when she brakes. It wasnt doing this earlier.

Any ideas on what it could be? I checked everything up front and it was tight. Would grease on the rotor or something cause this? Im stumped

I did. Torqued them to 80 lbs.

Okay that makes sense. Ill take a look when she gets home. Ill tighten the lug nuts down too.

Why would it just randomly start though? And not when we drove it earlier?

My steering wheel shook when I braked but that was due to my rotors being warped. Also an unbalanced tire would do that as well.

I used a moog. Same p/n as the timken. Says Korea on it.

Guess depends on how bad it is shaking when braking. Is it only on braking? I am having a similar kind of issue and I just changed everything but I know one of my tires is bad and that is likely why I have the shakes. Though I dont on braking, I just replaced my rotors and brakes. Just happens on different types of roads I see as it will be there then go away when the road changes some.

If it is only on braking then has to be something in that area, rotors or brakes. Should of just changed the rotors and brakes anyways since you had the hub off, even though I know you would have to do the other side, I just replaced a wheel bearing on my mine and decided to do the rotors and brakes then too since they were about done even though looking through the spokes of the wheel looked like I had some brakes left.

Well I know the alignment is off on the car because the passenger tore is worn down more than the drivers side. The brakes seemed to have about half the pad left. Money is really tight right now.

Okay. I was having trouble getting the new bearing on the axle. It would line upbut only go on half way. I made sure the splines were clean. I ended up using the ratchet on the axle nut and driving the bearing on. Not sure if it matters or not. That was the only trouble I had. Is that normal?

Okay thanks guys. Im still kind of new at working on cars so I doubt myself alot. I made sure to torque everything down and everything was tight. The caliper seemed to go on kind of hard. Like there wasnt enough clearance between the pads and the rotor. But it didn't seem like it was dragging at all. I didn't hear any grinding.

I've bought wheel hubs off ebay before and they have lasted me for over a year almost 2 years now. I guess it's just a hit or miss type of deal with those things. But back to the OP, yea man if I were you, i'd double check everything. Check tires and your rotors all around.

Could still be a number of things. Try to replace what you know is bad when you can like that tire first with a used one if needed. Those are not too bad in price for one with a good amount of tread left. If you had alignment issues maybe possibly fixing something made that more pronounced with the bearing replacement.

I did the same on the nut so that should be fine too and shouldn't cause any issues since its just pulling the axle through.

You could jack it up and do some test to make sure nothing else like a tie rod end is bad. When those go bad you definitely get the shakes and that will mess up the tire so seeing that wear on the tire could point to another component being bad.

My whole issue of just replacing the wheel bearing for an inspection led me on a road to needing new inner and outer tie rods on one side, outer on the other and struts all around. Be sure to check the other wheel as well, because I didnt notice the bad tie rod until I took off the tire to check the brake pads and rotors. It didnt clunk like the other side because the inner was still good. As well the passenger side on mine at least a 97 has some sharp edges on the spindle that need to be sanded down to not cause premature wear on the tie rod ends.

Originally Posted by sseilmnop

It's not hit or miss, they won't last. Our cars don't have wheel bearing issues until people star putting junk ones on.

I understand they are cheaper, as long as you understand there is a reason why they are cheaper.

Well i've heard of some people buying the ebay ones and not even lasting 6 months with them on. I think 2 years is pretty good for buying some cheap ones. I've also heard of some buying the higher end stuff and it going out in the same amount of time too so idk. I'm happy with my purchase for being what they are.

I'm not gonna lie and say I know the people who said that or remember where I heard it from but you are right. Cheap ones are more common to go bad but you can't say good ones also don't go bad either. And yes I do understand that they are cheaper for a reason but like I said, mine have held up pretty good and I am happy with my purchase.