Ever since I had purchased my 90' a year ago, I have always felt that the steering had too much play and it is has had a very loud popping noise from the left front suspension. Yesteryday I was taking the front wheels off for their spring cleaning. When I was removing the front left wheel I thought about this problem and pulled and pushed on the wheel while it was jacked up. There was a good bit of play both up and down and left and right. Could it be the popping and the looseness in the steering is due to a bad wheel bearing and has anyone else? Has anyone else experienced this? Please help, because I am getting ready to for a 500 miles trip in it and that concerns me alot!

 

I will defer to the experts here on such a topic, but I have seen behaviour as noted before from a car with shot wheel bearings. I *believe* they should not produce play like that when you are reefin' on the wheel with the car up in the air. And yep, on the car I saw that on, it made some interesting noises....

But, I caution, there maybe a lot more at play here for your issue, and I really do recommend waiting to hear back from one of our resident experts.

 

I do believe a 9(oclock) to 3 rock could be steering components,a 12 to 6 bearings.If it moves whatever the time is you have a bearing problem.(like 10 to 4)

 

[sm=wtf.gif]Dang....If I am thinking what your saying then yea, your right and your really smart.You use big terms.

 

Loose and sloppy steering could be wheel bearing, could also be control arm bushings, ball joints, or tie tod end. Being you are hearing a "popping" noise, I would check ball joints and control arms also.

 

Me and a friend who works at the local major Corvette dealer took a look at the carthis afternoon and could not find anything wrong with the bushings, steering rack, tie rods or ball joints, he believed it was the wheel bearing too. The only thing that puzzled him was that it is not making any noise turning, but definetely has more plany in it than it should. Has anyone experience a wore out wheel bearing in their car? Another reason I think it may be it is that the car going slow trys to follow every rut on the road on that side and I noticed the tire is wearing more on the shoulders than the other tires as well. Question is; is it a major pain in the butt to replace?

 

No it is fairly easy because it is a hub assembly. 30 min. job tops if you have allen sockets. Only the hub isn't very cheap as is with most hubs. [8D]

 

yes I have and with no noise just a lot of wobble and tyre wear.
Any vette tries to follow every rut in the road,so does my jag with the same profile tyres.
Ten minute job to change them out but mind where you buy them from(NAPA was good to me)
Ecklers are $199 a side but I seem to remember I paid around $85 for the pair.
All you are buying are the bearings and basically only one company makes them (the worlds biggest monopoly)
You can buy them and if you have a press or access to one do it yourself for about $15 a side plus the seals which are pennies.