Wheel bearing sound?

[Burkeomatic]

What do wheel bearings sound like when they go out? I thought I had a bad one, but it ended up being the tire.

Anyways, it sounds like mudtruck tires coming from my passenger rear. I inspected it and there is nothing rubbing or tire damage. I can't feel anything off but I just noticed the noise this morning, so it may not be degraded to the point of physically feeling it.

[Valpo A7]

30 mph or so, aggressive lane changes to side load the bearing. You will hear it screaming at you and at sone point it will be quiet. If you have that then it’s probably a bearing. If there is noise change then hen probably not a bearing. FCP Carrie’s bearings but you need access to a press and a bearing puller to remove the hub from the bearing or you can just take it to the shop and apply the credit card wrench. You will want new bolts for the bearing and an axle bolt if you do the job yourself. The bottom bolts are a bit of a pain when the axle housing is still in the car because of the big ass bolt with sleeve going right over them.

[Burkeomatic]

I bought a whole assembly that comes with new bolts.

The growl or roar correlates with speed, doesn't change with RPM or braking, and I couldn't find anything else.

If that is what it is, I've never heard a bearing make a sound like that.

[q2quest]

I have mistaken tire noise for wheel bearings on numerous occasions. The easiest way to tell is find a stretch of road that goes from rough to new pavement. If it is in the tire then there will be a drastic reduction in the noise when you hit that smooth pavement. I have been amazed at how much noise a tire can make. Some tires, as they wear begin to have high and low spots on the tread which produces road noise.

[Burkeomatic]

I can't get to the dang lower bolts.

I've broken 2 10mms doing the little "trick" is there anything else I can do short of removing the whole knuckle

[Kczach]

switch front and rear tires and see if the sound goes with it.

[Burkeomatic]

switch front and rear tires and see if the sound goes with it.

I rotated them to rule that out.

About halfway through disassembly I realized my disk bolt wasn't torqued that tight, then I realized that didn't matter because the wheel holds it snug anyways and braking had no effect on it.

I must have futzed around for easily an hour or two including a trip to the parts store to get those bottom bolts off the "wrong way" or the way every youtube video shows.

I popped a spring compressor on, and took that big long bolt out and hammered that little aluminum insulator/protector bar out in about 15 minutes and a million times easier.

This looks disgusting. All my bolts were rusted on. Damn near stripped the bottom ones out too.

[Valpo A7]

Make sure to jack up the suspension to ride height before torquing the big ass bolt. It’s actually a replace me torque to yield bolt but when I did mine I torqued it plus a bit more rather than the portion of extra turn called for in the book. I did not replace mine and it has not broke.

[Burkeomatic]

Make sure to jack up the suspension to ride height before torquing the big ass bolt. It’s actually a replace me torque to yield bolt but when I did mine I torqued it plus a bit more rather than the portion of extra turn called for in the book. I did not replace mine and it has not broke.

Awesome, I'm glad you responded because....

I just got to that part and I was about to ask, and you answered my question. I found this thread, and it said it was a bolt which needs replacing.... YAY! Good to know you reused yours. That thing was a beeyotch to get back in and lined up, I finally did, and I popped my upper arm off to wiggle more (turns out I just needed to compress my spring more) either way, it is off to the alignment shop tomorrow. As always, if/when I need to change the other side, I know all the tricks. I couldn't find the bolt in a quick search, but it won't be that hard to replace. Looks like torque is 120nm plus 360 degrees.

I obviously couldn't jam my torque wrench in there to torque the bearing down right either, so I just tightened it with the 3/8 drive wrench I could stick back there and put a couple of ugga-duggas on them and hope it will be ok (the bolts did come with my bearing so I did replace those).

Would anyone know the torque for that middle beam? I think it is called the tie arm, but I can't find anything.

[Valpo A7]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_Fr...6TMJ9qMJv/view

Removing the wheel bearing housing starts on page 1279 of 9624 in this pdf. That will point to all the parts and have torque specs. If you did not take the half cam adjusting screw at the top apart then your rear alignment should not change. If you did take the cam adjuster apart then hopefully you marked everything to line it back up as that would save you spending $$ on an alignment.

Page 1237 of 9624 will give you the exploded view diagram pointing to parts and their torques.

They love their Nm in the diagrams. 1 N-m = 0.737561 lbs-ft or 8.85075 lbs-in

70 N-m is 51.6 lbs-ft


For that GDMFing center bolt, I used a 1/2" drive 18 inch long breaker bar and a 3 foot cheater pipe to get the torque. 200 N-m + 180* When I did mine I tightened to the 200 N-m (148 lbs-ft) then marked it so I could see the 180. My 250 lbs-ft torque wrench on max would only get about 30* and then I finished by hand.

[Burkeomatic]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_Fr...6TMJ9qMJv/view

Removing the wheel bearing housing starts on page 1279 of 9624 in this pdf. That will point to all the parts and have torque specs. If you did not take the half cam adjusting screw at the top apart then your rear alignment should not change. If you did take the cam adjuster apart then hopefully you marked everything to line it back up as that would save you spending $$ on an alignment.

Page 1237 of 9624 will give you the exploded view diagram pointing to parts and their torques.

They love their Nm in the diagrams. 1 N-m = 0.737561 lbs-ft or 8.85075 lbs-in

70 N-m is 51.6 lbs-ft


For that GDMFing center bolt, I used a 1/2" drive 18 inch long breaker bar and a 3 foot cheater pipe to get the torque. 200 N-m + 180* When I did mine I tightened to the 200 N-m (148 lbs-ft) then marked it so I could see the 180. My 250 lbs-ft torque wrench on max would only get about 30* and then I finished by hand.

Thanks for the link. What would we do without you!

I torqued the big one to about 120lbft, which was about all I could muster with my 1/2 drive torque wrench. Then I was able to get about 120 degrees on it with the breaker bar/cheater pipe until it started making some god awful sounds. I figured that was good enough. I got correct spec on everything else. The wheel bearing hold in bolts I just torqued good-n-tight with a 3/8 drive, then stuck my little cheater bar on it and got the other 90 degrees.

Says your supposed to replace the nut on that top control arm cam bolt. I didn't, I noticed it had a nylon locker on it. I may back it off and stick some blue loctite on it (fresh out, all I have is red) or maybe they'll do that when the align it.

It was definitely the wheel bearing as it was super quiet on the way to the shop, makes me think I should go ahead and replace the other ones. I couldn't get the front lower rear control arms to pop off the knuckle, and I needed an alignment anyways, so I hired them to do those two things.

[Valpo A7]

Yeah turning that center bolt can be a real PITA. My breaker bar after the last time I had to deal with that damn bolt. I think I bought that breaker bar back in like 1997 from Autozone. I am very impressed with the abuse I have put it through

IMG_5726.jpg

[AudiInMyA7]

I think my front bearing or bearings are going. How much did it cost to replace? I have a hook up at a shop, but i like to tackle some stuff on my own if possible. I’m weighing cost to benefit ratio lol


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[Valpo A7]

I think my front bearing or bearings are going. How much did it cost to replace? I have a hook up at a shop, but i like to tackle some stuff on my own if possible. I’m weighing cost to benefit ratio lol


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Back in 2019 it was about $650 for what I can find. Probably $750 now.

You can get a complete bearing and hub from FCP for $182. $100 for the hub and $82 for the bearing with all new bolts. Just need a press to put the bearing on the hub. You can save $100 if you have a press and can re-use the old hub.

[WittyWookiee]

I did the front myself as they are pretty easy to DIY if you have the tools - as someone who had never worked on my car prior to this

I had the rear ones by a shop though as I did not want to deal with how much of a hassle they are compared to the front. Paid about $650 total for both rear ones back in April.

[petarat]

I don't have a press so I put my bearing in the freezer and hub in a 200F oven and I was able to seat it completely by just placing a 2x4 on top and standing on it

[AudiInMyA7]

I see the kits, are there any ones that have it already pressed?

also, why do they seem to make pressed assembly's for every other audi but the C7 :(

[mrdouble99]

On my 2015 S6 i had both front wheel bearing failed at almost the same time and i tought it was a front diff dying lol

[WittyWookiee]

I see the kits, are there any ones that have it already pressed?

also, why do they seem to make pressed assembly's for every other audi but the C7 :(

i should’ve mentioned. I had a shop press them for me for $20. Might save you $ if you don’t plan to do it often!

[Valpo A7]

You can get a press from Harbor Freight for about $75 that would do the job. Considered it for myself but my cousin has a press and lives 20 minutes away. Autozone has bearing splitter in their “free loaner tools” as well. Hubs are rarely bad so you can save the $100 for a new hub.

And yeah I am not sure why the 2 pre-pressed hub is not available.

Well Amazon Crackhouse has an assembled rear unit, just not sure on quality other than to say it gets high marks for customer reviews.

BR930817K - Premium Pre-Assembled 513301 Wheel Hub Bearing Assembly Compatible With [FRONT] [Audi] A series, S Series, Q5 - [Rear] A Series Quattro ONLY, S Series [See Description for Fitment] https://a.co/d/4StixyG

[AudiInMyA7]

Another question i have, is this a “you can replace one but should do both” or a “replace both or regret it” kind of thing?

I’m thinking to replace both fronts just to get it done?


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[petarat]

Here's a sample size of one, but my right front went out about 1k miles after my left front. The second time took me less than half the time of the first one just because I knew which extension combinations to use and when to turn the wheels to the side

[AudiInMyA7]

Here's a sample size of one, but my right front went out about 1k miles after my left front. The second time took me less than half the time of the first one just because I knew which extension combinations to use and when to turn the wheels to the side

Yeah see that’s what I thought. The way my life works its gonna take me three weeks to plan a time to knock it out and it’s gonna take me a month and a half to get to the other side when it goes. So I’ll just get them both done


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[Valpo A7]

Another question i have, is this a “you can replace one but should do both” or a “replace both or regret it” kind of thing?

I’m thinking to replace both fronts just to get it done?


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Previous owner had the front right done and the back right done on my A7. I have had to do the right rear again on the car. Both lefts are original at 232,000 miles on my A7. On a different car I had a rear wheel bearing going which was my daughters Eclipse. Not sure which it was I opted to replace both but I only had 1 that was bad. On my old Saturn Vue I had 2 different bearings go bad at various times so at 176,000 miles when we traded it in I still had 2 original bearings. My daughters current car (2011 Chevy Cruze) I have 1 new and 3 original bearings at 135,000 miles.

For me, I change them when they go bad and only the bad 1.