General Maintenance & Repairs - symptoms of bad front hub assy?

What are usually the signs on our cars? That there going out?

growling noise from front of vehicle while driving.
in/out play of wheel/tire when checking for looseness of bearing.
abs light on.

My friend thought one of his was going out......a mechanic told him to go for a short ride (few miles) on the highway and let the car roll to a stop...never touching the breaks. He got out and he said the inner part of the rim near the lugnuts was HOT HOT HOT......he touched the rotor and caliper, they were also HOT HOT HOT, inner rim was hotter then its ever felt under hard breaking. Other side....COOL. Plus he had some play when grabbing the tire with the tire off the ground and trying to rock it. Which is a sure thing of a bad bearing.

Imagine if he went on a 150 mile trip....bearing and housing would probably get red hot......

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They can also make a brake squeal sound that comes and goes when applying the brake or running at low speed.

Can they make a droning noise under hard braking? Cause that's my issue right now

They can make a lot of different noises. You can raise the vehicle and test the play in the wheel. (It shouldn't have any.) Or, you can take the brakes off and turn the hub by hand. If there is play in the wheel or turning the hubs feels like a meat grinder, they are bad.

If you hear the howling noise at speed, try lane changing right then left. The sound should be only one way. If you're turning right for example, and the sound is there, chances are your left wheel bearings (hub assembly) are going out. If this exists in combination with symptoms stated above, do the check for any play in the wheel. I miss the old days when you could simply repack your inner/outer (conical/flange) bearings and hand tighten them back on, insert pin... done.

I know the pass wheel makes a grinding scraping noise when off the ground and I spin it and its nothing on the brakes

Yes that's the tell tale sign, take the brake off the rotor and listen for squeaking. Mine sounded like bad brake pads and then the abs sensor went out.

Is a alignment required after hub is replaced? Or are no links removed?

Is a alignment required after hub is replaced? Or are no links removed?

Nope.

They can also make a brake squeal sound that comes and goes when applying the brake or running at low speed.

That's exactly what mine was doing. I jacked it up to check it ,sure enough in and out wheel play. Super easy fix though, took about 10 min after i got the new hub.

I have some like new (2.5k miles)Timken hubs for sale

As crappy as this sounds Im alittle low on cash, gonna try an eBay one first, think there like $35