lt1camaroveight

I was painting my front rotor hubs the other day and I had the wheel off.I decided to spin the hub assembly by hand to check for noise because they say if it sounds like marbles rattling, its gone bad.There was some noise when spinning them by hand ,but you had to really put your ear on it to hear it.I wanted to know if its normal for bearing to make even a little bit of noise or should I be worried and change it?I cant really hear anything when driving because of my cutout so I cant say it makes any noise that I can hear.Any input is helpful.Thanks for reading

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

No, it should be smooth as glass and quiet. If they are going bad, you may feel grinding or clicking as you turn it? How many miles are on them?

lt1camaroveight

If im not mistaken these are stock and have 130,000 miles on them

armyboyatc

iTrader: (29)

Well its def not supposed to rattle. You might wanna pull it off and check it out.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

.... its probably long past time to replace them. The originals on my 1999 only lasted me 80K miles.

Racin'Z28

iTrader: (7)

It isn't so much about the noise they may or may not make, especially if it's hard to hear like you describe. A better way to test if they're bad is to check for any sort of looseness side to side. If you can rock it back and forth at all with the steering wheel locked, that's a sign they need to be changed. The way you said you really had to put your ear on it sounds like it might be just normal bearings rolling. They're not totally silent. You are going to hear something when you spin the hub.
The best test is to push and pull on the left and right sides in an in and out way, and if they are sloppy or loose while the steering is locked, then they need to be changed.
Even with 130k miles, what chews up f-body front hubs a lot (but not always) is bigger tires, like a 315 or so and if you drive hard like autocross or track days with the bigger tire, it stresses the hub. If it's like a 275 or smaller and you don't autocross or track it, 130k doesn't always mean you need to change it.

lt1camaroveight

Ok I guess i will try that test on them and thanks for clarifying that for me

Wesmanw02

iTrader: (4)

That only applies to brand new hub assemblies.

Used bearings will be audible when you spin them by hand. Thats normal.

The telltale signs of a bad hub bearing are measureable play in the bearing or noise while driving. Typically a bad hub will make a "whop whop whop" or rumbling noise, and the noise will become more apparent when you turn in the opposite direction of the side that the bearing is bad on.

offroadfury6

iTrader: (8)

what racinz28 said and wesmanw02. Basically it'll sound like you have a 44" tire on your car when going down the highway lol