How to tell if wheel bearing or ball joint is bad?, Updated! Options

[GriffGirl]

There are bad, evil, rubbing/grinding noises (sounds dirty heh heh) coming from my rear passenger wheel. Actually it sounds like the backing plate is rubbing against the rotor, but I'm pretty certain that's not what's going on. The sound is definitely related to the rotation of the wheel; it's louder when I go slower too although that could just be because there's less road noise to drown out the sound. The noise sounds not unlike when brake pads are completely worn and it's metal on metal - it's that grinding noise, not a squealing or high pitched noise at all. It's really loud from the driver's side though, I can only imagine what it sounds like outside the car!

I'm leaning toward bad wheel bearing but I wanted to check with you guys first to get some tips and ideas before I go buying the wrong part.

This post has been edited by GriffGirl: Feb 2, 2009 - 12:11 PM

[skogs]

Hi! I've got EXACTLY the same noise you had Griffgirl! My first thought was the brakes, but when i liftet up the brake calipper, the noise was still there when rotating the wheel. Then i thought i might be the bearings, but there is no slack in the wheel.

My car has rear disk brakes, but can it be the same problem as yours? So it can be as easy as fixing the e-brake? The e-brake doesnt work at all btw, and my ABS-light is on.

This post has been edited by skogs: Jul 25, 2011 - 3:31 AM