My car started making a high pitch whine whenever I drive a few months back and has gotten progressively worse. So last week I took my car to Tires Plus and had them do the 14 point inspection. Among a couple other things (possible bogus), they discovered the reason my car was making the whine was I had a lose Carrier bearing, as the guy described it, that wiggled around. He said it was in the middle of my axle. He preached about dire consequences if I didn’t get it fixed, but I had to question some people I know. Unfortunately they don’t know much about it, so I turn to the bastion of knowledge.
Eventually I will have the money to get this thing fixed. But right now I need to put it off as much as possible. If this whine is caused by what the mechanic says, what are the consequences if the carrier bearing breaks?
Also, I have noticed that my car tends to blow around a bit on the highway. It is often windy, but at speeds of 70-80 MPH, I have to hold on with both hands, and I still get blown a bit to the right or left. I don’t notice this with other cars, could this bearing effect steering as well? Or is it associated with my clutch?
What you describe is sometimes called a driveshaft carrier bearing, but is more properly called a center support bearing, to avoid confusion with a differential carrier bearing - which is also called a differential side bearing.
If the bearing comes apart, the driveshaft can whip around. This can result in jerkiness and possibly tear up some stuff, including the driveshaft. If the bearing seizes up, it can prevent the car from moving.
Bearing wear progresses geometrically. The worse it gets, the faster it gets worse. If you graph the degree of wear against time, it would look somewhat like this . The problem is it can sometimes be difficult to sense when the graph is about to “turn the corner.” When it does, things can get nasty quickly. You could start out on a trip without the problem seeming much worse than it has been, and in very short order get to a point where the vehicle is not drivable. It’s very hard to predict when you’ll reach this state. So there’s a risk in putting off the repair, but as far as knowing whether you can still drive it for hours, or days or weeks or months, it’s pretty hard to say.
This bearing shouldn’t have any bearing (ha!) on instability in sidewinds. Some vehicles are more prone to this than others, due to factors like sideways air resistance and vehicle weight. Tires can make a big difference. More sidewall stiffness and traction tends to minimize the effect.
Gary T said several things I would have said, but here’s one more very expensive thing to look for. When your driveshaft carrier bearing is busily chewing itself up, the vibration is chewing up the driveshaft seal on your transmission. When that damage gets to a certain point, the transmission will puke out all its lifeblood onto the road. That’s when you have to buy a rebuilt transmission.
When you get your carrier bearing replaced, get the transmission seal checked. When it happened to me, it interrupted a vacation with a fat repair bill and the need for a rental car.
