I have a '97 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo six cylinder 2WD. There’s a scraping noise coming from the right rear wheel which I believe is a worn out wheel bearing. The disc brakes are fine.
Is this something I can fix myself? I have the Haynes manual but it seems to only describe replacing the front bearings - I can’t find anything regarding the rear. Would the procedure be the same? Why would there not be anything in there for the rear?
I tried to price just replacing the whole hub assembly but my local O’Reilly auto parts doesn’t stock it - all they have are the inner/outer bearings and the grease seal.
This is odd – my professional Mitchell manuals don’t have it either.
As near as I can tell, the vehicle has a live rear axle, and the bearings for the rear wheels are axle shaft bearings rather than wheel bearings. If this is the case, it’s a totally different process from replacing front wheel bearings. It involves removing the axle and possibly pressing the bearings on and off.
Axle shaft bearings seldom make a scraping noise. A grinding noise is more typical. Your parking brake uses little brake shoes, with the inside of the rear rotor being the drum for them. That strikes me as more likely suspect for a scraping noise in that area.
Yeah. Jack the car up and see if the rear whee has any up and down play. If the bearing is shot chances are some of the balls have come out and there will be up and down play.
If it’s an axle bearing the bearings might be held onto the axle by a pressed on retainer. I have replaced bearings like that it but I don’t recommend it. The safety of the retention of the axle relies only on the strength of the press fit of the retainer. That’s all that is holding the axle in place. So, before you put on a new bearing and retainer you need to check the size of the axle for conformance to specification. If the axle is slightly undersized in the place where the retainer is pressed on the fit will be weak and the axle can work its way out of the retainer and right out of the car. I know that from experience. This is not at all good.
Most of this is over my head, so I guess I had better hope it’s the parking brake or just take it in.
Hmmm would a parking brake dragging on the right rear cause the car pull to the right? Because it does, just barely - I was planning on getting a front end alignment for that.
I did grab the rear hub and turn it while it was up on the rack. It didn’t seem wobbly or loose (though I wasn’t really checking for that), and it was pretty easy to turn, but I could hear and feel the scraping, just barely. When I drive it, it’s much louder. Kind of a Whirr Whirr Whirr Whirr Whirr sound.
…after thinking about this more, it seems to me that if I can turn the wheel with my hands, the parking brake wouldn’t be enough to cause the pulling to right thing. And if it’s louder on the ground that maybe there is some up and down play that I didn’t notice.
Ah well my wife has the car at work right now so I’ll jack it up tomorrow and have another look.
You probably won’t be able to get much up-down motion by hand. Jack the car up so the tire is 1/2 inch or so off the ground and use a lever like a crow bar on some sort of fulcrum, like a short piece of 2x4 lumber to see if the wheel has any play. There should be no discernable play and you shouldn’t hear any clumks or clicks when you pry on it.