Okay, so the front end is makin' a heck of a lot of noise last last little while.

Ride is still 'smooth' but the noise coming out of the front driver side wheel is getting worse.

Curious if the wheel bearing could be the cause, as it doesn't get worse when turning, so I'm suspecting not tie rod... but I could be wrong.

Also doesn't get worse with speed, it's just there. I've looked at it, but I can't see anything, other than a thin piece of metal (dust cover?) which is flaking off, seems to be attached to the brake assembly against the disk... seems maybe that could be rubbing, but hard to tell right now, and it's too damn cold outside to start fiddling with it today.

If it is the bearings... How hard is this job, provided I have the parts, tools and shop space?

 

check for play in the wheel when you have it jacked up ,i just changed both front bearings on my 99 2 weeks ago.its easy to do,you can buy the hub with bearings already installed just as cheap as buying just the bearings.at least in my area you can

 

Yes, definately sounds like a wheel bearing. Both of mine did the same thing. They come as a whole assembly. Had the dealer do mine so I am not too sure how difficult it was. Good luck

 

i changed mine afew years ago, ordered my hubs off ebay. just did my buddys ford ranger last week... its not hard.

 

not hard at all did it myself in my driveway but the hub bolts might be a little stubborn thats thats the only pain in the *** part. have fun!

 

I hope you have a good swinging arm .I beat on mine with a hammer and chisel forever.But yeah like everyone else said, Its a simple job.Anyone can do it.

 

Hardest part of mine was beating it off. Spent like 30min doing that the whole job only took about 1-1hr and 20 min. I got mine off ebay 8k and still going strong plus I saved about 130.00

 

You know I thought about buying two off of ebay but didnt know how good they was so I just put used ones in mine for now.Do they seem like good quality or do they look cheaply made?I might buy a set of them now.

 

Comparing it to the one I took off they looked the exact same. Some one said ill be lucky to get 5,000 miles out of it but im at 8,000 so far and when I checked it a month ago it was still tight as day one. It also came with a year warranty.

 

okay, so I've had a busy week so far... but here's the scoop.

Definitely wheel bearing, but I'll be damned it wasn't the Front Driver side, it was the Front Passenger side... WTF? I need to get my hearing / directional senses tested I guess.

But that would certainly explain why I couldn't find anything wrong with it when I was looking.

Anyway, that's a cheap fix.

The crank seal gasket is leaking oil, so I'm getting that gasket replaced today, nothing too terrible.

Got them to take off the Clutch fan while they're in there today. 2 birds 1 stone.

If the engine gets too hot I'll just get a new Thermostat (180F right?) or I'll put it back on myself.

My E-Fan works as far as I know... hah.