frustration. and lots of it.

[99alerogirl]

ok.. get ready to read the history that is the past week with my ho...

so, after discovering that it was my hubs causing the terrible growling noise, i decided to get them fixed. now, read this carefully...

NO lights were on the WHOLE time my hubs were bad. didn't know they were bad until they were growling. again, NO LIGHTS.

so, i took a day to replace both front hubs. took it on a test drive, and YAY no more growling! just a quiet ride, sweet. oh but what's that dinging? oh, my ANTI-LOCK and TRAC OFF lights are on. WONDERFUL. just fixed the hubs, and NOW they come on. and the best part is, the LOW TRAC light came on every time i turned my wheel. AWESOME.

so yesterday, my main goal was to dismantle the front, find out which new hub was causing this craziness, and exchange it for a new one. you know, maybe an hour or 2 of work. took the driver's side off... nothing out of the ordinary... took the passenger side wheel off and

BAM, sludge... blackish nasty sludge EVERYWHERE. axle grease... lovely. it's all over my brake line, my CV boot, my strut, wheel, EVERYTHING. so yay, time for a new CV axle, but i STILL hadn't figured out the lights.

the hub problem: i sat in my car while someone wiggled the sensor wire on the passenger side hub. everytime it was wiggled, the low trac light came on. come to find out the wire got pinched at some point when installing it. probably didn't help that i was on the phone while trying to install that passenger side one..

ok, so returned the hub, got a new one, bought a CV axle. spent 8 hours.... i repeat 8 HOURS trying to get the old axle out. sheeba would not let go, she was being a total biatch. so we had to put it all back together with the bad axle still, in order to drive about 3 miles to my friend's house where he had air tools and a big garage.

so we get it all together, get in, start it, and BAM.... ANTI-LOCK and TRAC OFF... with the NEW HUB. and it wasn't like the first time where the lights came on only every once in awhile when the wire was pinched. they were on when i started the car. and driving to my friends house the whole way you could hear the "whooshing" coming from the passenger side. UGH!

got to the friends house, ended up eventually manhandling the axle out of place (at around midnight... 10 hours after starting this whole fiasco), and getting it all back together. still have the lights, still have the whooshing.

this is putting me in a terrible mood. i'm guessing i may have gotten a hub with a defective bearing? do i have to exchange it AGAIN? that's the only plausible thing i can see. and i really don't wanna do that. but the whooshing is loud, and the lights are annoying.

sorry for the long read, i had to vent, i'm very VERY frustrated with sheeba right now. help.

[cherrington17]

it's name is sheeba??

Is it the same noise as before? Just louder??

Did u get quality bearings, or the cheap crap? Did u get the new hub nut with it, and torgue it correctly?

[99alerogirl]

yes, her name is sheeba!

it's not the growling, it's a whooshing... similar to when the bearings were first going out. when you pass by something close, it gets louder. it almost sounds like something rubbing you know? my friend mentioned the brake pads rubbing (my calipers are shit), but that still wouldn't cause the lights, and i'm not sure that's what it is. sounds like the bearing whoosh.

i bought timkens. this whole time all i've bought are the timkens from work, which come with the new hub nut, which i've torqued according to the directions... 173 or something IIRC.

[cherrington17]

Maybe grease you brake/ calipers good? I dunno, you'll have to wait for the pros

[99alerogirl]

yeah, i've gotta get new calipers soon, and do the brakes, but i still have those gay lights. they used to only come on every once in awhile, but now it's like, start the car and woohoo... gayness.

[cherrington17]

Maybe the wires are split/cracked/need replacing?

That wouldn't explain the noise tho

[99alerogirl]

yeah, everything i come up with that i WANT it to be (something simple, not requiring me to return yet ANOTHER hub) solves one problem, but not the other. which creates another problem, and more frustration, and added bad mood. and i was gonna go treat myself to a nice mexican dinner when i was done, and have a nice margarita, but no, mexican restaurants aren't open at 1230 when i got it done. more frustration.

[lord2heart]

man, sorry bout your day, that sucks alot lol i might have to do that in the future as well, my abs and trac light is goin on. i hope i wouldnt have to go through the same torture as you did lol.

and sheeba? not sayn its a bad name but why sheeba? just curious

[misslindseysue]

My Alero went through at least 4 bearings before I had a light come on. From anecdotal experience, it seems 3400's eat bearings for real (sound like crap, bearings wear out) and 4-cylinders somehow fry the abs connector or sensor on the bearing. It was the aftermarket ones that the bearings were still good when the sensors on mine went out. I replaced them (Timkens) with the crappy ones from Murray's and they're still good (I just visited it in TX) - go figure.

[NickAlero2000]

Check your power steering fluid. I thought mine was a bearing, but I replaced a bearing for no reason. My power steering fluid was empty. Humor me and take a look in the fluid tank.

[99alerogirl]

my ps fluid is fine, just brown and burnt due to the crap pump, but it's definitely coming from the wheels

[jayson_waltz]

Originally Posted by cherrington17

Maybe the wires are split/cracked/need replacing?

yessir. it pissed me off too when my lights were still on even with a new hub, but it turned out to be a broken wire in the harness going to the hub. that could very likely be it considering how much work you just said you were doing in that area.

[99alerogirl]

well the first one i returned the wire was pinched/damaged.

or wait, do you mean a broken wire that's NOT connected to the hub?

[jayson_waltz]

the two wire plug that plugs into the plug on the hub that goes back into the car. i pulled the conduit off the wires all the way as far as i could back into the car area, and one of my wires was broken. fix it and my lights went out.

[99alerogirl]

yeah, that was the problem with the first one i returned. but this one i still hear that whooshing sound or whatever... which i guess could be my brakes, but they've never done that before.

[black00gt1]

i understand you'r fustration my a/c compresser is winning and insanely annoying it only lasts for a few minutes but insanely annoying and my power stering pump was leaking that was a fiasco they dont sell a power stering pump with resivwar,pump and pulllly no that be to easy but yet they will sell ya all 3 pieces from the same store and fyi the pully is made of plastic not metal and getting the pully on strait lololololol thats not fun.

so i know what you'r saying 99alerogirl when you'r annoyed i was behond pissed and i usually have a pretty taim temper when it comes to that kinda stuff.

[99alerogirl]

well, the shuddering and shaking at 60-70 mph seems to be the outer tie rod end. tore it apart again tonight after work, and there's tons of play in it, and the control arm moves separate of the tie rod end, so that's my next purchase. ugh, replacing my passenger side suspension a part at a time.

the hub issue is still a mystery. still a whooshing sound, still have the lights. gay.

[Alerosaint]

I have gotten two bad hubs from autozone my last hubs change....that pretty much sucked

[Nate's Alero]

do they sell the timken bearings at autozone?

[Beholder88]

Originally Posted by Nate's Alero

do they sell the timken bearings at autozone?

Yes, that's where I got mine. Cost about $130 or so.