Hello,

Like the title suggests, I have a 2000 Blazer ZR2 and have a whirring sound coming from the front end... Increases in intensity with speed, not engine revs. Seems to disappear on left turns, stays during right turns and straight travel. Excessive wear on front passenger side tire.

Im only moderately technically inclined, I had it up on jackstands with the wheels off. Noticed passenger side hub was worn as well.. Replaced the whole hub assembly, but it has not solved the initial problem... Any ideas??

Thanks for your help )

 

Having owned FOUR Blazers and Jimmys in the past 9 months, and replaced FOUR different hub bearing assemblies, for the exact noise you're describing(especially that the noise goes away while turning), I can't imagine that it's not the hub assembly.
Didn't you say you replaced one of them? Maybe it's the other one.
Autozone's are $120, Advance's are $125, fwiw.(I just did one, two weeks ago). Although I joked around with the Advance manager, asking him to price match, and did my best "Earl Scheib....I'll paint any car for $99.98!", and he sold it to me for that!

 

Synergy Offroad, Jigg.
http://www.shop.synergyoffroad.com/p...p;categoryId=1
$84.95

 

Yah, I only replaced the one because It showed visible wear. The Driver side bearing has not been replaced. Nor either of the rears. Is there a way to check the bearingings for wear... anything I can do to check further before ordering another hub. I paid nearly twice that much for my passengerside hub!

Thanks for your help guys

 

Jack the truck up, use a 2x4 and lever against the wheel. If there's any play left to right or top to bottom you could have a worn bearing. It could also be ball joints, tie rod, steering linkage, etc, so it's best to have a buddy watch all the underside components for play while you pry the wheel.

 

Okay.. So I jacked the truck up one side at a time. Driver side has no play when prying the wheen up/down. However, passenger side (The same side I replaced the hub assembly) has alot of play. When I watch underneith, all of the movement is occuring in the lower control arm balljoint. The amount of play is pretty considerable, I am assuming that this could be the cause for the noise & tire wear on this side.. probably why the wheel bearings went in the first place? Does that make sense?

Now.. My haynes manual gives the procedure to replace the lower ball joints... but I think it is beyond my skill level.. any ideas what parts/labour would cost on something like this??

 

The cost of the job greatly depends on the place you take it to. I wouldn't hesitate to do these things in my garage by myself anymore, but when I had them done on my old Bravada, I did one side and it took me the better part of a day by myself with only hand tools. Yep, a cold chisel and a hammer to remove the rivets!! What a pain. I called around and was quoted $160 for both upper and lower on the other side and I jumped on it. Now that is rediculously low! I doubt you'd find a place to do it for under $250. Now that I have an air compressor, air hammer, & air impact, this job would be a breeze in my garage!!

And yes, it is possible that the ball joint caused more stress on the bearing, but it could just be a coincidence...