Mysterious Rumbling Coming From Front Driver Wheel - Corolland: the Toyota Corolla Forums

Hey all, its been a while since i've had any problems w/ my 98 Corolla. But over the last several months i've noticed a intermittent rumbling coming from the front wheel. It sounded like a strut mount since it was so clear and sounded up high in the wheel well.

I ordered a new mount from rock auto, along with a bellows and bump stop since it was torn up. Yesterday I changed out everything, took me about 5 hours off and on. Afterwards, I drove it again, and the rumble is still there.

Im beginning to suspect the wheel bearing. While i was under the car, i was pulling on things to see if anything was loose. I noticed that the

half-shaft drive actually had some 'play' in it laterally. Is this normal? I was going to check the other wheel to see if it has play but haven't yet.

If i have to replace the half-shaft, I'll do the bearing at the same time. Need to know in advance to order parts. Thanks.

That sounds very much like the wheel bearing. I have a preferred way to isolate that, though it's not recommended by manufacturers or experts for safety reasons. Still, it gets the job done. As they say, proceed at your own risk.

What I do is take the car to a sparely traveled road, on a hill, switch to neutral and let it roll quietly maybe up to 20-25 mph. Once the engine and transmission noise isn't there, any rumble will become very clear. I know, the car will lose power steering and brake booster, but it will still have steering (as long as you have the key in and turned to ON) and brake, you just have to put some strength in. Take someone else along so they can help you locate the source of the noise.

I know, I'll take fire for suggesting this, but the truth is, as long as you exersize common sense and keep everything safe, most things are fine. I do some non-recommended things all the time, such as coasting with stick shift. Saves gas and keeps the cabin quiet. As per ability/necessity to suddenly accelerate when needed, when was the last time really needed to accelerate away to safety? And it's not like Corolla lets you suddenly accelerate anyway, unless you downshift and floor it.

CV axle play is also consistent with wheel bearing (although it's not specific to wheel bearing).

another vote for wheel bearings, it will sound like you have snow tires on

raise the drive wheels and drive the car at about 40-45mph and have a helper listen to each side to isolate.

Thank you for the suggestions and educated guesses.

Well, I'm going to find out this Monday when i do replace the bearing. Got all the tools read: Breaker bar, 30mm 12pt Deep Socket, etc.

Cheapest machine shop wants $30 to replace bearing in hub. Will let you know afterward if that was indeed the problem, if it doesn't then it has to be the half-shaft. I've also replaced the dog-bone stabilizer bar linkage, but that wasn't it.

I've used RockAuto online a few times. they are very reliable, fast, and CHEAP ( for OEM and non-OEM parts). I've ordered KYB bellows and non-OEM strut mount from them.

Bearing Cost

at 1stToyotaParts OEM 76.96 + $8 s/h

at RockAuto - Beck Arnley non-OEM $26.79 + $8s/h

Any other suggestions or tips, not found in the Haynes manual for this job would be appreciated,

Just to update: I started the job today. In expectation of having the wheel bearings replaced, I removed the caliper, torque plate, tie-rod, lower ball joint, axle nut.

After removing the spindle/knuckle from the axle, i moved the CV axle around to test for play, and found the inner CV joint was making the exact noise I was hearing from inside the car. The inner CV boot was also pulling out much further than what seemed normal ( to me ). So I decided to replace the original CV axle anyway since the car has 107K.

I purchased a remanufactured CV axle from Pepboys for $60 w/exchange. Getting the CV axle in and out was much easier than i thought it would be.

This fellows video (

) helped me greatly, even though he was working on a Camry. i couldn't use the whale jaw vice clamp to extract the Cv axle as he did, since his Camry had manual trans, and I have an auto trans), but a small prybar about 14" and ball peen hammer worked fine to work the axle out of the differential. default_smile

I've decided to install a new lower ball joint, since they're only about $20 from RockAuto, so I'll put it all back together in a couple days and update here. I'll find out if the rumbling noise was indeed a bad CV joint.

QUESTION: A leaflet which came with the new CV axle stated that if the old axle was 'broken' or separated at the inner CV joint ( as MINE was ), that could be caused by a broken motor mount or bad hub. How can i tell if a motor mount is broken? Excessive shaking on startup and/or vibration of the motor? default_sad

Correct, a broken motor mount would cause excessive shaking/vibration from the engine. Though sometimes CV joints go bad on their own. Thanks for the follow up on this situation, very interesting result.

The strange thing about it was the Cv wasn't making the classic 'clicking' sound when turning, just random rumbling while the wheels were rolling. I'll probably have to do the passenger side too, since i've read on other forums that the CVs shafts usually last 120K or less. My 98 has 107k.

I ended up accidentally damaging the lower ball joint because i didn't use a $10 pickle fork, and damaged the threads on the top of the ball joint stud when i was trying to "tap" it out ( haha, impossible ).

Had to order another from rockauto $17, which should arrive tomorrow.

It should be done by Saturday, then off to get aligned, which it needed anyway before the Cv when out. I'll check for a broken motor mount then too.

the fork will ruin the grease boot, if you hammer the knuckle its fit into and pry down on the control arm it will pop loose. its an interference fit between two angles, break the fit and it comes right apart.