I'm very meticulous with my truck, and I was underneath it yesterday cleaning up everything, greasing everything and checking my front end.

Drivers side is tight.

I rocked the passenger wheel and noticed a little slop in the upper ball joint.

Its barely noticeable, but if you put your finger by it you can feel it moving.

I think this is the slight vibration I've been feeling in the steering wheel.

Ask any of my friends and they will tell you that I can notice anything "different" with my vehicles.

And they also ask me if its broke or "Mike broke" (Thats me)

Anyway - do I need to replace the lower as well if its tight?

I don't want to spend the money if I don't have to on the lower - but I am going to replace the axle u-joint.

So I'm guessing these are original, and I'm also guessing that the wonderful craters in our roads led to this.

How would I know if a wheel bearing is bad?

Sorry for the long rambling post - but it seems like I'm replacing something every week.

 

If you are going to do it yourself , then just do the bad part , if your paying to have it done , then do both .
A bad wheel bearing may growl going down the hwy , wiggle the wheel the same way , while trying to feel between the hub & wheel .

 

I would (and have) replace both even if you are doing it yourself. No reason to give Murphy's Law a chance to apply. Besides, if your taking everything apart to get to the upper, you may as well take the rest apart to get to the lower while half the work to change it is done.

As for the wheel bearing. If it's bad, you should be able to get the wheel to wobble in just about any direction you push it while it's elevated off the ground. Be carefull diagnosing a growling sound heard when driving. Because your ball joint is going, it may be causing the front tires to cup, which will cause a growl-like sound that should alert you that somethings out of wack. In your case, you noticed the ball joint. In my experience, if the bearing was going bad, I would have noticed movement at the hub when I was checking the ball joint and I'd imagine you would have too. I have only ever once not had any movement come from a bad bearing, yet, had a bad hub bearing...and that wasn't on my truck, it was on my wifes Bravada.

 

Thanks guys!