wheel/hub bearing

[mike 35]

i have a 2006 m35x with 85,000 miles.No major problems so far ,but for the last 2 months I have been hearing this whineing noise from the front of my car when i accelerate and decelerate. It almost sounds like the car is stuck in 1 st gear but its actually not. The car shifts smoothly and the transmission fluid level is where it should be which is the main reason why i ignored this problem for such a long time.Even at highway speeds the sound is present.Some one had told be a while back that when the hub is bad it usually makes a whineing sound and from reading previous post it is well known that the hubs usually go bad on this car .My main question is how do you know that your hub is bad?I'm just trying to elimenate all possibilties . Thanks

[cruzad3r]

have you done any visual inspection? i would check the boot and see if it's torn. Also lift the car up and shake the wheel to see if there's any moment.

[mike 35]

the only visual inspections i did was under the hood (fluids ,belts).I will put the car on a lift sometime this week.There also seems to be some steering wheel vibration when i go over 60mph .Iwent to see if i had a bent rim, but the rims are fine

[83wildcat]

My 2006 M35X wheel bearing started going bad around 50K miles. I thought it was tire noise and rode on it until 65K miles at which time I got new tires and the sound didn't go away. I took it in for an alignment and the guy told me my wheel bearing was bad. It made a whining sound like a pick-up on off road tires and gets much worse when turning, even at low speeds. Acceleration or deceleration didn't make much difference, it was a function of speed, the higher the speed the louder it got.

With 85K miles, the following comment won't help you, but I point this out for other owners on the board. The base warranty is 4 years 60K miles, so at 65K I was ready to fork over about $400 to get it replaced. Then I remembered there's also a 6 year 70K "powertrain" warranty. I called my Infiniti dealer and they told me it would be covered, so I got it replaced at no cost.

When I had the bearing replaced, the dealer told me that the bearings tend to fail if the wheel gets curbed. There is a service bulletin that tells the dealer to check for wheel damage and if there is any damage they don't replace under warranty. Luckily, I got new rims with my tires so my wheels were pristine. My old wheels didn't look so good. I wouldn't be surprised if sometime in the car’s life the wheel got curbed (wasn't me, but I'm the second owner). So if someone tries to get a wheel bearing replaced under warranty, make sure your rims look good!

[crzyspaniard84]

My M35x has 111,000 miles. I began experiencing the same thing as you did on the front passenger side at about 95,000 miles. I ordered a new hub (cost was like $150) and I was able to replace it in like an hour. This DIY will help you get an idea of what is needed if you want to to do it yourself. I did it with no power tools just made sure that I had some leverage because the bolts do get tight.

The write-up is for a RWD, if you have the AWD you need to also remove the center hub axle nut.

REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE SENSOR bolted onto the knuckle. This will add another $100 you didnt want to spend on this project.

post5573362.html?hilit=wheel%20hub#p5573362

If you want to check if the hub is bad lift the car and roll the wheels by hand you will probably hear grinding noise if the hub is real bad. Old school mechanics trick is to remove the wheel and hold a screwdriver to the hub, put your ear to the end and you can hear the grinding noise.

Best of luck!

[cruzad3r]

good find and thanks the owner for putting the tutorial together.