Ever since I bought my 92 SE-R I've had this speed dependent roving noise that I attributed to the tires. I rotated the tires and it did not make a difference. I have completely different tires and wheels and it does not make a difference. I have new brake pads, gone from dead Tokicos and Prokits to new GR2 and stock springs, no change. Did a test last night with the front wheels off the ground and you can STILL here this noise inside the car. The best I can describe it is sounding like you are inside of a propeller airplane. Turning the wheel one way or the other while driving or with the wheels in the air makes no difference- it is only speed dependent.

Wheel bearing(s)? CV(s)? Transmission? I've heard over and over that wheel bearings will be evident if you turn one way or the other- the sound will cease and return. Again, turning makes no difference- just the speed the wheels are turning. I don't think it's the tranny because it's as smooth shifting as can be.

I am thinking it's wheel bearings. The previous owner (or previous previous owner or something) had used 1 keyed lugnut on each rim so the rims could not get stolen easily. Well, the keyed lugnut was the wrong thread pitch so the lug was on 1 lug on every wheel just 1-2 turns, not doing any job of holding the wheel on at all. My guess is that this extended period of running all wheels basically on 3 lugnuts (again, 4th was doing nothing to hold the rim on) that this wore the wheel bearings in the front over time. Anyone agree or disagree with me? When I first bought the car there was a decent shimmy to it. When I replaced the incorrect pitch lugs with proper ones, that vibration went away. Again, another vote for my theory.

So, going to the next step if necessary, how does one replace wheel bearings? Do you normally just buy a new spindle and use your old ones as cores?

I have the same noise that I also attribute to the tires. I have not yet switched wheels or put the car in the air like you did. What you did is very interesting and I believe points to wheel bearings, like you said.

I replaced the front wheel bearings in the 91. These wheel bearings failed in the 'classic' way where they were squealing and turning made the outside tire squeal more.
I ordered new bearings and seals, took the hubs (or steering knuckle, whatever you want to call it) off the car and had the dealer remove the old ones and press the new ones in. Accoring to the FSM, they are supposed to be pressed together with 4 tons of force, however, I could move my new wheel bearings in and out by hand. I found a socket that fit inside the hub against the outer race of the wheel bearing, and hit it with my magical hammer. It seemed to work, as there is now no play in the bearing. I haven't yet driven the 91 since I can't get the damn clutch cable short enough (I did a clutch job at same time), but I believe they are in good shape. I had the old parts from when we did this on my girlfriends car and I looked at how the bearings fit in there and I don't believe my hammering would have caused any problems, but I can't say that for sure. If new wheel bearings help you out, I might try and hammer out the old ones and put the new ones in myself. I wonder if a ball joint press might be a helpful tool to put the new ones in.

Tightening the axle might have done the same thing as my hammering, but I didn't think of that until later.

Cool. I'll try and monkey with it myself and see what I can do. Yet another item I get to learn to work on and replace. :)

Thanks for the advice, Jacen.

Originally posted by jacen99SE
I haven't yet driven the 91 since I can't get the damn clutch cable short enough (I did a clutch job at same time)

Here you go!

http://www.sr20deforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13054&highlight=cable+pipe

The original pics aren't working, so go there and click on the link i provided. I'll put the link here too.

http://photos.lycos.com/s.asp?r=165j7oogvkpkpdkjof8ic9dsi4_266501


Chris

Originally posted by Ben92SentraSE-R


I am thinking it's wheel bearings. The previous owner (or previous previous owner or something) had used 1 keyed lugnut on each rim so the rims could not get stolen easily. Well, the keyed lugnut was the wrong thread pitch so the lug was on 1 lug on every wheel just 1-2 turns, not doing any job of holding the wheel on at all. My guess is that this extended period of running all wheels basically on 3 lugnuts (again, 4th was doing nothing to hold the rim on) that this wore the wheel bearings in the front over time. Anyone agree or disagree with me? When I first bought the car there was a decent shimmy to it. When I replaced the incorrect pitch lugs with proper ones, that vibration went away. Again, another vote for my theory.


Do you think there could be something wrong with the hub or wheel studs?

Welp, I changed out the driver's side front wheel bearing this past weekend. On Wednesday I started to get very odd steering feel, like my driver's front tire was going flat or something of the suspension was loose. I figured it was time to change this thing out. I did so, and my steering feel is back to normal (I took EVERYTHING apart including the ball joint and tie rod- nothing was loose at all) but the noise is still mostly there. I've got a spare set of axles (the ones for the Metro) so the next thing I will try is swapping those out.

What could be up with the lugs, jacen? I have replaced 1 lug a piece on each hub on the car due to the incorrect thread pitch of the wheel locks the car had on it. ???

I was mainly thinking about the hub. I wonder if it could be out-of-round from only having 3 lug nuts on tightly. If it was not round, I think it would then effect the wheel bearing. I am just thinking out loud, I don't know what would happen. My 99SE has recently started to get worse with this noise that I think is the same thing you are describing.

I wouldn't want to replace the wheel bearing, and have it ruined from having a bad hub.

Do you know if the 1.6L cars had the same hub/wheel bearing/steering knuckle assembly? That could be a cheap junkyard source if they are the same.

Originally posted by jacen99SE
I wouldn't want to replace the wheel bearing, and have it ruined from having a bad hub.

That happened to me actually, I removed the spindle and took it to a machine shop to have new bearing pressed in and they didn't check the hubs. I put them back on and the bearings were ruined instantly. The machine shop tried to blame me, saying I screwed up the install. I ended up having a shop do the whole job and they told me the hubs were shot.

I would recommend replacing both the hubs and bearings on both front wheels, Ben. I know it's a hassle and I know you like to make inexpensive repairs but in this case you want to be careful that you don't throw money away.

So the disc part of the hub was warped or the cylindrical shaft part was warped?

I believe the shaft part was out-of-round. I'm not entirely sure though.

I've read about 2.0 L motors having this resonant effect on the chassis. CRV-tec and regular b20 swapped civics also have this hum. For some reason 2.0 L motors produce this chassis hum that could be your noise. Or not, my $.02.

Ok, I too have this turbo prop effect that I thought for sure was the rotted flex pipe and possibly the part of the pipe after the cat but before the muffler that was missing.

Had em replaced...smoother once rolling for a bit, but on idle...it's still full turbo prop all the way. Getting under way is smoother from an exhaust point of view...but the turbo prop is still buzzing like crazy, and so is the dash.

Is this just a common thing with se-r classics and I should forget about it? If not, what solved your problem. I wanted to finish this car 2 weeks ago already.

Please help.

Thanks!
GameDay

ok i have a similar problem, my car has a bad vibration and propellar noise, but not speed dependant, if i turn real sharp, it will start and wont stop, but i can bump the clutch and it will stop.
i know its not the cv joints because it still vibrates while the car is setting still, it also does it if im going down the road and the spring is under load, i can hear it. it really feels just like a peice of something is rubbing the tire, but it does it even when the car is setting still. what do you guys think, im beginning to think it may be a power steering pump or rack, but i dont know the symptoms of a bad rack or power steering pump, the power steering still feels good. any ideas as to what it could be?

Ben,
Today I got sick of the noise and decided to do some more testing. I have race tires on NX rims that I have never used because the shop put the sticky wheel weights inside the rim and they didn't clear the NX brakes. I ripped the weights off and put the race tires on and drove around. I didn't hear any noise. I put the B14 tires on the 91 SE-R and drove it around. It has the noise, but it is much quieter :confused:

If my noise is all tire noise, I will be amazed because it is sooo loud.

I just solved this this week! I replaced the OTHER wheel bearing and it's all gone! I first replaced the driver's side one and it didn't go away, but I replaced the passenger side one this week and it's all gone! The real reason I replaced them was because I started to have some funky steering issues going on and found that the wheel bearings were getting loose, causing the hubs to have some lateral movement. Not good.

Me happy :)

Ben!

Halleluia brother! You solved the problem...thank you!

Ok, wheel bearings...is it a diy job, do you need a press, how hard are they to do, and how much are the bearrings? I need to get a manual for this...which one does everyone recommend.

I've got a handle on a clean Nx2000 if anyone is interested. I'll find out about it this week.

GameDay

You can DIY, but I had to engineer a few things to do it without a press. To pound out the outer race from the knuckle I used a bad intermediate shaft. The roller bearing on the end is the perfect size to fit inside. I need to do a write up with pictures. Basically the special tools you need are:

-spare intermediate shaft from a transmission, or something else that will work to pound out the outer race from the knuckle
-LARGE vice grips to assist in pounding off one of the inner races from the hub
-bench grinder or grinding wheel on a dremel or drill to re-round the hub after malforming it from banging on the outside edge to get the inner race off
-Big hammer

You will have to remove the knuckle/hub assembly from the car to do it.