Wheel bearing or CV, Cald GTT

[sam clarkson]

My partners GTT is making funny grinding noises(front end). "How long has it been doing that honey?" "Oh I don't know, quite a while". One careful lady owner!
Anyway...
Jacking it up reveals nothing no rumbles and not much backlash. I'd dearly like to narrow it down so I can have parts on hand before I pull it apart cos I live a long way from town. So any tricks out there as to work out if it's a wheel bearing or the outer or the inner CV(s).

[THA SHZ]

Grinding ? have you checked the brakes ? for wheel bearing jack it up , grab the top and bottom of the wheel and try and rock it backwards and forwards , if you feel play then you have your answer

[sam clarkson]

Definitely not the brakes as it has nothing to do with braking. It makes the noise with driving and a bit more with turning but not more with acceleration and or deceleration. The wheel does not rock when jacked up, everything feels/spins normally with weight off.

[cedwards]

Left or Right? Notice more when turning which way? Auto or Manual?- noise seems related to clutch in or out.

A real pain in the butt this one, seems pretty common if yours is as outlined in below posts. I'm thinking for mine either wheel bearing or inner CV.
I just need to get round to pulling it all to bits again, got sick of replacing parts to no avail

viewtopic.php?t=55249&highlight=

viewtopic.php?t=64690&highlight=

[sam clarkson]

It's an auto, sorry, give me a manual anyday.
Left side and worse (just) turning right.
I'll take the caliper off today and spin it without the pads making a noise.
Those other threads don't appear to be the same, but it's hard to tell as it's kinda hard to write/read about a noise isn't it!
Maybe I should forget about it untill I get the "Honey the car stopped working and it's now making a bunch of banging noises"
;^)

[cedwards]

Good luck! let us know how you get on there just might be some relation to the noise, so would be keen to eliminate it on mine! What to bet you get the ""Honey the car stopped working and it's now making a bunch of banging noises"" In the middle of a hail storm when you really need to be heading in completely the opposite direction and are already twenty minutes late

[pc]

Try undoing the hub nut and then trying to wiggle the wheel side to side (while jacked up). Sometimes bearings are held together so well by the hub nut that you can't feel anything by hand... but once it is undone if there is a problem with it, it should be obvious.

[sam clarkson]

So I got it all apart and still nothing is glaringly obvious. The hub and the CV's all feel ok but not perfect... however I'm going to do the wheel bearings as they feel more suspect than the CV's. I suspect the hardening has gone in the bearing races but without the weight of the car on the bearings the notchiness is subtle.
I'll let you know.