rumblebelly
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- FT COLLINS, CO
Last week I had all of my balljoints replaced at a local shop (my wife won't let me perform involved projects like that due to my cursing and swearing when things don't go right). My XJ is a 00 Classic with 81K. Anyway just the other day, I noticed a squeak coming from the front left side. Sounded kinda like a rubbery sounding intermittent squeak so I peaked underneath and noticed the rubber boot on the lower driver side ball joint was pulled down a bit, revealing the metal and grease beneath. I figured that was the cause of my squeak.
I took it back to the shop (note: the owner wasn't there, just one young mechanic and the guy that normally works the phone and desk) and they pulled the tire and hub off and noticed there was quite a bit of play between the bearing housing and hub. Then the guy went over to check the other side and did the 12/6 o clock check on the tire. He noticed the tire had a lot play and let me check it out...yep, plenty of movement. Well crap, now it looks like I now gotta get 2 new hub assemblies (they had to check if the whole assembly was required...they must not work on jeeps often). How can that happen a few days after balljoint replacement??????
Here comes the weird part. The fella slapped the driver side hub back on and tightened her to spec. Still had play but tightened it a little more past spec and all play is gone...same with the other side, it's as tight as can be. Then I noticed the squeak again and I looked underneath and the rubber boot slid down again. Called the shop up and they said that they needed to research the torque thing and check the ball joint to see what's going on.
Do you think my bearings are still bad? Are my hubs over torqued now or is their torque wrench out of spec? There was a little play when the hub assembly was off but is that normal? I know there shouldn't be any play when you do the tire test but even when the hubs are off? What about this ball joint boot? They want me to bring it back in a couple of days for a closer look, it was late and they were trying to get home I guess.
Sorry for the long story. I can't imagine both wheel bearings going bad right after getting my ball joints replaced. You think there would have been some indication that they were bad when the ball joints were replaced.
I took it back to the shop (note: the owner wasn't there, just one young mechanic and the guy that normally works the phone and desk) and they pulled the tire and hub off and noticed there was quite a bit of play between the bearing housing and hub. Then the guy went over to check the other side and did the 12/6 o clock check on the tire. He noticed the tire had a lot play and let me check it out...yep, plenty of movement. Well crap, now it looks like I now gotta get 2 new hub assemblies (they had to check if the whole assembly was required...they must not work on jeeps often). How can that happen a few days after balljoint replacement??????
Here comes the weird part. The fella slapped the driver side hub back on and tightened her to spec. Still had play but tightened it a little more past spec and all play is gone...same with the other side, it's as tight as can be. Then I noticed the squeak again and I looked underneath and the rubber boot slid down again. Called the shop up and they said that they needed to research the torque thing and check the ball joint to see what's going on.
Do you think my bearings are still bad? Are my hubs over torqued now or is their torque wrench out of spec? There was a little play when the hub assembly was off but is that normal? I know there shouldn't be any play when you do the tire test but even when the hubs are off? What about this ball joint boot? They want me to bring it back in a couple of days for a closer look, it was late and they were trying to get home I guess.
Sorry for the long story. I can't imagine both wheel bearings going bad right after getting my ball joints replaced. You think there would have been some indication that they were bad when the ball joints were replaced.