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Guy Fiero - The Wheel Bearing |
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Eventually, I finally noticed an issue that had been plaguing the car. Ever since my first drive, I had noted that it almost sounded like a train?? However I was also driving the car on 21 year old tires, so I figured some strange noises are to be expected, but even I wasn't fully convinced of that. After getting the tires replaced, it became much more obvious what the problem was. In addition to the train noises, the rear left wheel sounded how I can best describe as how a Chevy Volt sounds. This, along with other symptoms such as changing while turning, and going away when speeding over bumps, pointed to a classic case of a failing wheel bearing. This is quite important to get sorted, as the failure mode of a wheel bearing is The Wheel Falling Off. Unfortunately, the rear bearings on the Fiero are a hub style, meaning I can't just replace the bearings and call it a day. Additionally, the Fiero community is convinced that all aftermarket Fiero wheel hubs are crap, even ones from otherwise reputable brands like Timken. Then again these are reports from people who autocross their car, which is not at all my goal here, so I think I'll be alright. I just opted for the Timken hubs. Eventually the hub arrived, and I ran into a problem. I did not have the right socket for the axle nut. My goal was to drive the car to work in about 3 hours, so I had no time to go to the store and pick one up. I chose the only natural option, and decided to risk it with an unreasonably oversized one. Somehow, this worked perfectly fine. Even using the impact gun to get the nut off, it sustained no damage. Though notably, it was very difficult to remove. I wonder why that is. The rest of the process went relatively smoothly, until I had to reinstall the axle nut. First, they did not include a new axle nut, so I'd have to reuse the original. But also, getting the nut torqued properly is very important. If it's too loose or too tight you'll destroy the bearing. I looked up the torque spec, and everyone said 200 ft.lbs. That is very tight. My torque wrench doesn't even go that high. However, since that is indeed the correct spec apparently, that's what I would try and torque it to. My torque wrench only goes to 150 ft.lbs. I torqued it to 150, then gave it as much extra as I could, which I figured would be pretty close. I did manage to drive the car to work that day, and a couple hundred miles later nothing is obviously wrong, so hopefully the bearing will be okay after all.
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