Rear Bearing Noise?

[Schrup]

I just changed out my front wheel bearings, rebuilt all my calipers, & installed new pads. I have a dull rubbing noise coming from the rear of the car. Kind of like a big uneven boulder rolling across a concrete floor, cgrr...cgrr...cgrr. There doesn't seem to be any play in the wheels & I can't feel anything unusual while driving. The brakes work great. At first it seemed like it was worse going around turns, but now it is pretty constant. There is no sign I've lost any grease out of the CV boots. I'm thinking it may be one of the rear wheel bearings. If so I have heard that it won't hurt anything to drive a few hundred miles on a noisy bearing. I also thought it might be a warped rotor, but I don't feel it on the pedal. Bottom line is I wander if I can get away with driving to Portland tomorrow with some other Pelicanheads to check out some racing. Your opinions are appreciated.
EDIT: this is a pretty faint noise.

[Neilk]

Go for it. Rear wheel bearings will drone on for thousands of miles before you really need to replace them. I think your trip is safe.

FWIW, mine made noise for many thousands of miles before I got the courage to replace them. Get ready for a lot of while you are there type work when you decide to replace them.

[kepperly]

MY 87 wide body Carrera is starting to get a slight roar from the rear. I guess even in flat straight Kansas they wear out.

Keith

[Leland Pate]

Opps.........Lee was still logged in on my computer. This is CARY.

I think Keith's description is what I would use. A dull roar.

Take the rear tires off and compare the resistance of the bearings when you turn the rotors by hand. You might feel that one is tighter than the other.

[IROC]

I'm in the same boat right now. My left rear wheel bearing has gone from an "only making a little noise when going around right turns" to a "droaning noise that comes and goes even going straight". It took about 2 years to get to this point. No play at all and with the car up on jack stands, the left rear doesn't make any more noise than the right rear.

Replacement is one of my winter projects - already purchased the bearing from Wayne...

Mike

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by IROC
Replacement is one of my winter projects - already purchased the bearing from Wayne...

Hey Mike,
how many miles on your car. that rear bearing doesn't seem to follow a milage wear curve/ whatever.........Ron

[kepperly]

Mine is a 3.2 ltr. Carrera that was made into a wide body, they added 1 3/8 spacers and 11" wide Fikse wheels with 275x40x17" Dunlop tires. Would you think this would accelarate rear wheel bearing wear??

Keith Epperly

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by kepperly
Mine is a 3.2 ltr. Carrera that was made into a wide body, they added 1 3/8 spacers and 11" wide Fikse wheels with 275x40x17" Dunlop tires. Would you think this would accelarate rear wheel bearing wear??

Keith Epperly

LOL

[MovOvr1]

I had a rear wheel bearing go on my car while driving it home from Indianapolis. It started to tick and then actually caught and felt like it siezed briefly then let go and basically disintegrated.

I took it to Stoddard and it turned out to be an inner bearing which they say rarely fail. It always is the outer bearings.

They said it was good that I didn't drive the car and just had it replaced with new.

Brian
79-930

[IROC]

Originally posted by RoninLB
Hey Mike,
how many miles on your car. that rear bearing doesn't seem to follow a milage wear curve/ whatever.........Ron

The car has about 145k miles on it. They have been in there since the car rolled out the factory door 27 years ago. My 275/40-17 rear tires and thousands of miles of track use probably haven't been kind to them... :>)

Mike