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Is a rubbing disc brake dust cover the first symptom of a bad wheel bearing?

Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair Asked on January 29, 2021

Wife came home the other day and said there was a noise when she turned left in the 2014 Chrsyler T&C Minivan. I drove it around a parking lot and confirmed a scraping/metallic rubbing sound from rear wheel (I thought left, she thought right) when turning fairly tight left turns about 10-15 mph. Didn’t sound clicky or robust enough to be the wheel bearing. Sounded to me like the brake dust cover rubbing, since I had one bust loose on a truck one time, and this was really similar.

I took a screwdriver and gently pushed the dust covers back a bit, just through the wheel holes. Test on turns and the noise was gone, so that was definitely it.

However, I’m wondering if this is just the first symptom of a bad wheel bearing. If I understand how the stuff is put together down there, the dust cover is attached to an assembly that’s independent of the wheel and rotor, so that the shifting of mass during turns may be angling that wheel enough to cause that rub.

To be clear, I don’t get any other typical wheel bearing symptoms — which in my past experience were all a lot more obvious. But I wonder if I should just get ahead of this one and have it replaced.

2 Answers

Your understanding of how it's connected together makes sense, however, if you are rubbing a brake dust cover (backing plate) it doesn't mean the bearing is going bad. The first thing I'd be looking at is if there is any damage to the dust cover or if there is something stuck between the dust cover and the rotor.

The reason you wouldn't look to the wheel bearing first (and I'm NOT saying it CANNOT BE the wheel bearing, just saying you need to eliminate other things first) is because when a wheel bearing starts going bad it is a very small amount of play which it causes. I'm talking about in the .0001" arena type play. You'll feel a wheel bearing before you'll start seeing a problem with clearances, especially something as broad as a how far the dust shield is off the rotor. You can measure the distance with a ruler, not a micrometer.

Answered by Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 on January 29, 2021

None of the failed wheel bearings I have had affected the brakes . They caused a very low rumble that you felt more than heard. My first auto repair; driving home in my '41 Cadillac ( cost $ 95 from a Cadillac dealer- used) ,my father said that sound is a bad wheel bearing ; he was correct.

Answered by blacksmith37 on January 29, 2021

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