4Rnr4Evr
New member
At this point I have essentially entirely rebuilt the rear end. This last chapter begins after I have replaced passenger side wheel bearing and have installed a rebuilt diff. Still had whirring/humming which I've been chasing for a while now.
Monday I replaced the rear brakes (new everything and now 5th gen reman calipers) since the driver side was messed up. Immediately got brake grinding which was strong on right turn and gone on left turn, so together with the previous diagonal pad wear on this side and the humming/whirring I decided this indicated a bad driver wheel bearing, so I replaced it. When I pulled the axle the bearing was most obviously bad.
To my utter dismay both the brake grind and the humming/whirring noise are still there. The only thing that would make some sense is defective bearing - I got Timken which I thought was the best aftermarket and my other side is a Timken too and it's fine. But the grinding is exactly the same as before and the whirring/humming noise is also exactly the same. I think it's impossible for a worn out old bearing and brand new but defective to sound exactly the same. Plus it felt smooth when I was checking it before the install. Yet I can't think of anything else that could cause the brake grind I got now AND the diagonal brake pad wear I got before. The marks on the new rotor and the previos diagonal pad wear both correspond to inward tilting due to bad wheel bearing.
Is there anything else that could cause the brake rotor to tilt this way? Never mind the whirring noise - at this point I'm willing to forget about it if I knew my entire rear end was good but the brake grind means something is definitely wrong on that side.
Monday I replaced the rear brakes (new everything and now 5th gen reman calipers) since the driver side was messed up. Immediately got brake grinding which was strong on right turn and gone on left turn, so together with the previous diagonal pad wear on this side and the humming/whirring I decided this indicated a bad driver wheel bearing, so I replaced it. When I pulled the axle the bearing was most obviously bad.
To my utter dismay both the brake grind and the humming/whirring noise are still there. The only thing that would make some sense is defective bearing - I got Timken which I thought was the best aftermarket and my other side is a Timken too and it's fine. But the grinding is exactly the same as before and the whirring/humming noise is also exactly the same. I think it's impossible for a worn out old bearing and brand new but defective to sound exactly the same. Plus it felt smooth when I was checking it before the install. Yet I can't think of anything else that could cause the brake grind I got now AND the diagonal brake pad wear I got before. The marks on the new rotor and the previos diagonal pad wear both correspond to inward tilting due to bad wheel bearing.
Is there anything else that could cause the brake rotor to tilt this way? Never mind the whirring noise - at this point I'm willing to forget about it if I knew my entire rear end was good but the brake grind means something is definitely wrong on that side.