wheel seal rubber making noise when wheel rotates?

Recently, thanks to the informative how to's and pics on this forum, I replaced the following on the front end of my son's Protege5:
Control arms
Stabilizer Bar Bushings
Stabilizer Bar Links
Outer Tie Rod Ends
Output shaft seal (driver side)
Wheel bearings
CV Axles
Wheel seals
(BTW cost for above parts was around 3.5 bills which doesn't seem to bad, mostly RockAuto)

It's been about a month and my son said a "noise", which just started, happens when he is creeping, either to or from a stop. Long story short I drove the car and in my opinion is sounds like rubber is rubbing and making the noise. I jacked up the car and got under it and rotated the tires slowly and I am 99.9% confident it is coming from the wheel seals...yes it's making the noise on both sides (I rotated them individually and they are identical).

When I was doing the work on the car I saw the wheel seal was a topic and something about whether it was needed or not. I removed a wheel seal when I did the work therefore I assumed replacing it was the thing to do (the bearings appeared to be original, we bought the car used). I did apply a THIN coat of grease on the wheel seals when I replaced them. Anyway here we are a month into driving it and it makes an ever so faint noise when slowing starting a roll or when the car is slowly just about to stop rolling. When the wheels rotate faster the noise is not noticeable (if that is because of other noises drowning it out OR the rubber actually quits making the noise I do not know).

It is almost unnoticeable but I wanted to know if anyone:
has encountered this before
knows if there is something else that could be making the noise (again I believe wheel seal rubber is making the noise)
knows if this is nothing to worry about
Any suggestions?

I hope I posted this in the correct area (made that mistake before).

Thanks in advance for your input.

2002 Protege5 automatic


Just went out and spun the tire/wheel and there is no "free" spin. I mean when you spin it by hand as soon as you let the tire go it does not continue spinning (i.e. another 3/4 turn). Should there be some spin and if so about how much?

Is this a first for this one? Thinking of going ahead and just driving the car and see if noise gets any louder/disappears....

I'm unfamiliar with 'wheel seals' on these cars...Are they similar to dust caps or something? the rear stub axle bearings are covered with a little dust cap thing, is it something similar to that only holed out for the axle splines to fit through?

I could see why it would be debatable if they are needed...the CV's fit very tight inside the front steering knuckles, and this car uses press fit sealed wheel bearings...which are sealed all on their own (until you remove them, which destroys the bearing)...

with that said though...is the noise like a slight clicking or creaking? My p5 had that for years, and in my case it was similar...it would only be noticeable at very low speeds, especially while turning over a small bump (like entering my driveway)...I chased it around from stuts, to strut mounts, to axles, to tie rod ends...and it ended up not going away until i replaced the lower control arm recently due to a bad ball joint...but that alone wasn't what fixed it...my creaking was caused by a nearly completely eaten rear through bolt for the control arm....I could almost crack it in half with my hands, and i'm very lucky it came out to begin with haha...$30 worth of hardware from the dealership, haven't hear the noise since...

I'm guessing this doesn't help you though...I could never get the noise to happen with the car lifted...only occurred when the suspension was loaded and moving slowly...Maybe try taking those seals off and see if it goes away?

No clicking or creaking, just what sounds like rubber against dry metal. In the garage without any noise pollution around you can hear when the wheel is slowly turned (even a fraction of an inch). As a matter of fact jacking up the front end and rotating the tires was what sold me that it's coming from the axle/wheel seal section. No other rubber around that is or could be rubbing.

Tried putting a little oil (neighbor suggested) where rubber/cv assembly meet to see if noise would stop but the problem is this area is sealed when the parts are connected (cv axle section sits tights against the wheel seal - so the oil is not "penetrating", I guess the seal is doing its job).

I guess I will keep driving it the way it is and keep an ear on it in the meantime. I will post what happens, if anything, incase anyone ever runs across this issue. Thanks for input Installshield 2.

Just out of curiosity, where did you get these wheel seals? and were they on there when you removed the axles from the knuckles/hubs? I never noticed these when i did work in and around there, but its been a few years...EDIT: nevermind, i see in your original post they were on there to begin with. I haven't replaced the bearings yet...but did have the axles out years ago, just didn't look to see if they were in there i guess.

if i recall correctly, the outer cv joints seat themselves onto the inner race of the wheel bearing when you torque down the axle nut...I don't think there was anything in between these pieces from the factory...but there could've been, and i just don't remember...Either way, if there is a rubber seal to be put there, it needs to mate properly with that inner race and turn with the inside of the bearing/CV axle...if that makes sense...if not, its just going to burn up...in a hurry...

Did you torque the axle nuts down to the insane amount? like 214lb/ft or something last i remember...but i've been bouncing a lot of work between my P5 and my gf's Jetta...so i might be mixing these two cars up...

I remember researching this issue on these forums about a year ago. Apparently the original 2002 P5's had seals where the CV joint mates with the knuckle. They had all kinds of problems with that approach because they weren't sealing dirt out, they were sealing it in instead. The CV seal has a huge sloppy circumference to seal and water would leak past and get sealed inside right up against the bearing leading to premature failure. They eventually deleted the seal all together and even added a notch at the bottom of knuckle to drain water away. I remember one guy wanted to put the seals thinking it would be better and plugged the drain hole with silicone. I think it makes more sense to leave them off because the bearings are internally sealed (although there is some confusion about this because we don't know for sure if the internal seals in the bearing were added when the CV seals were deleted and if there was a part number change to clarify this but I'm sure all wheel bearings would had seals regardless). I think you should remove the CV seals and maybe even grind a notch in your knuckle to drain the little bit of water that could sit up against the bearing and work it's way in. That would hopefully stop the noise and give you some peace of mind.