Steering wheel shuddering, front wheel bearing worn?

:
2002 Mazda Protege5
So recently, my steering wheel is pulsing while I'm driving. But not all the time. I can hear it too.
First, I thought it was the tires that were becoming unbalanced, like a wheel weight fell off, or my tire was going flat. But my tire didn't go flat so that rules that out. The pulsation sound comes and goes at highway speeds, rather than being constant. And it is not linear, i.e. faster speed = more shudder, slower speed = less shudder. I was driving around 55 MPH and the shuddering started to increase, and then as I was going faster, it went away. Then it never returned for the rest of my drive which was over 40 miles.
So I don't think it's my brake discs either since I replaced them a year ago because the symptoms above would indicate it's not. I've had unbalanced tires and warped brake discs. Since it comes and goes instead of being there constantly, I'm thinking it is the wheel bearings that are going, i.e. they roll smoothly on sides of the bearing that are round and it start to shudder when the bearing is rolling on out-of-round sections. The car has over 170,000 miles.
 
Last edited:
bearing will make noise when they start to go out. an unbalanced wheel will shake the steering wheel at a certain speed. you sir, have a wheel imbalance.
 
Is it more severe while you turn the wheel in one direction or another? If so then very likely wheel bearing issue.
 
bearing will make noise when they start to go out. an unbalanced wheel will shake the steering wheel at a certain speed. you sir, have a wheel imbalance.
Okay. These tires are close to being worn down. They are good for maybe a couple more months. I hate to spend the money on balancing them just to have them replaced. I put in a lot of miles monthly.
 
If the tires are known to be worn, I'd wait till you get new ones to bother with it. If you're doing a lot of miles, it might not hurt to rotate/balance them.

Sometimes a noise/vibe that goes away when you go faster is tires (I've heard a few 1st hand stories but never saw it in several years of shop+school) but usually it's bearings. I've replaced hundreds of bearings and (just putting relative numbers out there) if I've replaced 150 bearings, I've heard 125 different noises (or lack of them) made from bad bearings. Many fade in/out at a resonant speed. Heck, my P5 right now has LF and RR bearings that have been singing since new (father in law bought it new, never bothered getting it fixed 'cause it never got worse(facepalm)) just kinda pulses about 56-60mph. RR hums steady at 40-50 mph. It's there through a set of brakes, set of rims, 3 sets of tires.

You can try to check the bearings by jacking up the car and shaking the tires down but they don't always have play.
 
Back