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AWD drive train question - wheel spin

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90gst_sean

15+ Year Contributor
566
9
Apr 9, 2006
Seattle, Washington
With the front of the vehicle off the ground and on jack-stands, are the front tires supposed to be able to turn freely with the rear wheels still on the ground -in gear or not in gear? When I turn one side of the cars front wheels -the other sides' tire rotates in the opposite direction as it should. However, it seem like with the rear tires still on the ground there should be some resistance to the front wheels turning; no?

Thanks

I'm attempting to diagnose what sounds like a wheel baring going bad, but I'm not 100% sure yet.

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Tranny - fresh oil. Totally full as of yesterday. No leaks at all.

X-case - fresh oil. Topped off yesterday (took about 1/8 qt. if any at all). May have minor leak at axle..? No change in sound after topping off.

Sound from front passenger side only, speed resulting. no change when: breaking, accelerating, slowing, shifting, clutching, or turning -- only speed and the sound gets quieter when the car is totally fully warmed up.

I've started to notice a little steering wheel vibration when almost completely stopped and rolling in neutral. It happens at about 1 mph and does it twice, like a misfire but I don't believe it to be engine related. It seems to be in the drive train and I feel it through the wheel, it's also in the body. You could pass it off as a rough road if not looking for it; this is the same with the whining sound also, it only gets load at around 40 mph and gets loader as you go faster, if you have the radio on and the windows up, you wont hear it. The whining sound is almost like a loud road whine when on a crappy free-way pave job. The vibration only lasts for a fraction of a second, and does it twice just before stopping. There is no other time it happens, not when starting of rolling slow without stopping completely.

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I think it's either the wheel bearing, the x-case or the center diff. The tranny only has 15,000 miles on a Jacks Transmission basic rebuild, so I hope it's not the center differential.
 
As far as your wheels spinning, your not actually turning the front driveshaft, or the differential for that matter. All your doing is spinning the spider gears inside the diff which is why the other tire spins the opposite direction. If you had a limited slip or locker you whould not be able to spin your front tires in any direction.
 
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Hmmm, sounds like a fun problem to chase down :hmm:... but if you are suspecting the wheel bearing, a quick test would be to just grab the tire from the top with both hands and pull and push hard back and forth, that will show if there is any bearing play... Another question is have you checked your axles and driveshaft also? Just pulling back and forth on them to see if the joints have too much play...maybe even the carrier bearing?

Just putting a few more ideas out there. :thumb:
 
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Some timmes the wheel pulling trick dont work. take your car to a flat parkinglot and drive fast enough till you hear the noise. Then turn left at a constant speed. If the noise gets louder then your passangers wheel bearing is going bad. Do it the same way to test the drivers side bearing by turning right.

As for the wheel spinning freely. Mine does that as well. Its normal becaust the transmission dont have an lsd in it. Now if you have all 4 tires off the ground and you spin one back tire only 3 whels will spin. I just changed a set of front bearings in a 2002 kia optima that were bad and didnt giggle but made a howling noise when driving. I did the swerving test and found the bad one on the drivers front. I just changed both the keep it all cemetrical in repairs. Its an expencive habbit but it keeps my cars nice.
 
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