I have had an issue with my right rear wheel making an extremely loud squeaking sound when I'm driving. It's not a constant, but more like a "squeak, squeak, squeak" sound while driving. It does go away when I put on the brakes or making a hard right turn. I was told, and believe it could be one of the bearings. When the car is lifted, I feel no movement if I try to move the wheel by hand, but if I take the wheel and calipers off, I feel a small bit of play on the hub. There doesn't seem to be any unusual wear on the brake pads either. It's been doing this for several thousand miles, and it's annoying the hell out of me as it's quite noticeable. I've found not a single video on Youtube to help me, there's enough for the front but not the rear.

I think I have most of what's needed already, and since I can get most of the tools from the Autozone it seems like it's doable. I just want to confirm what I need before going too far and messing up more. The only other thing I've done myself is replacing the power steering pump and that's not exactly rocket science.

So what am I getting to before I begin this project?

 

its not too hard- if you have basic mechanical knowledge it will take a couple hours at most. but i would pinpoint it first to be sure its a bearing

 

Do I need to get a large socket to remove the hub? And if so, what size? Also, do I need to remove the axle to get it out?

I don't really what else I can do to verify that the bearing is what's making the noise. It drives smoothly with no wobbling at all either, so I don't think the axle is bent. I should add that this started shortly after a good collision with a curb...

 

Squeeking? Does it get worse on bumps? I've had rear shock mounts cause that sort of sound before, just FYI. Check them while its lifted and make sure theres no extra movement.

Some grease will fix it if its that temporarily.

To the bearing issue: I can't remember the size off hand but you won't need to remove the axle to get it out. If you've ever changed your brakes before you shouldn't have any issue getting the bearing out.

 

After taking the entire brake assembly, I found that the axle is connected directly to the hub, so it seems it must be removed. Let me know if I'm wrong so I don't have to deal with taking the differential cover off and making sure everything stays clean in my work space. Changing the brakes is quite easy, and that's when I found it's one piece. And no, it does not get worse over bumps. The shock mounts seem intact as well.

Please let me know I'm wrong before I go do things that are unnecessary. If anyone knows of some pics or a video, I'd be more than grateful.

 

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forum...-assembly.html

Theres a quick how-to.

For future reference things like hubs and wheel bearings are wear parts and tend to be fairly easy to replace. So if you think its going to be difficult to replace you're probably looking at something wrong.


That how-to is for a 4.6L but the axles are pretty much identical just 7.5 vs 8.8

 

This is for the front wheels. I need to replace the bearings for the rear wheels.

 

huh, rear bearing going is fairly uncommon. In that case yes, you'll need to remove the diff plate and get the pin out so you can remove the axle.

On a side note there shouldn't actually be that much mess. A few scraps of cardboard and an extra wide low-style oil change pan under the diff while you do it should take care of it.

Edit: Oh, and make sure you've got some cardboard set aside somewhere for the diff plate. Even after you think its clean enough to toss onto your bench: Its not.

Part of the reason you're getting some mix-ups here too is the front is a different system. On the rear you have a bearing and seal assembly thats replaceable. On the front you have to swap the hub assembly.

The other part is, as I've mentioned, changing a rear wheel bearing is *relatively* uncommon. Normally however it should be leaking around the axle seal if the bearing is bad. Do a good inspection of the axle at the same time as a bad bearing, especially if its been bad for that long, may have caused damage to the axle and it may need replacing as well.


Edit2: The removing of the axle is easy btw as soon as you get the diff opened up. after that its just removing the axle pin and it pops right out.

Edit3: There is also an offset bearing kit available if the bearing has caused damage that will work as a band-aid fix for the axle but getting a new axle is the best idea if theres some serious wear into it.

 

Alright, from what I've seen, the differential fluid is quite thick, so the mess shouldn't be bad. Do I need to replace the gasket to go over the differential cover as well? The more I'm looking at this, it seems to be doable without much fuss if I have everything necessary.

What is this offset bearing kit? When I went to the Autozone, they had both the bearing and seal separately, and a kit that includes both the seal, bearing, and some other components. I got both just in case since they're returnable. How much fluid will I need in this? I got one bottle right now.

Should I go ahead and get a new axle if there is some extra wear because of this and just do that all at once? I can just return it if I don't need it. Remember, this happened very shortly after hitting a curb really hard and it's probably seen 7
-8k or so miles on it since. Also, I should add that every time I have taken off the brakes, there is an amount of time where it makes no noise at all. Sometimes as much as 30 or so miles, sometimes more before I hear anything at all.

 

Sounds more like a bushing issue, but it's most likely the e-brake cable. Lubricate where it rubs on anything to see if that solves it.