I'm posting this in the hope it may be of help to anyone has a wheel bearing problem in future and needs advice from this site. Some existing threads contain information which is not totally true, there is limited information, or information is spread out. The following is based upon recent experience with my Clio 172.
1. There was a droning noise which increased in pitch as speed increased.
2. Drone increased in volume when going round left hand bends.
3. Noise seemed to be coming from the front of the car.
4. The car felt a bit ragged when cornering.
5. I jacked up the 2 front wheels and checked for excessive play, there was NO real play in either.
6. Passenger side wheel spun fairly freely by hand whereas drivers side was fairly hard to turn.
Based upon points 2, 3 and 6, I throught the front drivers side bearing needed changing and after changing the drone has totally gone, the handling is CLIO excellent again and I've stopped my whining too!
Please be aware that some other threads are claiming that if the wheels are spun, it is the one that turns most freely that has a problem. This was not correct in my case, I could have changed the wrong bearing based upon that information.
1. There was a droning noise which increased in pitch as speed increased.
2. Drone increased in volume when going round left hand bends.
3. Noise seemed to be coming from the front of the car.
4. The car felt a bit ragged when cornering.
5. I jacked up the 2 front wheels and checked for excessive play, there was NO real play in either.
6. Passenger side wheel spun fairly freely by hand whereas drivers side was fairly hard to turn.
Based upon points 2, 3 and 6, I throught the front drivers side bearing needed changing and after changing the drone has totally gone, the handling is CLIO excellent again and I've stopped my whining too!
Please be aware that some other threads are claiming that if the wheels are spun, it is the one that turns most freely that has a problem. This was not correct in my case, I could have changed the wrong bearing based upon that information.
