Hey all,
first post on here, hope to get a lil help!
Here's my deal:
I just bought my first car, a 2001 honda civic ds stickshift, it has 155k miles on it.
A friend in the car know-how rode in it with me and said he noticed the back back sounded noisy. I'm planning a 2k road trip up north so we decided to check it out. After taking the wheel of off it turned out that the bearings had never been changed on the back, so I went and bought a pair and installed them. The back of the car is significantly quieter, BUT!:
Now I can notice a similar noise (just a slight oscillation, the alignment seems perfect) in the front left of the car. I really only started noticing this tonight as i was driving home in the rain. when i got out of the car I went and felt the lugs on the front and they felt warm, the backs felt fine.

SO THE QUESTION!
Should i take off the wheels in the front and check the bearings to make sure they're not loose and running hot, or do front disk break wheels on honda civics naturally get warm when in the rain?

Another question if I should I should take a look at the front bearings: is taking the front bearings off significantly harder than taking the backs off because they're disk breaks?

A response would be AMAZING!

thanks so much,
Thelonius

 

just shake the wheel vertically there should be no movement in the wheel if there is you need bearings. as for the lugs being warm the engine puts off alot of heat and 70 percent of the braking force comes from the front brakes. you say the alignment looks fine how can you tell just by looking at it ???. the vibrations could also be the tire balance being off try switching sides and see what happens. while your down there check the ball joint and also check the lower control arm bushings there notorious for going bad on 2001-2005 civics.

 

Thank you! I tested the alignment by driving, not looking, that was a typo! Ill switch the front tires tomorrow, and try jiggling the wheels. as for checking the ball joint and lower control arm bushings i don't know what to look for so itll have to wait for january. thanks so much for the reply!!

 

 

here is how to replace your front wheel bearings and ball joints
http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2517273
and here is the front lower control arm bushings
http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2231997

 

I have work on these cars a long time, jack up the side where the noise is coming from and install a jack stand for safety. grab the wheel at the 10 and 4 o-clock and check it for movement, if so it's most likely the wheel bearing. Grab the wheel at 12 and 6 and check for movement, if so , it could be the upper or lower ball joint, grab it at 9 and 3 and check for movement, if so it's probably the tie rod end. You may need someone under the car looking to see exactly where the movement is coming from, seeing is believing.

If you alignment is out is wont make noise and it wont cause a vibration. All lug nuts get warm and sometime extremely hot because they are directly connected to the rotors, which get very hot, the rotors sometimes turn red under extremely harsh braking.

If you want to hear what a wheel bearing sounds like, check out this article and video http://eddiecarrara.hubpages.com/hub...-Wheel-Bearing
If this doesn't help than maybe this article on car noises will help http://eddiecarrara.hubpages.com/hub...mon-Car-Noises

You don't need a pry bar to check bearings on Honda's just two strong hands.

 

Pry bars make it easy.