2000 XJ Sport possible bad wheel bearing?

Hey everyone,

I'm new to this forum. Always owned wranglers and last week bought a 2000 XJ sport with 71,000 miles on it. I'm happy about making the change over to an xj. I loved my wranglers but having cargo space and little more refined ride reigned supreme. Everything on the jeep is great except for it started making this sound comparable to pebbles rubbing together accompanied by pulsating squeaking. I changed the front and rear brakes in the past week and thats it. To me, it sounds like it's coming from the rear, but its hard to tell. I'll be jacking it up and spinning the wheels to see if I can locate the sound, but figured I'd post here to see if anyone can pinpoint the sound before I start throwing parts at my xj.

Heres the sound

https://youtu.be/JlmbqNy9S5A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlmbqNy9S5A

You really start to hear it around 60 seconds into the recording.

Thanks all,
-Kevin

What a odd sound. And at such a low mileage too.

Does not sound like any front bearing sound I've ever heard, you ought to feel it as you drive if it were front.
Rear? Maybe , something went very bad to get that sound if its rear. The rhythm of it feels like it ought to be a bigger source instead of a small bearing.
I would put it in the air as you as panning and see if the wheel are spinning freely not rubbing against anything and in good shape.
I've had bent brake rotor dust shield make weird noises, not that noise buy I'm on my phone I'll listen again on my computer.
What I was thinking was rear drum maybe some of the hard wear snapped or the adjuster committed seppuku?

I'd be surprised if the problem doesn't jump out at you before you get down to checking wheel bearings . How fast were you going to creat that sound?

Always diagnose a problem before you begin repairs. It would be best to stop by your local 4x4 shop and take them for ride to hear the noise in person. If nothing else, pinpoint the noise to front/middle/rear/left/right. Inspect the front and rear wheel bearings, compare the feel and sound of one side to the other, it is unlikey both sides are equally bad, if any are bad. Inspect all the u-joints, axle and drive-line. GOOGLE angry sparrows.

Just watched the video again. I still hear a rhythm to the sound.Can't tell much more than before. Does not sound like angry sparrows to me, although u-joints and other parts should be checked just because of the age even though it has low mileage. Less than 5k a year it basically went to church on Sundays spending the rest of the week in meditation. Possible something just broke after all these years.

It'd be a good idea to get an expert to evaluate it for you, but I've never had the luxury of that (mainly lacked the time and money to do it). So I've always tackled a problem myself, its ingrained now. I've found the forums a great resource because if it is a common problem, or even an odd one a few people encountered there will be someone who can chime in and tell you "man, that's the dang ol' cps quitting on ya.".

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I was thinking one of the brake springs may have come loose, or something may be misaligned. I was driving at about 10-15 mph in the videos, it seems to be most noticeable at those speeds.

I bought the jeep in Vegas and drove home 250 miles to orange county last week, no problems on the drive home. The next day I had a knocking in the rear end only when braking so I figured I may have warped drums, the brakes needed to be replaced all around anyways. I changed the rear drums and shoes and the next day drove to San Diego, didn't have any unusual sounds until half way through the day I noticed loud squeaking like in the video. It squeaked intermittently at slow speeds for a day then we had some rain and it went away for a few, now its resurrected as the sound you hear in the video.

I'm a full time employee and student and don't have much time left over to look at stuff so I'm leaving work early today to run it by a shop and have them (hopefully to little expense) pinpoint the cause.

Ujoints feel tight, no play what so ever. But to diagnose them, can I spray WD-40 and see if that masks the sound?

Went to the shop and didn't get any diffinitive findings of or concern from the mechanic. The guys at the shop I go to (Bogart Automotoive) are great guys and Sam who has been there for as long as I can remember owns a rad lifted xj. I think there is something up and it wasn't acting up as much as in the videos when they had it. Going to take the wheels off this weekend and keep searching.

So the noise stopped or at least was not as bad when they looked at it? Weird

Yeah its strange. After class last night I didn't have time to get the car up and spin the wheels so I put it in neutral and pushed it back and forth and it seems the sound is coming from the front driver side wheel. I just replaced the front pads and rotors and after looking at diagrams noticed I mixed the pads around. I believe I put the passenger pads on the driver side and vice versa. I know the pads have a cut out for them to be seated to the bottom of the hub assembly, I have them seated to the top. I'm not sure if this would make a big difference but I'm going to try and switch them around later today. It that doesn't take care of the issue I'm going to assume it has to be the front drivers side wheel bearing. :dunce:

Where do you live? If I have time, I could take a look at it... Perhaps a second set of ears...

Original_MudButt said:

Where do you live? If I have time, I could take a look at it... Perhaps a second set of ears...

Click to expand...

I'm in Ladera Ranch, Orange County. If my brake swapping doesn't solve it today then I would really appreciate a second set of ears especially if you're close by.

It's been a few weeks but the noise was coming from a bad piece of hardware in the rear brakes. The emergency brake cable guide was not properly seated on the brake shoe causing the adjuster lever to hang low and contact the inside of the drum. After a few hundred miles the adjuster lever dug into the drum quite a bit causing a lot of noise.

:cheers::cheers:Thanks for all your help!