Wheel Hub bad or other Electrical Issue?

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1996WS6TA

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Hi guys, Im new to this forum as I just recently found it but not new to chevy ownership.

Had an 02 Tahoe z71 a year or two ago and owned it about 9 mos then flipped it and bought a Duramax.

Anyways a couple weeks ago I picked up a 2005 Z71 loaded out Tahoe with 136k miles on it from the 2nd owner. (Bought it for my wife of just over a year) I test drove it, looked it over real good and only thing I could find that needed attention is a leaking passenger side frt axle seal and had to put a new alternator on it when I got it home. Needless to say pretty clean truck, and I think a good deal at $7750. Has every option that I can tell but power folding mirrors (did they offer them in '05?)


Anyways, in Wichita we got snow over the weekend and BITTER cold temps (single digits), my wife is pregnant and wasnt feeling the best so I drove her to/from work which isnt far from our house. I was playing around with the 4wd and when I floored the throttle/or simply gave some "firm" acceleration, Id get a grinding noise that sounded like the noise came from the Frt Left.


I played with it some more on good roads yesterday and heres what Ive found.


This noise sounds to me as if the ABS is trying to kick in? On the snow with wheel slippage flooring it in 2wd, 4wd or 4wd auto I was able to get this noise to appear, but I had to get heavy on the gas...if I turned one direction or the other I didnt need to apply as much throttle to get the noise to show up. This noise showed up regardless if I had stability control on or off. (What was throwing me off was I figured with stability control off this will disable the ABS?)


On the clear roads yesterday I was able to get the "noise" to show up when giving it some good throttle around a corner (no noticeable wheel slip or felt).


I also noticed that at night when this noise showed up it made my headlights flicker a bit. If the ABS kicks in, does it suck that much juice? The alternator came from Oreilly's and was a rebuilt bosch unit w a lifetime warranty. My only other thoughts were a slipping serpentine belt but I get no such noise or flicker if I have the truck in park/neutral and rev the throttle.


Anyways, Im leaning towards a bad wheel hub/bearing assly and if I understand correctly the abs/speed sensor is in there as well?

The noise definitely sounds like its coming from the frt left, however if the ABS pulses, could I simple be hearing noises from the master cylinder area? Guess I dont want to replace parts without knowing for sure whats bad. Money is a bit tight with the kid coming in the next 2.5 mos. No dummy lights on the dash.

Possible any codes could be thrown and not throwing a dash light?


Ive tried searching this forum and several others but cant quite come across a situation like this but from what I experienced and I have read Im thinking its a bad wheel hub assly. I guess the best thing I can say is it sounds like the abs kicks in prematurely but its only when the vehicle is under harder acceleration. Thats whats popped up this weekend anyways. My wife and I try to drive like theres an egg under the pedal to get better fuel mileage and just to not drive the vehicle hard and under light pedal there is no noise/issues.


Last thing I was thinking to narrow down if it is a problem pointing to the ABS is to pull the ABS fuse and then replicate the wheel slippage, throttle load above and see if the same noise shows up? Also short of jacking up the truck and wobbling each wheel, how would I pinpoint which hub is bad? Could a code point me to which one, or could I follow the noise? (Like I stated only thing I was wondering about here is if the pulsing could be coming from the master cylinder area and throwing me off as to which hub is actually bad...guess I could just replace both front ones but if I didnt have to would prefer to avoid it.)

(I do not hear a roaring when driving down the highway or at low speeds, when I test drove the vehicle, naturally I did not get this issue to pop up)


Thanks in advance for the responses. Learned quite a bit here about potential problems before I picked up this 05.
 
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scrtcell

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Wheel bearing test

You have to jack the front of the truck up support whichever wheel you think is the problem and rock the wheel up and down and side to side that is how you can verify a bad wheel bearing they don't always give codes....
 

Sasquatch

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You have to jack the front of the truck up support whichever wheel you think is the problem and rock the wheel up and down and side to side that is how you can verify a bad wheel bearing they don't always give codes....


This is a reliable method but i`ve had hub bearings go bad and they had no play at all.

Another way to check for a bad hub is if when you make a right turn and the noise goes away it`s the right side and vice versa. When you turn in the direction of a bad bearing it takes weight off that side and lessens the noise. I usually go on a back road with no traffic and weave back and forth listening and that method has never been wrong for me but you can check the way scrtcell said to first.

I had a speed sensor go bad on my yukon and it would trip the traction control every time i would take off from a stop. The sensor was reading the wrong speed and the traction control would go on thinking there was wheel slip.

You can just change the sensor but i`ve never done it, Just changed the whole bearing.
 
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1996WS6TA

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I had a speed sensor go bad on my yukon and it would trip the traction control every time i would take off from a stop. The sensor was reading the wrong speed and the traction control would go on thinking there was wheel slip.

You can just change the sensor but i`ve never done it, Just changed the whole bearing.



Thanks!

Im guessing this is what went bad --- we only get the problem when making a turn under acceleration or accelerating hard from a stand still or when getting wheel slippage on a slick surface (snow)

I dont think I hear any bearing noise (not to say its not going bad...this truck did come from Tulsa OK and they have sh-tty roads). But for the price of the hub assly's (Timken) at Rock Auto I may just buy both and replace them and be done with it. Now to find the time and hope the weather warms to a point where its tolerable to work without a heavy coat.
 

BRUTUS_T_HOG

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Just for kicks try to see if the noise goes away with the defrost off and A/C off. My Yukon recently developed a nasty noise on acceleration I thought was in the front axle. Found it is the A/C compressor making noise from liquid slugging.
 

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