wheel bearing 06 dakota

[dripley]

i have got what sounds like a wheel bearing going bad. a low pitched growl that increases and decreases with wheel speed only. it doesnt change with engine rpm. trans can be in gear or in neutral, strictly constant with wheel speed. i have jack up both sides of the front and theris no movement in the wheels side to side or top to bottom. It is a 4 wheel drive and i dont now much about the drive axles. all of the boots apear to be in good condition and nothing seems out of the ordinary. is there anything else up front that might growl liek that?

[Mopar1973Man]

Is it 4WD? Does have U joints or CV joints?

[dripley]

it is a 4wd. with CV joints. not a standard u joint like on the 2500.

[dripley]

will cv joints roar when they sart going bad? i have never had a vehicle with them before.

[cummins2k]

will cv joints roar when they sart going bad? i have never had a vehicle with them before.

To answer your question here, not typically. When your cv shafts go bad they will usually start making a clicking noise around corners. As the wear increases vibration will occur. Another wear area here is the front drive shaft double cardan joint assembly. In between the two u-joints by the transfer case is a ball inside a yoke, its a constant velocity setup. It is not visible from the outside of the drive shaft. When these go bad though usually it results in squeaking and or screeching. Roaring is almost always wheel bearings and / or hub assembly.

[dripley]

Thats what it turned out to be. I replaced the hub bearing assembley a little while back. That fixed the problem. The whole thing was very much like our truck but on a smaller scale. No 5# hammer needed. A pulller did the job easily.