NOW what?

[BBT]

Two weeks ago had the tw front bearing/hub assemblies replaced. Tonight, when I start out to go play ball, and I do mean start out, I get a sound like rocks being thrown up into the fender well. That's what I thought it was. Went away. Then just down the street a little, it comes back. So I pull around corner, and I can hear it again, even as I go real slow. So I drop it into to neutral and let car coast a little. It jerks & stutters, almost like it is going to stall. But doesn't.

I have checked tranny fluid. It's OK. Full and good colour. Looked at CV boots. They're fine. What could it be? Car drove home from work with no problems. This started immediately when I headed out to play ball tonight. Any ideas?

[1fatcat]

Just for good measure, check the lug nuts and make sure they are tight...seeing as how you just had the wheel bearings replaced, maybe the mechanic didn't tighten one wheel?

If that is the case, take it back to them (after you tighten the nuts of course) and yell and scream at the top of your lungs!

If that isn't the case, take it back anyways and tell them to fix it!

[Gimli]

You might have gotten a set of bad bearings. It happens sometimes, especially with rebuilt units (which I don't know if yours are but anyway).

[rixGAphx]

Though your major complaint seems to be rock-like noise (close on the heels of a bearing job), I'm more concerned about your last sentence:
"It jerks & stutters, almost like it is going to stall. But doesn't."

Are you saying that as you coasted in 'N', the engine was jerking and stuttering, like major vibrations and a bouncing tach needle?

There are some bad noises that an engine can produce, similar to racks kicking into wheel well.
And they might cause engine jerking.

The cheapest, easiest such would be a broken serpentine belt.
The belt tensioner eventually goes bad, and it's very close to the passenger wheel well.
The alternator is higher but in that same area. Bad alternator bearings can be loud, but they generally develop softly and increase as time goes by.

Of course, the engine roughness might have just been a fluke, and your problem really is with the recently-replaced bearing.
There's no reason for the PCM to cause engine roughness just because you shifted to 'N'.

How many miles on the vehicle, and what major repairs have been done besides the hubs/bearings?

-Rick

[BBT]

OK. This morning drove it to work. No jerking or rattling 'rocks in fender' sounds. Just the increasing howl of a front bearing going bad. That's my take on it. So, back to mechanic. Looks like a faulty bearing. At $180 apiece, plus labour to install, he had better not have put in re-built jobs.

However, on way to mechanic, I had to make a little stop for a quickie job interview. When leaving, as I backed car out of parking spot, jerking & stumbling returned, just for a moment. Didn't happen again all the way to mechanic's. I dunno, man.

I did check serpentine belt. Looks good. Of course, if it isn't in obvious need of repair I probably wouldn't know it needed replacing. Tensioner could be possible. I doubt alternator, I have heard them going bad before. Not that kind of sound. Sound I have goes with car speed, not engine speed.

Car has 175,000 kms. No major repairs since brakes over a year ago. Except exhaust. That was done in Feb. or earlier.

[CrashVector]

my car will do that for a split second if it is started cold. When you shove the gas down, it will stutter for a half second or so then go. It only happens way now and then...and usually only does it once.

[BBT]

It's getting worse. Went to pick up car tonight. They replaced driver side bearing. Took car for drive. Kind of still sounded there. So we switched seats (I had been riding, not driving). Yep. Some kind of sound still there. Then while driving car revved and tranny slipped. Like I had slapped it into neutral. Check stick, was in right position, so we kept going. Went about a block, and then tranny went again. This time it did not re-engage. Stopped car, turned it off. Now what?

Called garage. No ideas. Started car tried gears. Engine dropped revs, but transmission did not engage. Turn off car. Wait. More talk back to garage. Try again after about 5 minutes or so. Went into gear. Started driving back to garage. Got about 2 blocks or so. Repeat of previous. Happened once more before got it back to garage. And there it sits till the tranny guy gets in to look at it tomorrow.

So..........I'm figuring the worst. Wish me luck that it isn't anything serious. But I'm not hoepful.

[Silver99SE]

Sorry to hear that man. I hate waiting to find out what's wrong. Best of luck to ya.

[BBT]

Word is in. I need a new transmission. About $2500 for a re-build or replacement, $1500 - $1600 for a used install.

Now I can't figure out what would cause my transmission to fail. I'm not that hard on the car. For a 95 it doesn't have that many kliks (175k). I take care of the car. It had a tranny flush and new kit installed at around 100ks. Fluid is checked pretty regularly, and it was full and colour good. I didn't smell any burning from it. I dunno,

Really pisses me off because I just don't have that kind of dough lying around. In fact, right now I have no dough. I'll have to work something out with the shop.

Grrrrrrrrrr!

[Gimli]

Well, that sucks... Unfortunately things like that tend to happen to a 10-year-old car. Might not have been abused but I think it might've been beaten up a bit during it's 175k km, right? ;)

Shop around, you might find somewhere else where they can either do the job for less or accomodate you with better payment options... good luck!

[BBT]

Beaten up? You're kidding right? Why I oughta come over there and punch you right in the car! LOL

If it was beaten it was during the 1st 70k when somebody else owned it. The bastard!