So last week I started noticing that I was getting the whomp, whomp, whomp sound when turning right at highway speeds. First I thought it might be the steering rack as I found both boots torn and pretty much useless.
Then I decided it was probably a bad wheel bearing as the car has 190K on it. So I started reading up on bearings to see if this was something I could fix. The car got very little driving during this time.
Today I jacked it up to see if there was play in the bearing in front where I was hearing the noise. The driver's side wheel had a bunch of play. I then took off the tire so I could hit all the various bits with PB Blaster and got ready to order some parts. At the last, I checked the axle nut and found it hand tight. That surprised me a little. It had worked out the keyway lock and was slowly backing itself off.
So I torqued it back to 139 ft-lbs and restaked the axle nut. It looks like I should get a new one. I then took it out for a drive and it felt far less scary. The loud sounds and rubbing are gone but there is still a squeal now at low speeds turning left.
My question is how badly damaged do you think my bearing and hub are now? There is no racing or particularly hard driving upcoming for the car, do you think I can run it this way for a while?
I am guessing that I will need a new hub as well as the bearing and seals. Should I go OEM on the hub?