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Hey guys, I have been experiencing some mild cracking noises for a little while, which I suspected to be a bad CV axle assembly on my passenger side.

Yesterday, when leaving from work, the noise got much worse, making a very distinct and loud cracking/popping at low speeds. I was able to limp it home, and I immediately went out and bought new CV axles from autozone. I decided to do both sides, since they were only $53.99, and they had over 100,000 miles on them.

This morning, I swapped out both CV axles, and made sure everything was seated properly, both at the transmission and at the hubs. I torqued the new hub nuts down to spec, and staked them.

I set the car back on the ground and started to slowly drive up my driveway, and the loud cracking/popping noise was still there.

Any suggestions on what it could be? Wheel bearings? Suspension related?

 
Rep Power: 811

shoudlve checked the boots first before replacing all that. if they arent torn and leaking, almost always the cv joints are fine. check your front control arm bushings. could also be loose tie rods.

 
Rep Power: 366

or ball joints. get a pry bar and push stuff around to find out what is doing the noise first.

 
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It was my driver's side wheel bearing. I took apart the driver's side front end, removed the cv axle from the hub, and attempted to spin it. There was a ton of resistance, and it was very gritty. The passenger side, by comparison, spun freely and smoothly.

Any suggestions for doing this myself? I don't have a press or a slide hammer. I was thinking about removing the entire knuckle, buying a new bearing, and having a shop press the new bearing in.

How critical is it to replace the hub AND the bearing in this type of situation?