my new puchase of 1998 328i

when driving over 50mph I get this constants humming and solid like feeling from front end....Iam guessing bearings..

.....are these a sealed unit in the hub or ????

sealed

so when I pick up a complete hub ....it is already sealed and greased...no need to grease anything...? CORRECT ????

and is the hub just bolted on or
pressed on?? any special puller needed?




new guy with BMW...mechanicly no problem ....but first BMW

Are you sure it's the wheel bearing? Does the sound or pitch increase with speed? Does it sound especially bad when you make turns? If not, it may be just the front tires.

The hub is held on by a single axle nut that's staked. You'll need a 46mm socket and possibly a puller. Usually a few whacks with a rubber hammer works. An impact wrench is useful because the nut is torqued down at 210 ft-lbs or so.

the sound is like a humming drone type and it does increase with speed.
..the tires are about 1 year old ..maybe i will rotate/swap rears just in case..

BTW, my comment regarding the impact wrench is about taking the nut off, not torquing it back on. You'll need a torque wrench that works up to 250 ft-lbs. for that.

I had a terrible howling sound from the back of our '97 328i that I was convinced was from rear bearings going out. Instead, it turned out to just be tires. The diagnosis in that case was jacking up the car, gripping the tire/wheel to see if there's excessive play in the bearing, and just rotating the wheel to see if you could hear bearing noise.

I recall someone posted a DIY thread with pictures recently.

Rotating the tires before taking drastic action is cheap - and often effective. Try it first.

i have this problem too. i have a 525i 1991. it has about 120k miles on it. when i go about 50-80mph i get this shaking in the steering wheel. also when i turn to the right on the freeway (like when the freeway curves), the steering wheel shakes pretty badly. it doesnt shake at all when i turn the other direction though. i did some research online and found that a possible solution to my first problem would be new tires, a wheel balance and alignment? could anybody tell me if i'm right? and also does anybody have any idea as to why my steering wheel would shake when i turn on way but not the other? i dont know much about bmws but this is my first car and i love it. i plan on keeping it and learning more. thanks!