Wheel bearing or ball joint? Now with trunk leak!

[BonnieBoy08]

What’s the best way to tell which is bad? It’s a looong trip to Michigan come June and I want this taken care of for peace of mind. It for sure has play when I wiggle with my hands at the 12 and 6 position, never really checked anywhere else. Doing a brake job this weekend and wanna get this sh*t figured out. Couple weird issues that have me leaning toward the wheel bearing way.
1. When my snow tires were on every time I applied the brakes while going into a right hand curve down hill the ABS would kick on. No lights on the dash would come on though. (The bearing/ ball joint in question is on the front driver side) Since I put my summer wheels (stock bent 5s) on this issue has mysteriously vanished and I cannot get it to happen. Whereas with the winter wheels (16” stocks off a ’98 SE with 225 Blizzaks) it happened every single time for months.
2. My tire pressure monitor system doesn’t seem to work anymore, it is my understanding that my car reads this off of wheel speed and I’m pretty sure the wheel speed sensor is part of the hub assembly correct? I have 2 tires that lose 10 lbs of air every 2 days but will hold at approx. 25 PSI. Thinking the beads need to be cleaned up or something. I had an issue with them last summer but they didn’t lose air as fast, I had to pump them up once every couple weeks.

If it is the ball joint I’m wondering if anyone has experience with Dorman brand. (It’s the cheapest) (I’m replacing the whole control arm since its easier) If it is a wheel bearing I will definitely go the Timken route, seems to have the best rep around here.

[nos4blood70]

Wheel bearing, play gives it away.

[BonnieBoy08]

Won't a bad ball joint have play too? It does not hum or make any noise at any speed though.

[Zeik75]

My understanding is a slightly bad wheel bearing wiggles on the 3 and 9 position. Ball joint is more often the 12 and 6. As far as the brand for suspension components i usually use moog problem solvers they are the best for our cars IMO. The only brand i always stay away from for suspension is driveworks (not sure what other names are related also). Anyway i replaced both front bearings on the 88 years ago with the cheapest (driveworks) and neither one lasted longer than 6-8 months. They were warrantied but i was able to pay the difference and upgrade to moogs and haven't had a problem since.

[BonnieBoy08]

Jacked the car up last night and it only has play when grabbing at the 12 and 6 position. The wheel kind of moved a little when grabbing at 3 and 9 position but I think a little movement is normal? Nothing felt loose or sloppy. I went ahead and ordered the Moog front left control arm off Rock Auto over my lunch break. Fingers crossed it makes it to my house by Friday and that it fixes my problem!

Its been raining the last few days non-stop, went to get the jack out of the trunk since I have no access to tools during the week…the carpeting was soaking wet. SO now I gotta figure out what the f*ck that is, oh joy! I already pulled the rubber plugs a long time ago, the clips for the center piece were replaced when I smoked my tail lights but the left one still feels loose. Guessing I’ll probably have to rip that off and drill some holes in the bottom plastic or something.

[Zeik75]

My trunk did the same thing again I think i just need to add some silicone to the clips and let it dry.

[JaxGXP]

Its been raining the last few days non-stop, went to get the jack out of the trunk since I have no access to tools during the week…the carpeting was soaking wet. SO now I gotta figure out what the f*ck that is, oh joy! I already pulled the rubber plugs a long time ago, the clips for the center piece were replaced when I smoked my tail lights but the left one still feels loose. Guessing I’ll probably have to rip that off and drill some holes in the bottom plastic or something.

I had water penetrating the trunk of my GXP. Here is how I fixed it.

Remove everything from the trunk floor...liner, spare, jack etc.
When it is very dark outside open the trunk and place a bright light source behind each wheel in turn.
Check for light seeping through at the body seams near/behind the rear wheels.
I found four places along the seam on the drivers side, several nearly 1/2 inch long.
Use body sealer inside the trunk to seal up any openings found.
Even a small opening can let lots of water in when the car is being driven and the tire is throwing water off as it rotates.

[dz09x]

I recently had some play in my front driver side wheel. Could of sworn it was a wheel bearing. Went to two mechanics, both said ball joint. Changed the control arm and it turned out they were right.

[BonnieBoy08]

The water is coming in either thru the spoiler or center piece. It's only wet at the very back of the trunk. Haven't had any issues with water around the wheel well

[94Bonnie00]

I know my 2000 SSEi had an issue of letting water in the trunk. I cleaned the trunk lid and put armor all on the weather strip. I then shut the trunk and opened it back up. The weather seal left a mark on the trunk where it was sealing. I found that the lower part of the trunk had been bent (I'm guessing from loading heavy things in and out of the trunk). I bent it back up, tested it again and haven't had an issue with it since.

[crash93ssei]

Sorry I didn't see this earlier.

I still suspect the wheel bearing. If the wheel noticeably wobbles and seems to pivot at the center then the bearing is the issue. The ball joint would more or less allow the entire wheel to move in and out, not generally noticed so easy by a ssimple wiggle as the ball joint is usually in a bind and held tight due to the sway bar when jacked up on one side.

[BonnieBoy08]

Well, at this point I’m going to go ahead and replace it anyway. It will be good for me to learn how. If there is still wheel play a Timken wheel bearing and another set of questions will be in my near future. It does not howl at all though, and a bad ball joint makes me more uneasy than a wheel bearing. Maybe wheel bearings can fail catastrophically too? But I just cringe every time is see a car on the side of the road with its front wheel folded out at a 90.

Would overly worn front brakes allow some play also? Fingers crossed all goes well. I am renting a ball joint separator tonight. I’m uneasy about the turn in caliper pistons on the back too as my previous experience is NOT good with those but I think I have all my bases covered here overall.

[crash93ssei]

The caliper piston should turn in easy, if not it should be replaced, though it isn't necessarily an emergency. Ultra worn brakes shouldn't have any effect on play you feel.

You have my number, I work 6 pm to 6 am tonight so if you tackle this tonight and run into any problems feel free to call or text me anytime.

[Dean]

Not sure if you fixed your leak yet, but the two I found in my trunk were on the weld seams in the trunk lid "channel" and the gasket lip at the very rear of the trunk.

For the trunk channel, open your trunk and find the weld seams & test them with water to see if there is leakage there. Silicone sealant worked perfectly for me here.

For the trunk gasket lip, I am pretty sure I bent mine down when I was replacing the fuel level sending unit. I played games with gasket sealant for a while to no effect, and then I just bent the lip up evenly along the whole length, that fixed it.