2008 Honda Accord 170k miles
Hi all. I had the right front wheel bearing replaced and I drove it and it made a metal grinding/screeching noise. I took it back and the mechanic said that the "shield" may have been done too tight but they should have fixed it yesterday. Drove it today and the noise came again but after I pulled over, reversed a bit, then drove it again, it's gone. Is the noise just my brakes wearing out?
I would hope any decent mechanic would have pointed out worn brakes on a job like this. The shield they're talking about may be the dust shield for the brake rotor, it might be bent and the rotor is scraping against it. As with the brakes this is something that should be easy to determine with a visual inspection.
So I finally bought a trolley jack and took the front right tire off to look. The shield is bent away from the rotor as far as I could tell looking at it and from above to see if it is scraping it, but for whatever reason it still made the noise. Now when I put the tire back on, the noise went away. Is it possible the mechanics who replaced the wheel bearing on front right side just tightened the wheel too tight? I used a torque wrench.