Wheels bearings and wheel alignment.

[IanClements]

Just wanted someone's elses advice on this really but a couple of weeks ago I had to have the rear wheel bearings tightened as they had come loose and since then the steering wheel has been off center and the handlings a bit off.

I used my usual local garage who are very good and they've confirmed that they didn't do anything which would alter the wheel alignment like undoing control arm bolts or similar.

Is it possible that just tightening the bearings would have made a difference here or should I be looking for another fault somewhere else?

[jimi]

I am thought the wheel bearings were of a double roller parallel type and therefore were not adjustable ?

[dylbie]

I've never heard of wheel bearings being tightened before. If they are 'loose' they need to be replaced.

Changing a rear wheel bearing should have no effect on the steering wheel position either. Very strange indeed...

[IanClements]

The theory is that when Rogue installed the driveshafts and V6 early in the year, they didn't tighten everything up enough so they've worked loose, I was getting a scraping sound and movement on the rear wheels so had the bearings checked out. Just needed tightening up and everything now back to normal, except for the alignment it seems.

[aw11rally]

Was the alignment done prior to changing the shafts / bearings first time around?

Could it be possible that if the alignment was carried out while the hub nut / bearings were not fully tight then tightening could change the alignment of the rear wheels.

I've had a rear hub nut come loose before and it deffinitely affected the alignment / handling. In my case tightening the bearing cured my issue rather than causing it.

I'd double check that everything is fully tight then get the alignment done again.

[IanClements]

I'm assuming it was last alignment when the conversion was done and it's been fine all year until now. You're right though, when I get chance I'll have a look and see whether there's anything else loose.