I think I need a new bearing. Do LCA replacements "while I'm in there"?

It's been a while since I've posted here.

Our bone-stock, ordered-new, 2013 LR4 has been very good to us and it has been well-taken care of. Sadly, no chances to go off-roading, so it has been pampered.

Nevertheless, a few incidents lead me to believe it needs at least one new bearing.

It's probably due for pads soon so I had dismissed some mild vibration under braking blaming it on the brakes. Not sure if this is related but recently, when I had just swapped out the winter wheels for the AT wheels and tires, I experienced what felt like something hard hitting the wheel well (there was nothing on the highway). A heavy vibration ensued and I immediately pulled over. Upon inspection I found nothing and figured I would see if I could slowly limp the remaining mile to work. It drove perfectly to work and all the way home. Note that I seldom drive the LR4 to work. Mostly it's used occasionally around town.

Today, I drove it 20+ miles to work again with no problems. When arriving and maneuvering to reverse into a spot, I hears a squeal/shriek when I turned left. On the way home, I merge into the highway and the wheel wobbled a lot at over 65mph. I quickly got stuck in slow traffic for the remainder of the drive, but on a couple of instances when I got to drive a bit faster, there seem to be no wobble of the steering wheel.

I will put it up on my lift soon enough, but it seems like I have a (very?) bad bearing.

Questions:

1) LR4 only has low 50k miles. Should I just do both? I already need to do a full front brake job.

2) While I'm in there, should I jus go for it and tackle the LCA's?

We plan on keeping this thing forever. We love it and ordered it new with LUX, HD pkg, BLK pkg, etc. We also expect to put under 5k miles a year going forward. Probably closer to 3k.

My philosophy has been if you’re going to change one side, you might as well replace the other side just to be safe. Have you had your wheels rebalanced? I recently went from the the stock 30s to 33s and the vibration was ridiculous. I went to a different tire shop for a rebalance and the vibrations are no longer present.

I don't think it's the wheels+tires. I say that because the condition is not persistent. it comes and goes. I'll put it up on the lift today or tomorrow and try to assess the issue a bit better.

My understanding from reading this forum for years is that LCA's have to be replaced at 60-80k miles. It seems that given that I need to change rotors and pads up front, and potentially bearings, I might as well to LCA's as well.

When my LCA bushings failed ( both sides ) I did get frame like knocking pulling onto the driveway, small bumps on the road, slight shimmy in the steering wheel, slight vibration braking and sometime nothing at all. Also noticed when driving say 5mph hit the brakes and mine would clank most times.

Cthehentz said:

When my LCA bushings failed ( both sides ) I did get frame like knocking pulling onto the driveway, small bumps on the road, slight shimmy in the steering wheel, slight vibration braking and sometime nothing at all. Also noticed when driving say 5mph hit the brakes and mine would clank most times.

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Ah, ok. So this might all just be LCA's then. Thanks! I'll check for that.

Quijote said:

Ah, ok. So this might all just be LCA's then. Thanks! I'll check for that.

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If you let your car roll real slowly (just idle in drive) and slam on the brakes you will hear and feel a clunk if the LCAs are shot.

f1racer328 said:

If you let your car roll real slowly (just idle in drive) and slam on the brakes you will hear and feel a clunk if the LCAs are shot.

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Great! Will try that. Thanks!