I have an annoying vibration coming from my 03 Silverado LS's front end.

It is a reg cab long bed 4x4 with the 5.3 and auto trany and 125,000 miles

When I come to a stop the ABS is activating which leads me to think that its a hub or two hubs that have gone bad. However, when I jack the truck up their isn't any verticle play on either front wheels.

Their is side to side play on both wheels.

Is this a sign of bad tie rod ends or is it the hubs like I thought from the get-go?

Thanks to this forum I've researched how to do the hub replacement. I was about to go out and buy the hubs but since the play is a side to side problem and not an up and down one I don't know what to do.


Please Help!
Thank you,
Fawcett

 

With the mileage and year of the truck I would say look at the hubs first

 

This sounds like most likely to be bad hubs

 

Side to side play is tie rods, not hubs. If its vibratin when you brake, check your pads and check your rotors. They may be warped

 

Heck it could be both.

 

With my luck I bet its both (plus a lot of other problems)
I wish I liked this truck more.
Thank you for the help and advice,
Time to shell out lots of money for repairs

 

no up-down play tells you that it isnt the ball joints. its most likely your tie rods. you can determine if its inner or outter by getting under your truck, and having someone wiggle the tire for you. whichever one is really wobbly is the culprit. either way its a quick and easy job. the first time i changed mine, was both inner tie rods. this took about an hour and a half for both of them. now that ive done a couple of tie rod jobs... it takes 30 minutes at the most. youll need metric sockets, and a fork tool.
when you buy the new tie rods, i suggest buying greaseable ones.

 

Does Moog make tie rods? If so, I'd go with them as they are a good, reputable brand with any part I've bought of theirs.

 

Yeah they do, just got a set from them on rockauto.com

 

The "tell" for front hubs for me is an annoying high pitched squeaking

noise at parking lot speeds which won't go away, and gets worse. Also, on

higher speed curves, you generally

get a low-pitch, buzzy, hum, as it gets worse.