A few incidents lead me to believe it needs at least one new bearing.
It's probably due for a full front brake job soon so I had dismissed some mild vibration under braking 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 back home. I only drive the LR4 to work when I bring Heidi (who is big and unhappy in the GTI).
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(s).
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 just go for it and tackle the LCA's? These tend go in the 60-80 mile range.
Bearing Replacement Job Video
LCA Replacement Job