1995 Mercury Villager Extreme Wobble all the time/DriverSide Wheelbearing grease squished out

…,could the constant wobble be caused from a bad wheel bearing? The wobbling and vibration gets really bad and it try’s to setup an insistent shaking & vibrating at 35mph and I have to slow down to around 18 - 20mph to make it calm down. It sounds and feels like it wants to turn into the ‘death wobble thing’. It is coming from the drivers side and after removing the drivers side front wheel, I’ve noticed the wheel bearing grease has all squished out all around the bearing on the inside of the bearing where the axle enters the bearing right after the ribbed boot. PLEASE SEE THE ATTACHED VIDEO. Does this grease coming out all over indicate that the wheel bearing is completely blown out thereby causing this extreme wobble and vibration?

Or could it be a from a combination of a worn tire on that side (which it has) and worn tie rods, ball joints, ect? …after all the car is 19 years old.

I also have a problem with the heater blower - it does not work at any speed, doesn’t even turn on. I can feel heat coming up into the car defrost and vents, but without the assistance of the blower. I can hear the relay click when I turn the heat on and off, and I already put in a new blower motor resistor. Could it be the fan switch itself? Or could the blower motor be blown? The fuses have been checked and are all good.

Help it is getting extremely cold up here in the Northwest!

Thank you much for the insights on these issues!

RMW

first, you have a torn boot on the axle and this allows the grease to be thrown out.
jack it up and leave the wheel on. Then grasp the tire at 12 0’clock and 6 O’clock…then try to wiggle the wheel. If there is play in the wheel the bearing is bad.

I also see what I think is a swaybar link missing. 24-35 seconds into the video…perfect shot.They break off and the end just falls out. It should be in that hole just forward of the boot in the video. This also could be the cause of the wobble.

Also maybe someone else can chime in.
As you move the camera to get a shot of the boot, there is something that looks odd on the lower area of the hub assembly. It can be seen in the lower right corner of 10 seconds into the video.
I’m not familiar with villagers, so maybe someone else is.

Any of the things that you listed could affect the way the car handles and it should be taken seriously…your and other drivers lives depend on it. Have it checked.

As far as the heater goes…it sounds like the blower motor is shot.

Yosemite

The grease in the video is not from the wheelbearing, only from the cv-joint and it has been leaking for a looong time. It might be the cv-joint, trying to lock up. That could make a good day very bad for very many, if it does lock up. Get it towed to its next destination if You’re not the one to fix it…

This vehicle is extremely dangerous to you and to others on the road. I strongly urge you not to drive it one more inch. Have it towed to your mechanic and get it fixed. I can guarantee you that getting it fixed will be a lot cheaper than a funeral or the price or a good defense lawyer. A lot less painful too.

Thanks everyone for all of your input! I am having Firestone put 4 new tires on the car and check through the suspension components.

I expect that you mean the shop will check the CV joints, drive axel, and wheel bearing, as well as the other posted suspension issues.

Blower motor problem. I assume you mean the front blower motor. It’s likely either the fuse, the blower motor switch, the blower motor relay, the resistor, or the blower motor itself. An experienced tech – after checking the fuse – would start at the blower motor and measure w/a DVM if it is getting the proper juice, then work backwards from there. Are you able to do that yourself?

If not, you could just start replacing the above items one by one and hope one of them fixes the problem. My guess this is either the fuse or the motor itself is burned out. After that I’d guess the relay, then the switch. The problem with replacing stuff on a guess, sometimes you run out of money before you fix the problem. A systematic diagnosis might be worth pay a pro to do, then based on the report, fixing it yourself.

According to what I see here the front blower motor relay is located somewhere around/above the drivers left knee, and has 7 pins.