2003 Chevy Express chassis (mini schoolbus) alignment off?

Hello people. This is a mini 5 window schoolbus. I was pulling out of the driveway and heard this heavy noise coming from my front left wheel. Noise in video. I felt minor rumbling in that tire for the past couple of days, and a few hours before this incident my bus veered to the left unexpectedly. What is the problem?

Looks like your wheel is gonna fall off.Head to the nearest mechanic and don’t carry children with you because it sounds serious.To me,the tie rod is about to fail and if it does,you will loose control of this thing.

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Have it towed to mechanic.

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Part of the problem is that you didn’t address this a couple of days ago. If this is a bus that carries passengers, then this should have been addressed immediately when you felt the “minor rubbing.”

Beyond that, this looks like it is a bad wheel bearing assembly. Couple hundred bucks for the part, probably a couple hundred bucks for labor. I’ve done several of these- they aren’t hard to do. Stop driving this before the wheel comes off completely, and get it towed to wherever it will be fixed.
If not wheel bearing, this could also be a ball joint issue, control arm bushing issue or tie rod issue.

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It’s not for passengers don’t worry, I actually ripped all of the seats out so it just has a driver’s seat. Good to know I can probably get this fixed for under $1000. Looking for mechanics now, won’t be driving it. Thanks

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I suspect a ball joint that is giving up and that can be lethal if not taken care of. As mentioned, this vehicle should be towed to a shop; not driven.

What you can do to verify this is have someone help you a bit. Have someone turn the steering wheel to the left as far as it goes. That does NOT mean to keep pressure on the steering wheel with the engine running. As you lie down and watch the lower ball joint especially, have the person helping gently see-saw the steering wheel back and forth a bit.

If you see the control arm squirming around on the ball joint then it needs to be replaced and if that is the case then all of them need to be replaced.

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it was the wheel bearing. $575 total w/ tax and I’m back in business

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Great to see a resolution!