Wheel bearing or sway bar?

the right rear tire/wheel on my 2002 sebring feels like it’s going to fall off when i hit a bumb of any kind. what could it be?

i should have said, when i hit a bump with that wheel.

How does it “feel” like it’s going to fall off? You’ll have to give a better description than that.

Daisy, Your Wheel Could Fall Off.

With the information you have, this is tough to diagnose. Who is suggesting a wheel bearing or sway bar? Add to those guesses a loose wheel, broken / worn shock absorber, bad track arm busings, broken spring, bad shock mount, missing snubber, etcetera.

Please, let us know what they find. Good luck!

P.S. If you’ve got a better description, let us have it.

Have a good mechanic get this thing up in the air right away and inspect it before somebody gets hurt. This could be a relatively easy and inexpensive problem to remedy or this could be a potentially dangerous situation. You won’t know for sure until you have it inspected, even if you give us more info and we make our best guesses.

It feels like it wobbles when you hit a bump with it. feels norman while driving on smooth surface. financially unable to take it to a real mechanic at this time. had a chevy mechanic look at it on his own time, (friend), hasn’t had the time to put it up and look. he’s guessing sway bar. man who changed the rear tires said there was a bad bearing, could that cause the problem? is it expensive to fix? realize this needs addressed as soon as possible. thanks for your help.

Daisy, Your Wheel Could Fall Off. Check It Or Park It!

A sway bar problem may be able to wait for your ship to come in, although you could lose control of your car and crash. A bad wheel bearing may be more like the Titanic adventure. A bad wheel bearing actually could make the wheel come off. At any rate, if the bearing is bad and you continue driving, you will probably cause more damage and run the repair bill up.

Right now you are driving a car that you can’t afford to fix. Soon you could be on foot with a car that you won’t be able to fix, have it be more expensive, get hurt, or hurt somebody else.

I say get it inspected or park it!

thank you. i guess it is whatever holds the sway bar on the ends? intend to get it fixed asap.

“It feels like it wobbles when you hit a bump with it. feels norman while driving on smooth surface.”

Just be prepared for Norman to hit you with a sexual harrassment suit!
;-))

Seriously, however, the actual cause of this problem could result simply from a loose wheel. Hopefully someone has checked for the really simple things, such as this. If the lug nuts are properly tightened, then it is most likely a broken or disconnected anti-sway bar, but the other possibilities listed by Common Sense Answer are also valid points to consider. However, since at least one mechanic is of the opinion that it is a bad wheel bearing, I suppose that we should not rule this out.

As has been said, even if finances are tight, you really can’t afford to keep driving the car in this condition, due to the possibility of a very expensive negligence suit if you wind up causing an accident involving others. If you don’t have the cash for repairs right now, try to borrow it from a relative, in the interest of safety.