Sitkum

Thanks, That sounds easy enough. Hopefully my covers will be reasonably easy to remove. Any suggestions in regard to this are welcome - never done it before, although i assume it is fairly self explanatory although more info is always better.

How hard is it to get the vehicle back into time? It is obviously not like the top dead center point vehicles that i am familiar with timing. I want to know how involved it is and make sure i feel confident in the process before i tear into it. I am thinking about replacing my belts now at 137,000. The car Loyale 90 runs great right now so i dont want to mess it up. Regular 27-29 mpg, good power etc. I am going out on a long road trip, i have time now and i dont want to worry about it 2500 miles into a trip. I suppose i could just pull the covers and see how the belts look? any suggestions about what to look for as well in the belt other than the standard (cracks and abrasions).

Thanks guys. What is the best way to check the condition of the bearing after i have the car in the air - other than completely removing and inspecting them?

I have a 1990 Loyale with 137,000 on it. It is in good shape and runs well. I am thinking of taking it on a long road trip but want to make sure it is fully ready to go prior to taking off. I have a suspicion that my wheel bearings are headed out. On long hauls uphill at about 65mph i can hear a rhythmic pulsing sort-of-grind sound. Around town i can hear some road noise... again not full on grinding but close. This sound would indicate to most bearings to be the problem. The catch is that i bought the car about 5,000 miles ago so i dont know when they were replaced (if ever). I also dont have any carpet on the front passenger side (guy i bought it from spilled tran fluid on the carpet and just cut the carpet out - very annoying) floor so i cant say for sure that the road noise around town is attributed to the bearings. I used to have a loyale 1992 - with full carpet obviously - and it didn't make this kind of noise. I drove it to 209,000 before selling it and dont remember when i had to replace my bearings. Im wondering if i should just take a few hours and replace them prior to my trip? I also dont want to be overly anal about maintenance and waste time and money on something that isn't really an issue. When typically do the early 90's loyale bearings go? Any info would be awesome. Thanks!