Has anyone had the problem of front bearings rotating on the knuckle? The grinding I had been hearing wasn't the brakes or bearings.. The OD of the knuckle is not toleranced right to give a slight press-fit of the bearings. The hub easily slips on..too easily. Combine a loose fit with grease, and you have free-rotation of the bearing inner races. I can send photos of brown burn marks on the knuckle and on the bearing ID's. Would this be a factory defect? It started occasionally at 67000. I have since replaced brake parts & had the bearings changed by a local service center, and it would still occur while braking, but not all of the time. The dealer in ATL had no idea what was causing it... and tried to sell me new rotors/pads/etc for $600 at 78000.
Later, I purchased/modified some tools to remove the hub locknut and looked at it myself.. Any suggestions?

 

I have a noise sometimes while breaking as you are describing. When the vehicle almost comes to a stop there is a light clunk and the other noise stops. Is this the same as your issue? If so I will now know what to look for.

 

No, this seemed to happen only when braking on a downhill slope, and not all of the time... The noise continued until coming to a complete stop. The clunking you hear may be the pads sliding up in the caliper pockets on eack side of the disk-- maybe need new springs for $2-3

Only after I pulled the hubs myself, I found the brown ring burn marks on the ID and OD of the wheel spindle part of the knuckle [2WD], and on the ID 's of the bearings. I'm trying to find ways to safely expand the spindle tube OD about 3-4 thou. Usually, you have to have a clean bearing ID- no grease or anything, and still tap the hub on with a rubber mallet... not so in this case...

 

sounds like a hub bearing