Help! Stranded near St. Louis (ABS Light, Horrible Noise Driver&#3

[mokang]

Thanks for opening this thread, I'm trying to help a buddy who is traveling back from the holidays and he's had terrible luck with both of his cars (broke a tie rod on the way to Ohio in his VW, and now stuck on the way home in his Tahoe)

 

 

2003 Chevy Tahoe 5.3L, 2WD

 

 

Here's the rundown of the situation... last night while driving on the highway the ABS light came on. No strange sounds or change in the stability of the Tahoe. Shortly after the light came on we decided to call it a night since we were near St. Louis area. Today 5 minutes after getting back on the road he started to hear a terrible noise. At first he thought maybe it was just bad pavement on the road, but soon it got louder and louder. He pulled off and looked underneath...he found nothing out of the ordinary so he decided to give it one more go to see.

 

As he was driving and it was getting louder... he saw in the rearview what looks like a part fall off so he pulled over again to investigate.

 

 

Here's what he found (appears to be a dust shield of the wheel bearing assembly).

 

 

 

 

 

 

He and I both are car savvy, but german only and certainly not familiar with trucks. It's pretty clear its where I would expect to see a wheel bearing location.

 

In searching the internet I seem to keep finding almost the exact same picture of what would seem to be a replace hub/bearing assembly.

 

 

 

 

He's working on getting his father in law to bring a trailer up (400 miles!) to hopefully load the Tahoe up to tow it home. Just wondering if anyone would have any additional insight to what is wrong and whether or not he should risk proceeding further down the road.

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide us!

[mokang]

Another photo - better angle. Clearly I can see this is the wheel bearing as expected... just want to get confirmation from a few of you on that. With 400 miles to go it seems like the best option is wait for a trailer to haul it home and stay the night.

 

 

 

[Coolmaker]

Yes, he does not need to drive it as that wheel bearing is toast.