Topic: Goof of the Month: Wheel Bearing Woes

[AutoTrader.ca]

Ignore wheel bearings at your cost.
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[ChaosphereIX]

yep, sensible advice

wife ignored bearing noises in her Protege...then the wheel fell off coming out of a Timmies (GREAT I told you so moment for me)

Best bet is to have the suspension checked every other oil change or at least once a year...if you near any noises from the wheels or steering area, take it to your mech at your first convenience - a check doesnt cost much, and can save you thousands potentially - I have, I know that.

[dkaz]

I ignored mine for a little bit. But in my defense, the dealer told me nothing was wrong initially. Wheels didn't fall off fortunately but I knew when things got bad enough that it had to be changed ASAP.

[Fobroader]

I had one go on my Cherokee, luckily I was going slowly, I had done it a few times before so I quickly replaced it in a busy mall parking lot. Got a lot of questions as to what I was doing.

[ktm525]

I had a front bearing grenade on my old LR3 without warning. No increasing noise over the days and no detectable drive ability issues. It decided to self destruct in the middle of Saskatchewan and fortunately there was a Ford dealer nearby. They lent me a van to make it to Saskatoon and back. Nice people.



 

[johngenx]

Did the rear ones on the Highlander a couple of years ago. The hub change out is pretty easy, but the parts are a little on the expensive side. Could have saved money by changing just the bearing, but I did them just before leaving for Christmas break and working on the car in December I’m interested in spending the least amount of time on the job.

[tortoise]

I was able to get SKF bearing assemblies from rockauto for about a hundred each.

They needed to be replaced when installing the new backing plates.

[tooscoops]

i like these write-ups... too bad only people who already know how crazy it is to keep driving on these things are the ones reading it! meh, might still find a few of us who know take a closer listen to everything the car is telling us.

[rrocket]

In my Lexus, it's like a vault. No NVH, double thickness glass throughout, etc. So it's REALLY hard to hear anything. But I had a bearing go. It was REALLY loud droning. So I swapped it out. Quiet returned.

I wanted to see how damaged it was to create such a noise in my Lexus, so I took the assembly apart.

The abs sensor is integral to the unit. That pops off with some difficulty. Then a large nut, washer and dust cover. Inside, there are 2 races. The bearings aren't captive within the plastic carrier...they just sort of sit in and ride there. It was still packed with grease. Bearings and carrier all intact. They were all on size still. There was only, very, very slight wear on the walls...which I'm guessing was the source of the noise...though everything looked fine. For fun, I almost took apart the new one and swapped in ceramic balls but cost was a bit prohibitive so I didn't do it.

[blur911]

https://www.autos.ca/forum/index.php?topic=60426.msg813646#msg813646

I did a wheel bearing how-to on my 911 a few years back, but thanks to Photobucket probably nobody can see it.