Wheel bearing concern on my 2004 Tacoma

Just yesterday I replaced the rotors and pads on the front wheels of my 2004 Tacoma Dbl-Cab Prerunner. While doing this work I noticed on the passenger side that there was a lot of grease buildup and brake dust collected behind the axle hub. Also, the hub required a little more pressure to rotate it compared to the driver side. I should have taken some pictures to show you guys but do you guys know if this could be a problem with the wheel bearings? It did not seem like there was play in the axle hub. Any thoughts?


Thanks,
Rick

 

I thought I had noticed a noise, so I opened up the wheel bearings and inspected them, cleaned them and regreased them, the grease in there was not for wheel bearing it was much thicker so I guess someone at one point decided to put any grease there.

best bet is to open it and take it apart.

 

Thanks Mig98Taco! So I thought the wheel bearings are pressed? Is that not true? Not sure how different the wheel bearing designs are between the 98 and 04 models though.

 

I re-did my rear wheel bearing on my 96 and it had to be pressed. In fact, it was so hard to get out that it had to be heated.

 

yea the rear bearings have to be pressed on and off. there are two res on each side of the bearing very seldom can they be taken off without cutting them off. impossible to do at home in the garage unless you have some heavy duty press.

 

front bearings are sealed and must be pressed in. these are not serviceable parts, and cannot be "regreased". Roughly 90 bucks a pop from autozone, but avoid these like the plague. I wish i had.

 

Thanks for the replies! I think I will not worry too much about it. I don't hear any noise indicating a problem and there isn't any play on the axle hub. I'll probably check the temperature of the wheel after a drive just to make certain its not getting really hot.