Rear wheel Bearings bad?

Hi: I'm new to this forum, but I have a 04 Taco that i bought 7 months ago. It has just 55K miles on it, and I'm certain of the miles. My problem is the rear wheel bearings are going out. Is this typical for this low of miles? Thanks in advance. I'd love to know if this is something others have experienced.

 

An 04 with 55k may be bad because it sounds like the truck sits a lot. Believe it or not, but if a truck doesn't move, ie, the bearing isn't moving, the bearing will actually take an oval set if it sits for long enough. Thus causing a premature failure.

I have 190,000 on my original bearings.

It kind of goes with the old adage: if you don't use it, you lose it.

 

Not typical.

We have an 04 at work with 150K on it and original bearings. OTOH we have an 05 that needed rear bearings at 80K. The 05 was overloaded fairly regularly.

 

my 99 lasted till 180k miles till the rear bearings went out. not to difficult to change in your driveway if you have time and a bfh.

pull the wheel, pinch rubber brake line above axle, remove ebrake cable, remove solid brake line from back of hub, remove the 4 12mm nuts holding axle shaft on, pull ALL the way out, dont sit it down inside of axle shaft, there is a seal thats important. then cut off old cuff, using hammer, and pipe, bang off old bearing on the ground, making sure entire axle is going down straight not to hurt the splines. use heat if needed to coax it. then reassemble in reverse process. only real bummer is having to bleed the brakes.

the diff is "semi floating", so you MIGHT lose 2oz of diff fluid, unless your diff is overfilled.

 

Hey thanks for all the informative responses! I would guess that TacomaJPP is right, when I look at the underside of this vehicles, it looks new. Probably garaged a lot! And thanks for the tips to repair...........