wheel bearings

brought truck in for a tire rotation at goodyear and they told me i have a wheel bearing bad.... quoted me 550 to change. called toyota they said 300 or so, they looked at it and said they are fine... wonder if goodyear was trying to make some money off of me what do yall think

 

maybe... how about ya check it? lift the wheel off the ground and roll it. does it sound gritty? it may need a change. and FYI this is a super PITA if you do it yourself.
good luck

 

yeh that what they tell me they have to be pressed in, im taking toyotas advise on this one im sure they would change them if they thought they were bad....at least i hope so lol.... 300 a side not cheap but would not want to have one fail either... may keep that in mind next time its on jacks to keep eye opened

 

Let me tell you my story. When I first bought my Tacoma from this one dealership, I didn't have too much experience with the 2nd gen Tacoma. I took it for a couple test drive because I was serious about getting the damn thing. I noticed a humming noise at 25+ mph, almost like a cheap aftermarket exhaust or a hole in the pipe. It's not loud enough to the point where you automatically know that it's not normal, I mean who knows, it's a used truck. Everything else was fine. I signed all the paperwork, drove the truck home. I went to my friend's house, test drove his Tacoma, and it didn't have the same noise that my truck was producing. Talked to my other friend, he told me right off the bat that it's my wheel bearing that's causing the humming noise. Luckily, the dealer offered a 90 day or 3000 miles warranty that came along with the truck. I purchased extended warranty too, but if it's under their warranty, nothing comes out of your pocket. Took it back to the dealer, talked to the mechanic on sight and he went with me for a test drive to diagnose what the problem was. He told me right away, "it's your tires, I guarantee you 100%." I said to the mechanic, "my brother and my dad have a same setup as far as tires, BFG AT's and I know for a fact that they're not noisy at all, it can't be the tires." I told the mechanic that if my tires were the issue then why don't they get another Tacoma off the lot with different tires and swap them with mines to see if it will eliminate the humming noise to assure me that it's my tires that's causing the noise. Got back to the dealership and the mechanic went in to talk with the manager. Manager came out and said to me, "my mechanic worked here for more than ten years, and I know he's really experienced in his field of work. I'll give you a deal (it's more like a bet), if we swap the tires and the humming noise goes away, you'll have to pay us for labor fees, and if the humming noise persist we will take care of the problem 100%. I told him that I'll be happy to pay them if I'm wrong. They took another Tacoma off the lot, raised both trucks up, swapped the tires. The mechanic and I took it for a quick spin and the humming sound comes right back even before we got to the freeway. The mechanic said, "I know, it's your wheel bearings." I said to him, "I thought you said it's 100% my tires that's causing the noise. I don't think you or your manager know what you guys are talking about." Got back to the dealership and they took care of the problem in two hours. Two weeks after, I got a call from Customer Service Manager about my car buying experience, I told them about how the dealership handled the situation, and he told me he'll take it into consideration will make sure it will never happen again. Who knows what happened after that.

If it's your wheel bearings, it's a easy fix, DIY. The only hard part is that you'll need to take it to a shop to have them press out the old bearing and press in the new bearing.

 

I always wondered by people always try to take out the bearing and try to press it back themselves when it's easy enough to take the entire hub out and get that done when it doesn't cost too much to do so...

 

I believe the stealership would have changed them, given the fact it wasnt on their dime. I know a mechanic at work who will do it for me if needed. Ex chevy mechanic it was just was last minute and they told me how severe it was so I got a second opinion. All this because my craftsman proffesional four ton jack failed to lift my truck, low on oil or seal bad. I think Goodyear was trying to make some money off of me

 

Front wheel bearings on these are VERY common failure items. I replaced them on my last 05 at 76k and the 05 I just bought with 113k needed them so bad it was hardly driveable. It was absolutely deafening. This type of bearing doesn't always exhibit play in it so you really can't go by that. However you will certainly know when they are bad just from the sound. Of course if you have some super aggressive mud tires it may be a while before you notice it. The fronts are not a super big deal to change if you have a press. However I would strongly advise against the dealer method of swapping these out. They typically just unbolt the bearing from the spindle, press a new hub into it, and bolt it back on the truck. This doesn't solve the problem that made the bearing fail in the first place. There is a grease seal on the back of the spindle that has been bad on 3 of the 4 I have replaced. The seal is only available from Toyota, and it's like 30 bucks. Also if you remove the entire spindle from the truck (really not a big deal) you can use the spindle to hold it and use the press to push out the old hub. If you just unbolt the bearing you need to a use a huge puller to get it apart, or buy a new hub which I believe is like $130. The last front I changed took me an hour and fifteen minutes to do from rolling the jack under the truck to putting it back down. But I had just done the other side 2 days earlier and all the tools were still out.

If it's a rear wheel bearing you absolutely can't do it without a special tool to hold the axle into a press. I made my own out of an old axle housing. The rear has 2 ABS retaining rings and the actual ABS ring pressed onto the axle along with the bearing. You have to cut the ABS ring and the inner spacer off, then you can remove the snap ring and press off the inner ring and the bearing. But if you don't have the tool, you aren't doing it period.

 

turns out the bearing was bad lol go figure

 

I have owned my own shop press for over 20 years, after I wore out my 12 ton, I went to a 20 ton. Might not use it once a year, but then use it every day for a week.

It was and still is an excellent investment.

Howard

 

harbor freight offers presses cheap! i just did my wheel bearing and brought the hub to the dealer to have them press it out and put the new one on. cheap and easy, took about 2 hours including drive time to and from the dealer.

 

I will never go to a goodyear ever again. So many stories about them, they are just horrible! Well mine at least. Anyone else think they are bad?

 

My front driver side is starting to go bad I think. Good to have some info on this.

GO HOKIES!!!

 

Goodyear, Firestone

Goodyear, Firestone, Uniroyal all can be terrible for much beyond basic services like tire rotation, brake replacement unless you can find one with a certified mechanic. My problem is not so much shody work but how they overbook and see how many repairs they can get in front of you while you wait. It's all good the day you buy the tires but when you return for the "free" rotation be prepared to get a l-o-n-g lunch. My last trip to Firestone was for rotation, balance and alignment. I left for 3 hours and when I returned it still wasn't done. The poor young guy behind the counter learned some new expressions from me that day. Have experienced the same at TireDiscounters. Last time in for rotation/balance they even failed to replace the valve stem cap and they want me to trust them to do "real" mechanic work? Not easy finding a good solid mechanic at any of the large chains. Better off finding an independent shop by word of mouth. Good luck.

 

I bought a wheel hub assy on ebay for 100
took me under two hours to replace it and that was with out air tools