Problem: Front Wheel Bearings 2007

I have a 2007 SR5 with 60,000 highway miles/dealer maintained by the same mechanic who maintained my Corolla with 250,000 miles on it and still going strong.

The Tacoma needs both front wheel bearings replaced. The truck has never been used for offroading or towing. Can anyone out there explain to me why this has occured? I am trying to get the dealer to make good since the truck is mint but it is beyond the mileage but not the years of coverage.

I could not even find off market wheel bearings for a 2007 then only went to 2004. Is this a highly usual situation??

Thank you.

North

 

where are you located?

 

Do you know for sure they they need to be replaced? Signs that they do would be slight loss of MPG, grinding noise when the wheel spins, wheel won't spin freely with ease when in the air..

Also, are you the original owner?

 

I am located in Boston/Southern Vermont. I am the original owner. There has been a significant increase in noise in the front end recently and when I had them balance the tires on a road force variance machine they could hear it more so on the driver's side. It just occurred so there is no looseness in the wheel but I am fairly confident the diagnosis is correct.

Any thoughts on causuality? I am trying to have Toyota cover it even though we are clearly over the mileage but not the age.

Thanks.

 

Update: the truck is going to go into another shop with a former mechanic to see if it is in fact the wheel bearings. I will let you all know the outcome.

North

 

Did you find out if it was in fact the wheel bearings? I just had my tires balanced on a road force machine but they took the tires off so they would not be able to tell if a wheel bearing was bad.

 

The driver's side wheel bearing did need to be replaced (at approx 61,000 miles) it was done on Toyota's nickel. I am sure after all the recall's this must have seemed like a drop in the bucket.

Iam bringing it back to have them look over the passenger side bearing as it still sounds a little bit noisy to me. If there is a problem they have agreed to replace it.

None of this changes the fact that I don't think it should have had this problem at what I consider to be low mileage.

thanks for the support.

North

 

anyone know if the 'Cruisers are having premature wheelbearing failures? i'm wondering if they share the same bearings...FJ stuff is from what i know all Japanese production (i could be wrong..please correct if so) and i'm thinking maybe the bearings would be of a better quality than the ones found on the Tacos, which are most likely Mexi or Domesticly produced.

 

2006 Tacoma 4x4 Dbl Cab Longbed TRD Sport with 80,000 miles as of 2 days ago. Front wheel bearing on drivers side is history! I can move the front wheel about 1" back and forth. I checked the ball joints and they seem fine. I did replace the upper ball joints at around 50,000 miles. I found an aftermarket pair of front Bearings on ebay for $96.00 w/free shipping:
2005 Toyota Tacoma Wheel Bearing PAIR FRONT Hubs (4WD)




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Just finished putting a new driver's side front wheel bearing assembly on my daughter's 07 Tacoma (100k miles)... grinding sound and over-heating discoloration on the bearing housing. The old bearings were pretty dry - a little putty-looking stuff on them??? Evidently this is not uncommon?

 

Add me to the list of victims.

It's silent when I turn to the left. I can hear it driving straight from 10-45 MPH. It's loudest when turning to the right. Pep boys replaced the right-front for me for free (long story), but it didn't fix it. My Toyota dealership wants to replace both rear wheel hubs for $1500. Anyone got that cash laying around? Not me...

Can we show the dealership this is a common issue for them to pay for it or at least for the labor or parts? If not, has anyone replaced front and rear hubs, and might be able to throw a recommended manufacturer and some guides/instructions (WITH PICTURES!) my way?

This started around 50,000 miles for me. I've got 60,000 on it now. I towed once a long time ago, possibly at 15,000 miles. Drove onto the beach once at like 10,000 in FL. And of course in NJ they salt the crap out of the roads but only lived here for a couple years. Not under warranty anymore and can't figure out how to fix this/afford the dealerships crazy price. At least if I come up with the money they will warranty their work and do what needs to be done if the hubs don't fix it.

 

Not trying to discount anyone's complaint of early failure but it's mechanical and as with all mechanical things, it will break. Could have been a slightly faulty seal that let miniscule amounts of contaminants in that eventually destroyed it or it could have just been plain bad luck. As far as a direct cause there aren't many other than what's listed above especially being a sealed bearing. Over torquing the lugnuts, curb check, etc. but who knows.

 

The front wheel bearings on the 2nd gen are known to be an area of weakness. Yes, they are a mechanical item, but IMO these things fail too early and often. I literally drive my truck pretty much straight down a highway and I had to do a front bearing at about 60k (@ 105k now and nothing so far out of the other bearing). All in all, it's not the end of the world, but yes it does happen a lot on these trucks.

 

Heads up on ALL BEARINGs can go bad
Front right at 110K...500$ cost..minimum.
Broke apart the bearing and it looked fine...no scratches on the race, bearing cage in tact etc but mechanic said the stethescope detecting rattle?
Rear bearings...make sure the vent on the diffential is kept fucntional. Its on the top.
Pressure will force the rear bearings to fail and it will blow out.
Need more...wfhp2341@aol.com

 

Yep, all mechanical things will eventually fail, BUT this Toyota Tacoma front wheel bearing design/lubrication is a flawed... I thoroughly inspected the one I replaced - NO LEAKAGE OF LUBRICANT... I don't remember the last time the owner of a 90's or newer GMC Sonoma or S10 had a front wheel bearing problem... got over 210,000 on my Sonoma... seems the old design of a spindle is very good... maybe you are satisfied with front wheel bearing replacement every 100k miles, I am not...even though it is not a tough job (6 wheel lugs, two brake caliper bolts, 1 brake line bolt and 4 wheel bearing assembly bolts), it is expensive - $120+ for the bearing assembly and $100+ for the machine shop press job...

 

How do you check if its functional?

Any way to tell which bearing it is? I have the hum sound when driving straight and turning right. It's not existent when turning left. The dealership said they heard it with like a stethoscope and it was the two rear wheel bearings. I lifted the truck and put it in drive and can't hear anything abnormal. I also have no play in the wheel when pushing and pulling on them. I would like to fix this myself if someone with experience could help me out. Thanks, you guys have been so helpful!

 

Welp, the dealership found the problem in the left rear wheel bearing. $760 and no more humming sound.

They gave me the old one and there was plenty of grease and oil and even the rubber o-ring/seal looked and felt brand new and greasy. There is two sets of bearings in there, a bigger set of ball bearings that are visible from the outside and the actual bearing inner ring inside that has ball bearing that are not visible from the out side. When spinning it with my finger it makes a slight grinding sound and doesnt feel as smooth as i think it should be.

My guess is with this design some how these bearings are getting compressed or dented ever so slightly with heavy loads or lots of bad roads. The grease and lubrication looked to be perfect condition.

 

My 07 Tacoma Prerunner has appx 250,000 miles on it and since September 2013 the front wheel bearings have been replaced by a Toyota dealership not once but twice and are out again. Any ideas out there on what could be causing the issue to keep repeating? Its to the point now that I go for routine oil change and have to say by the way the bearings are out again.

 

I am not an expert, but since these bearings are sealed, either they are manufactured with an inadequate amount of grease or an inferior grease. I found no evidence of leaking grease when I removed my driver's side assembly.

 

The bearings are not manufactured with adequate bearing grease. This allows even a small loss of grease, or a small amount of water intrusion, to quickly destroy them. That is why I take the new bearings and inject additional amounts of high pressure, high temperature bearing grease in them. Stunningly I see that the OP on this is several years old. lol.