Another Wheel Bearing shot @65K :(

So I Posted a thread a few weeks ago that i was a bit surprised that I had the driver rear wheel bearing go at 62K miles. Well sure enough 3K miles later the passenger rear went. Luckily it was covered by the power train warranty and they gave me a rental but only after alot of dealer BS of course. They ended up giving me a 2011 access cab sport which was nice cause it is the same truck as mine minus the color. the truck only had like 160 miles on it i noticed that they are still sending tacos out with the three leaf rear springs otherwise not too many differences from my 09. Not too sure if i like the new grill or not.

I hope i dont have to deal with many of these issues with my truck once the 100,000 mile powertrain runs out i mean its not cheap to replace a wheel bearing from what i hear its around 600 bones per axle so im gonna keep an eye on the front ones when i get close in mileage

 

think it was more of an engineering thing vs leaf count thing. I don't have a problem with my springs. I've yet to have one anyway.

Wheel bearings at 60k... hm.. Low lube? That's not horrible, but pretty early most of the time. Seen plenty around 50-80. Seems to go in hand with poor tire maintenance, balancing or alignment or water crossing, clay etc. Anecdotally.
No wheel spacers or anything?

600 bones an axle, you ought to get out your hand cleaner and do your own, save yourself 500 of that if the bearings are REALLY freaking expensive. EDIT: which they dont seem to be unless you buy them with carrier.

They're a maintenance item really. I've replaced dozens on cars under 100k that I've personally owned and diagnosed at least twice that. Others seem to never go bad. Ive got bad front bearing on my bike... its only got 12k on it.

 

My front passenger bearing is going out i got 69k, I got it ordered today at claremont toyota for $53 but im sure the labor will be more than that as it takes some time to disasemble the front end

 

both of my fronts are in need of replacement. i have 68K on mine. so it seems like 60k is right arond when they go out.

 

How do you know when they go bad?

 

you'll hear them/ feel them. sounds like i have mud tires on my truck when i get up to speed. if they are real bad, if you jack up the truck you can hear them when you spin the wheel, or feel it if you hold the coil spring while you spin the wheel.

 

Damn, I've only heard of wheel bearings going out on small diameter wheels at that kind of mileage. My wife's 98 4Runner has 196K and still running on the original wheel bearings.

 

^thanks thats good to know. I have 75k and dont think I have a problem.

 

I'm at 88k and very apprehensive of this. Hate fucking pressed in sealed bearings for fronts. Why couldn't they just stick with regular ones? Don't answer, it's a money thang I know. I don't has spacers or do much muddin or water crossings since prerunner but they are pushin 75lbs a corner tire/wheel combo and have a lot of 70mph frwy miles on them. Seem to be OK for now. Powertrain won't cover fronts on mine due to being prerunner I'm guessing. Hoping the rears shit the bed before 100k if they're going to.

 

when i do mine, i plan on removing the whole assembly, taking them to the garage and have them press the bearings and replace the seals, then jsut bring them back home and install them in the truck.. it seems like most of the labor is just removing all the crap to get to them, not the actual bearing's replacement. i'll just throw the removed parts on the motorcycle lol

 

+2 on the DIY but why couldn't they just be like normal where you could service them with fresh grease on occassion taking about 30 min out of your life and be done and have them last much much longer was what I was getting at. I have no problem bustin out the wrenches and gettin dirty. The concept of building shit nowadays where it has to be brought to shop because of the hassle for the avg consumer instead of building shit to last just sucks. Wastes people's time that are still willing to get dirty with it....and more expensive for shittier parts too.

 

do the extended warranties cover these?

 

Its money, and convenience. I bet most people would not be able to repack bearing nowadays anyway. Look people go to jiffy lube for oil changes so bearing re-packing is out of the questions. My son is going to get driver license soon and I refuse to get him a car until he can do all the simple maintenance on it. His claim, nobody he knows in school does that anyway so according to him I am being unreasonable. He want s to be like others and just go to service.

 

I had to replace both fronts on my last 05 at 76k. The 05 I just bought needed both fronts (one was really, really bad) at 113k. And those were original. I think the big problem with the tacoma bearings is the inner seal. The inner side of the bearing is not sealed. If you take the plastic insert out of them the back side inner race is loose. The inner seal for the bearing that goes into the back of the spindle is actually a greased seal that rides on the CV shaft. The outer seal is just a dust seal. On 3 of the 4 front bearings I have changed this seal is shredded. According to my local dealer these very rarely get changed when they swap bearings. So I can imagine if the seal is gone new bearings won't last long.

My wife has a 00 4Runner with 205k on it now. I just did both front bearings on it last month and now one of the rears is making noise. So you may be due soon. Changing out the fronts is no big deal on the older style or 05-up style if you have a press. I'm not looking forward to doing the rear on the 4 Runner though. It's got 2 spacer sleeves and an ABS ring pressed onto the axle that even Toyota says have to be cut off to change the bearing. That's going to be fun.

 

hmm, just hit 60k on my 06.
Is changing these barrings out a huge job ? We got any instructions out there letting us keyboard typers how to change them out ? Just curious.

 

beyond turning some wrenches i think you just need a large press to press the bearings.

 

I've done all of mine with a made in china $129 12 ton press I bought from Jegs. If you do a search for wheel bearing replacement there are plenty of threads for the fronts. I know I've explained how it's done a couple times over the last month. Rears are a bit of a different story. You have to press the axleshaft out of the bearing. From what i've seen in the FSM this requires a special tool that bolts onto the outer axle end to secure it in a press. I'm going to make my own out of a spare axle housing I have when I do it on the 4Runner.

 

You can't really narrow it down to wheel bearings with a drive. But you can probably figure out what corner it is. If its bad enough to hear usually if you grab the top of the tire and yank back and forth. Squat down and bounce it back and forth.. you can feel a clunk. in trucks since they're so heavy, maybe take off the wheel and try to wobble the hub on the front.
pretty much have to take off the drum to diag the back easily.

Of course sometimes bad is tight. Hot hub is a sign. Touch (or shoot with IR therm) after driving. But that can also be a hung brake. Good tool to take to a used car drive. Ir thermometer. Can shoot exhaust manifold to check for bad combustion and brakes and hubs to check for cold or hot brakes.

 

It would not be unreasonable to take the position of get a job and then go buy your own shit, pay for the ins & pay for your own service. Bet he'd like that.

 

He can also ride the bus. I won't get into the stupidifying of urban america. I will say, my 6 year old has been changing oil for 2 years and begs to do it., has cried when I did it without telling him. I used to have to loosen the filter and pan nut.. but I did it before he gets under there so he thinks he did it. My 10 year old doesn't care to do it, but doesn't complain either. If its a choice of gapping plugs or cleaning room. Its gapping plugs and washing K&N, checking tire pressures. Funny though, I don't let them wash the cars. Though I do let my 10 year old shift gears if he's up front. Just don't let a 5 year old try to carry the full oil pan.

Do bearings get "packed" these days. Its been a while since I've seen a maintainable bearing. Regardless, I only repack if its due to removing for the sake of say, a brake disk, never purely for maintenance purposes. A packable bearing is usually only a few dollars.