Wheel bearings - Vibration

Good morning TW!

I am writing this post because I am confused and a little shocked.

I have a 2011 Taco Sport with the short bed. My truck just rolled 59,000 miles this morning. I do not have a lift or any alterations to the suspension. The truck is completely stock aside from the stupid exhaust system I put on a couple years ago (regret, regret, regret).

I have noticed lately that my truck has a pulsing vibration between 60 and 70 mph. I have read a bunch of posts in this forum and it appears to be a somewhat common issue on lifted trucks. My truck hasn't been lifted so I decided to take it to the dealership for diagnosis.

I just received a call from the dealer tech stating that my front wheel bearings are going bad and its going to be 1,000 dollars to replace them.

I have a couple of questions for TW.
1. If the front wheel bearings were going bad would they only vibrate between 60 - 70 mph.
2. Should wheel bearings be going bad at 59,000 miles
3. 1,000 dollars to replace front wheel bearings seems like a large figure. Does this sound right to you guys?

A couple key things to note.
I don't go off-roading with my pickup truck.
I don't pull heavy trailers.
This truck is well taken care of and I just had the 60,000 maintenance interval completed on my truck which was also 1,000 dollars.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm not going to have the dealership change the front wheel bearings at this time.

 

Yeah my rear passenger wheel bearing went bad at 20k and I have another potential bad one right now at 55k

 

Ouch , you are getting slaughtered at the dealership $$$$$$$$

Phone around for a few quotes . Local garages know how to replace wheel bearings for much less .
I replaced both front wheel bearings for about $250 bucks , but I did the job myself .
Wheel bearings do not usually cause vibrations .They can be noisy but seldom cause a vibe .
Has your driveshaft ever been greased ?
What shape are your tires in ?

 

Thanks for the reply!!

Unless the driveshaft was greased for the 60,000 mile maintenance interval I do not believe it has ever been greased. I did get under the truck and try to check for bad u joints. I didn't notice anything loose but I'm not a mechanic. The underside of my truck looks like its brand new still.

The tires are about two years old with plenty of life left in them. I get them rotated with each oil change and I haven't noticed any strange wear on the tires themselves. My truck drives straight if I let go of the wheel so alignment seems to be good.

After reading all the other posts on here regarding the pulsing vibration I started thinking it was a driveshaft issue as well.
I'll call around like you suggested and get the front bearings replaced. Hopefully that will resolve the issue.

I really appreciate the input!

 

checking the universal joints the truck needs to be in neutral.

 

I've had one bearing go bad and it was because of my own misuse and non-alignment, when the bearing goes bad it's very loud there is no vibration. I bought the replacement from Toyota and took it a shop and had it done $100.
I have over 100k and the other side is fine.

-Vibration. It's possible that maybe one of your or two of your wheels need to be rebalanced, just shooting ideas out there.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-complete-save-custom-built-available.288055/

 

This is great!
I called the local Midas to get an estimate on the work. I will update this thread when I hear back.
I don't trust myself enough to try and tackle this job.

 

What is involved at the 60k maintenance that would cost $1000 ?

 

Nothing

 

I had my drivers side done for $700 at 56K - My brother in laws went and I got two complete for about $350 from the Jersey guy - we did his and since we had everything set up we did my passenger side - and since we had everything set up the passenger side only took a hour - just a suggestion - if you don't want to spend big $$ U will have to learn to DIY and use the $$ U save 2 buy tools - there are plenty of tutorials here and on Youtube - U could save enough just on a $1000 stealership maintenance to buy everything U need for most jobs.

 

George3, You aren't wrong.

 

If it is the front wheel bearings, I'll tell you that I just replaced the ones on my wife's Lexus GX460 which is just a fancy top on a Tacoma frame. Rockauto, and 45 minutes per side. Total=$215.00
Youtube can show you exactly how.

 

I really appreciate you reaching out. I might just have to try this on my own.

 

Thanks - usually people leave off the n't ! Another phrase I like is "I woke up this morning not dead yet"

 

check your center bearing too, its possible your front bearings are going bad but also possible its something else. Could be driveline related...

 

Whoa!.....$1000 bucks to replace wheel bearings (I hope they quoted you for both sides and not just one side?). Shit!...those damn dealership's like to fuck over the customer for sure.

I'm not an expert but it could or could not be the wheel bearing(s) that's causing your problems so I would try and get another opinion?
But if it is in fact the wheel bearing that is the cause then as someone has previously posted you could probably get the job done for less than what the dealership quoted you.

Recently (about a month or so ago) I had both of the wheel bearings replaced on my 2008 Tacoma (has well over 200,000 miles on it) and that is because one of the wheel bearings was going out so I decided to have both replaced.

NTB did the job and the total cost was just over $500 bucks. I try to do things on my Tacoma myself but I knew that this particular job was going to involve certain machinery, specialty-tools and a lot banging, etc. so I just paid to have it done.

Good luck on getting the problem solved and hopefully it won't end up costing you a lot of $.

 

Hmmm, good to know it's only $500 at NTB. I always thought they were overpriced, but not in this case

 

that's a lot of bread damn dealers

 

Did you jack the front of the truck up and find out if the wheel bearings are even bad?

EDIT: Also - Wheel bearings don't usually go out that early unless the truck is abused a bit. At least not in my personal experience.