Overtightened Axle Nut?

Last weekend I installed the ECGS bushing to address the droning noise on the front end of my Tacoma. Unfortunately, it seems that was not my issue. I’m leaning more towards the wheel bearing, but decided to take it to Toyota and have them take a look.

They showed me on the rack how the front drivers side took a lot of force to spin the wheel whereas the passenger side spun freely. The diagnosis was a seized caliper at this point with a high likelihood that the bearing is bad too. I took a look and it looks like one of the boots is torn on the caliper.

I haven’t experienced any pulling while driving, brake smell, and the pads have plenty of life in them. That got me thinking, would an overtightened axle nut possibly cause an issue here? I don’t have a torque wrench that goes up to 176 pounds, so I just leaned on the breaker bar until the nut was set. Could it potentially be throwing the disk off center on the caliper?

Any ideas?

 

Update: swapped out the caliper for a new one and the same issue persists. Just ordered a wheel bearing, fingers crossed that this is what slays the beast.

 

putting too much pre-load on the bearing will cause premature wear for sure. How long between installing the bushing and the failure? Is the wheel bearing original, if so how many miles on the truck? They typically only last for 60-70k at best.

 

It's unlikely, but a worn wheel bearing will rotate slower as well.

 

Thanks for the responses. My truck is at about 130k miles and I bought it used at around 80k. I guess if it is original, then it’s probably due. There was no time really between the bushing installation and wheel bearing failure because I was already having noise from the front right.

 

I'm guess then that the bearing was likely on its last leg and if it was in fact over torqued that pushed it over the edge. The torque on the unit bearings is important to set with a torque wrench since it determines the pre-load.

 

Gotcha, Thanks for the knowledge. I’ll make sure to track down a torque wrench when I do the repair next weekend.

 

Replaced the wheel bearing and hub assembly, and torqued the axle nut to spec and the sound is gone! Crazy that the dealership wanted $1400 for it and I was able to fix it myself for <$200.

 

DIY FTMFW! Glad to see you got it fixed up.