Wheel Bearing Failure?

Driving down road today, heard a pop and handling felt off. Pulled off of road at first safe opportunity. Here's what I saw looking at passenger side front wheel of 2002 Tacoma 5-speed xtracab:



Got a tow to neighborhood shop. Diagnosis was wheel bearing failure. Backstory is that front breaks and rotors were replaced Monday (at same shop) and wheel bearings repacked. Shop manager suspects the new guy overtightened the bearing nut. They said they'll cover repair.

Anyone seen similar thing before?

 

Yeah you cant torque that bearing down......its like a head set on a bike

its almost better to have it too loose than too tight

there's a sweet spot......and you have to play with it a little bit

The rollers may of already been damaged......so it may not even be their fault


I tell 5luggers to replace smaller outer being every 3 yrs....
and repack those two outers every couple

those are so small the grease turns black in record time.....A3 bearing

inner ones stay nice fresh and full of red grease.....

A3 used to be $9......but they've been going up steady about a $1 in every year


hopefully they dont cheat you and skip replacing the race set.....
......surely no one would do that .....right

IF you replace that every 3yr or so......it shouldnt chew into the race, you can skip that part...and that's about 90% of the work.....as long as you stay with the exact same bearing mfg

plus it wont contaminate the inner $30 one.....which can last much longer than the outer

6 luggers... theirs last a lot longer....but thats a $10 bearing VS $120 one and needing a press

 

Thanks for that helpful feedback!

 

If you get it too loose.....the rotors rub against the caliper pads when you go around corners

so you always drive around the block couple times before venturing off......shop or home

somethings it takes a couple of 'stabs' to get it right

 

took me 3 diff times to get mine 'just' right

 

Glad I did RR bearings…..


212k btw

 

It's good to see they are gonna make it right.

 

that race is super easy to damage on the A3
...got to give it the wet finger test

every time you catch a pot hole with that wheel....that race takes it in the ass


if messed up/pitted that'll chew up the bearing in less than a year


its definitely not a good ideal to run over size rims/tires on 5 lug