Front wheel bearing went bad...

Okay so here's the deal... I want to clarify a few things with regards to this fix. I had some unanswered questions that I couldn't find during extensive searching that I can now answer for all of you looking to do this. My symptoms started as a slight vibration felt in the front end and floor boards that slowly became more pronounced over time. It them turned into a howling, which then turned into griding and even more vibration. After searching I found that it could possibly be a wheel bearing. Even with some of the simple diagnostics such as putting it up on a jack and spinning the wheel... it was still very hard to tell if that was the culprit even though the drivers side did seem to be a little louder than the right on that particular test. I said f*ck it and decided to buy the left side hub/bearing assembly anyways and see what the outcome would be. After getting the new assembly pressed into the hub, I examined the old one for damage and HOLY F*CK, there was some serious gouging on the inside race of the hub assembly! Now I can see why it may be hard to diagnose this as the problem because the bearings are seated in a plastic retainer which means even though the gouging on the inner race was present and the assembly was still tight with no movement, there still is opportunity for the bearings to move inside the race beacause of the plastic retainer and the way it can flex. In any case I have it all back together and everything is silky smooth again. So all that being said before you go to Toyota asking if you have front diff problems, you may want to look at your wheel bearing first. Toyota in some case will probably not diagnose the problem as a wheel bearing because they would practically have to disassemble down to the race to even realize that its that big of a problem. When I first started hearing the noises/vibrations I could have sworn it was the front diff... so thank god it wasn't! Also when your putting things back together I had the shop that pressed the bearing to look up the torque specs for me, and it was a suprising 176 lbs at the axle/hub nut just so you know....

Anyways, thats the end of my public service annoucement.... carry on...

 

Thanks for posting this, will be helpful in the future.

 

great job.great info.

 

x2

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of hub/bearing maintenance!

There are those who have and there are those who will.

 

Wouldn't something like that be covered under warranty?? How many miles did you have on them? Would the powertrain warranty cover it?? Seems a bit early for the bearings to go, No?

 

Excellent info!! Thanks for posting it.
Reps for you.

 

Thanks, everyone... I would have done an extensive write up with pics but I was very crunched for time. There are some tips and tricks people can use if they don't have access to proper tools (they should have basic shop tools though), so they can pm me if they are thinking about doing it themselves. I would at the very least make sure you have a breaker bar and torque wrench, before considering doing this one. I'm fortunate enough to have a full set of shop tools and a compressor so it really makes life easy. I wish I had taken some pics of the the old bearing race... it was suprising how much damage was in there! The only way it could have happened was something got past the seals or something failed inside the bearing that caused the gouging. I think the front seal/spacer between the hub and bearing is probably the weak link in that assembly. It looks like there's very slight gapping even with the seal pressed into place. Its a little disconcerning that a truck with 50K is blowing bearings.

As for warrenty... yes I could have had it replaced under warrenty (I'm at 50K) but because I need my truck daily, and because I hate dealing with dealerships in general, I would rather do it myself and have peice of mind. My truck has a ton of mods, and they always try to give me the runaround and I end up just getting pissed off to the point of wanting to choke someone. Because the repair wasn't expensive I don't mind doing it anyways (I love to wrench!), but if were something that I couldn't handle within a day or was expensive, I would have jumped all over the warrenty.

 

I have the same vibration problem, and I think it just got worse when I got a front end alignment? Just curious what did the bearing assembly cost? Thanks for the heads up!

 

Why do Bearings go bad ? Whats the cause.

 

good post. I looked into this a while back when searching to solve the steering vibrationa I had. Do you have aftermarket wheels? whats the offset ? It was the inner race going bad? wonder if that may lead to the demise of a bearing.
I think by now Timbren??Timkin? has a replacement bearing, it was supposed to be cheaper. anyways thanx for posting

 

I had to replace my front driver's side wheel bearing at 70k miles... i run a prerunner though... i called Napa and the bearing and hub together was 110 dollars... it was covered under my free waranty i got with the 50 dollar deductable... this is all 2wd though... at 104k miles now... replaced brake pads too... no other problems yet.

 

i think im having this problem now. I went offroad yesterday (lots of mud and water) and i get the vibrations that shake the whole vehicle. It happens any where from 35-45mph. it doesnt happen all the time. Anyways i hit a big stump while offroading and wondering if its my balancing or a wheel bearing.

Reason i think its a bearing is because when i turn my wheels in park i get a popping noise coming from the front.any help?

 

on a prerunner?

 

yep.im hoping its just a wheel bearing or balancing issue. nothing serious or im screwed. I do know that im not offroading in this truck anymore.

 

help me out guys!

 

The easiest way to test it is jack up one side at a time and spin the wheel... it should have a slight grind noise/howl or at least a different noise than just the rotor skimming the brake pads. Others have noticed while driving that under turning you can hear a grind or howling. If you turn right and hear it it will be your left hand bearing and vise versa. I was pretty shocked at the damage on the inner race of mine... the only way it could have gotten that bad was from the seal failing and letting some form of debris get inside to wear away at the race. I think the weak link in these bearings are the outer seal that toyota supplies.

 

mine does it turning the wheel both ways