Time for new wheel bearings....

So I jacked my truck up for the first time today to check for tire wiggles and boom! Drivers side has about half inch of play in it. Took the wheel off and the rotor wiggles as well. I narrowed it down to the wheel bearings. I play on replacing the entire hub. Any suggestions on where I should buy? Any tips and trick? This will be the biggest mechanical thing I've done. Also. Anybody in Washington near Seattle have a helping hand? Haha

 

There are a few members that sell assembled hubs on here. Check out the 2nd Gen marketplace. It makes the job a whole lot easier. I am possibly the least mechanically inclined member on the site and I was able to take the job with the help of a (non-Tacoma owning) friend.

 

Well that's inspiring Haha. I need to order asap. Dont want to break anything else!

 

Yep! Good luck man! I'm sure somebody close will step up to help out.

 

You can unbolt the bearing/hub and drop it off at a Toyota, they will replace just the bearing instead of the expensive hub.

I have lots of people do this at my shop, I'm the bearing guy for some reason.

 

I

Called the dealership, it would be 150 for them to do that. I can buy two new hubs for that Haha.

 

Also, what jack stands is everybody using? I have a 2 inch lift

 

I don't think you can find two hub assemblies for 150$... if you could they would likely not last long. I'm all for cheap parts but when it comes to the wheel bearings on these trucks I have come to find it pays to go with the better parts... a set of good front assemblies goes for around 350$, and there are a couple of vendors in the for sale section that sell them with dozens of good reviews.. most people would suggest to replace the bearing's in pairs as the other is likely in similar condition. If your hurting for beer Money replacing the one will be fine for now.

Also in the o.p. you mention that your "rotor wiggles as well" that's to be be expected as the rotor is held on by nothing but the lug nuts you took off and the brake pads which will leave some slop...make sure it's your wheel bearing and not something else causing the play.

 

True. I used the brand I just bought in my first car, and my dad in his current tacoma. We both put 100k miles on them no issues. Plus it's a 10 year warranty! The brake wiggle makes sense. Put the tire shouldnt wiggle with the lug nuts fully tightened

 

This is a real design deficiency on Toyotas part. Why does this wheel bearing start failing at 80k miles on just about everyone's Tacoma? Do all trucks have front wheel bearings that fail because they are bigger/heavier? Is the bearing undersized or maybe Toyota isn't doing their due-diligence to keep an eye on their supplier?

Mine hopefully arrive today so I can do the swap tomorrow. USPS must be upset that Amazon Prime day caused a surge of unnecessary purchases and deliveries.

 

Alot of members like myself highly recommends Wheel bearings made by Jersey Built Hubs. You pay a little more but it's high quality. You can go cheap but you will end up doing it twice. It's not a bad install, especially if you have an impact gun. You can rent a torque wrench and hub socket from places like Autozone.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...e-replace-front-wheel-bearing-2nd-gen.189356/

 

Not the way I see it. My drivers' side wheel bearing lasted about 250,000 miles and the passenger side is going with 385,000 miles on the original.

 

My driver side bearing lasted 175k, and I need to do the passenger side and I'm at 195k now. I'd say that's pretty good...

 

These are the first two wheel bearing success stories I’ve read on this forum. It would be nice if someone assembled a good survey post asking how many miles driven for the model year until the wheel bearing(s) started making cabin noise.

 

I usually change them around 200,000km (130,000miles?), the biggest variables is climate and use. The offroaders can go through a bearing in one year, where as a Californian daily driver can last 15 years.

 

I’m curious, most people don’t replace just the bearing because they aren’t set up for it, so there isn’t a lot of info on doing it. Does it take any special tools other than a press?

 

I live in South Seattle. I can knock this out for you in an afternoon for some beers but you gotta come to me

 

Press and bearing separator

At the first go around The smart thing to do is to buy a new bearing/hub assembly, switch them out and then have a machine shop or friend with a press replace the bearing on your original assembly so you have a spare for next time

 

I have a 20 ton press, any reason I shouldn’t try it myself?

 

Dude, that would be a huge help. Have you done it before?