Bad Wheel Bearing

Just sharing this info for others.

I've got 48,000 miles on my truck and the front left wheel bearing is going bad. Probably started going out about 5k miles ago.

I've had my tires(33s) and lift(4" BDS) on since 7,000 miles. Truck has been on the road for 22 months now.

 

Spacers?

 

That sucks! Did you get the extended warranty? If not, wheel bearings are inexpensive and relatively easy to change out. If you change them yourself I recommend changing the race as well regardless of how it looks.

 

Just hit 56k and my driver wheel bearing is taking a dump on my 2011.

 

a few things.

Warranty will probably fall under wear unless you dealer likes you..but its worth a shot

That's awfully low miles for a wheel bearing though..but a bad unit is always possible

With the mods, the dealer will most likely thumb their nose,sadly. If you revert to stock, then maybe you have a shot.

Keep us posted!

 

Big tires wear parts out faster... Fact.

Replace it and keep on driving.

 

No spacers on the truck and no warranty. I've replaced hub assemblies on other vehicles, so I feel pretty confident I can tackle this. Just disappointed with the life of the OEM part. I wish Toyota would build stronger wheel hub bearings because it seems like a lot of these go out...especially the left front.

 

Sounds like your weekend project is cast in stone! Not sure why the left side fails more than the right, I assume you are not using your Taco for NASCAR races! By the way Toyota doesn’t make the bearings, they source them out just like every other manufacturer. I’d just go to NAPA and get what you need. Post pics of the bad bearing when you finish. I’ve seen some real doozies when I was a mechanic.

 

My wifes Rav4 right-rear wheel bearing went out at about 50k. Service tech said it was uncommon, and replaced it under extended warranty. Happened again at 105k. Dealer was stumped. I filed a complaint with Toyota and they covered half of the replacement.

Yes, it would have been cheaper just to do it myself, but of course it happened right before a vacation trip during a time when I couldn't get off work. It's odd, I've been driving Toyotas since 1972 and before the Rav4 have only ONCE had a wheel bearing go out, well after 100k. In fact, before the Rav4, that one bearing was the only one ever to wear out on any of my cars.

 

I bought a warranty when I got my Tacoma (used) and they covered two wheel bearings just last month. They even covered a tow to the dealer. Just FYI

 

I'm assuming you have aftermarket rims with the 4" BDS lift? Your hubs don't care about spacers (assuming they're quality hub-centric), they care about the moment arm that comes with changed offset (which spacers effectively provide).

Though I agree the hubs are prone to early failure with heavier tires and rims with changed offset, they clearly weren't designed with that in mind. That said, on my 4Runner (prior to owning the Taco), both front wheel bearings failed at 60k miles; it was bone stock. The dealer covered both under powertrain warranty. If you have a good relationship with your dealer, that's an option you can discuss.

I'm not sure if the bearing assemblies have changed from the 2nd gen but there's a few guys on the forums that assemble their own for a very reasonable price using high quality components. It's worth looking into if you're going to DIY.

OA

 

Same side went out on my 05 Tacoma. I was under the impression that 3rd gens had a redesigned and stronger hub?

 

I just made an appointment with my local dealer. They said it might be cover under the powertrain warranty. Fingers crossed its covered but I highly doubt it. I'll probably end up doing the work myself next weekend.

 

Update!! The dealership refused to diagnose the problem. They told me that I needed to take the truck to a proper off road shop. Luckily, I live near Baltimore and I have a few Toyota Dealers in my area. I've made another appointment for tomorrow at a different place. Over the phone they said they should be able to figure out the problem even with the lift so we shall see.

 

@BamaToy1997

 

Sounds like the first place is a good place to avoid!

 

Yeah, it was one of those Toyota CarMax dealerships. I should have know they wouldn't help me out.

 

Some of us at work were put through a training program called "Cranial Expansion". It was to help us to become more informed SME (Subject Matter Experts) in our area of work, to help us if we ended up on a team that wrote work instructions. Some of the material dealt with what the failure pattern of components looked like graphed out over time. Bearings experience an infant mortality rate early on then have a long predictable life until they ultimately fail. More and more these days in Industry bearing failure is detected using vibration analysis before the failure causes any lost production time. One issue about bearings was the tendency to "change them all" if one bearing in an assembly fails. This can expose the assembly to potential infant mortality of say 1 of 8 bearings changed...which may not be the one that originally failed.

On my 2004 Silverado I had a left front fail at about 90,000 miles and ten years age .....I followed the suggestion of the training that I was exposed to, and changed only the left front bearing, after checking the right one for excessive play. 50,000 miles later the right was still going strong.

IMHO it is worth jacking the vehicle up every oil change (if you have dealer change oil) and just try to wiggle the wheel and tire to see if the bearings are still in good shape. About a week before I heard any rumble or anything I started to experience some weird ABS stuff that was making me think a sensor was bad...abs would activate at low speed with brakes applied. Probably the sensor and ring were fouled by bearing debris or the air gap was not right due to bearing failure.

Wifes 2007 trailblazer a front wheel bearing failed (rumble) at 39,000 miles or so, dealer replaced both bearings under extended warranty.

The tires cost more than the bearing typically, and a failing bearing usually accelerates tire wear.

Bill

 

Wheel bearing was replaced under warranty by Toyota of Bowie. They are an awesome dealer and I would highly suggest them if your in the area. Truck drives so much better now. I think the bearing must have went out, or started to go out, several thousand miles ago.

Thanks for the all of the feedback and dialog throughout the process.