Bad wheel bearing

Replaced this bearing about 20k miles ago or less from a vendor on here, well it lasted about 15k or less! I have two theories as to why it failed so quick, one is water got in it and caused it to fail and two, when i installed it i did not torque the hub nut down, i just hit it with the impact several times and caused the abs ring to press against the abs sensor and wear it away and allow the dust to get into the bearing area and smoke it. Back in May I got an ABS and traction light on the way back to VA from FL, it went away but the next day it sounded like metal on metal rattling around in the front passenger hub, I drove it short distances and noticed it would go away after I went a few miles, well its gotten progressivly worse. I orignally thought it was the needle bearing that finally failed and was causing all the noise, or the passanger side bearing had failed, was not thinking it was the wheel bearing because it was practically new, well months later I got another ABS and traction light and did some more research and determined it was the wheel bearing. I took it apart today to swap it out with a good one and this is what I found.

 

This is the ABS sensor, im going to replace it eventually, but so far its not causing any problems, im anticipating it will in the future though!

 

I had a new Oring in place, I just didnt torque that side properly, I did the drivers side at a different time and it was torqued right, this bearing was replaced at a buddies house and I didnt have my torque wrench so i just ugga chuggaed it with my impact, guess i gave it one to many ugga chuggas LOL

 

You have no ABS Light on currently?

I replaced mine about 20k ago.
I can hear the left front going out again.
I have the whole assembly. Just haven’t put it in yet?
Maybe my ABS sensor is what caused mine to go out so early?

 

In my opinion, this is caused by people who are too lazy to replace BOTH inner seals. There is 1 seal that goes on the CV joint and 1 seal that goes into the knuckle. 1st line of defense against water and 2nd line of defense against water. If the previous bearing has gone long enough to make noise, the seals definitely have some wear on them. If the previous bearing has gone long enough to have play in the bearing, the seals are TRASHED.

 

Thats what was making me think that water intrusion smoked the bearing, I did not replace that inner seal, I even have the replacement inner seals, but didn't replace them. Im going to be replacing them when I lift the truck in the next few months.

I do think this problem was caused by over torquing the axle nut though and not water intrusion in the seal. The original bearings had 100k+ on them, and where replaced because I thought they where bad, but they where not, its the needle bearing that was actually causing the noise prior to replacement.

 

Hard to tell, my ABS/VSC light popped on, as soon as i turned onto my dirt road from a 20 mile drive on pavement, that night the front end was making zero noise so it was kinda odd when the lights came on. I hopped on the google and found from this site that the ABS throws codes, and it can be a few different things one of them being a gummed up sensor. I knew something was wrong up front anyways but I was thinking it was coming from the axle bearings up front not the wheel bearings when I saw that, I knew it was the wheel bearing was makng all the noise, so I pulled it today and was right. Ive been trying to figure this noise out for a few months now, the sound it made was not the typical wheel bearing going bad, grinding/growling noise. The noise this was making sound more like a piece of wire/metal hitting the brake splash plate, or if the splash plate was lose and hitting the wheel type noise, higher pitched than a grinding/growling noise if that makes sense.

 

Hub bearings are sensitive to torque. Too tight or too loose will cause premature failure. Those shavings may be fr the bearing itself if it was over torqued. I had a prius bearing come In looking like that.

 

I do think that over torque was the cause of failure to this bearing. If you see the bearing you will notice its missing a couple roller bearings from it LOL I think I over torqued it it causing the ABS ring to rub on the sensor, which caused alot of fine debris which got into the bearing and smoked the bearing, then i drove on it long enough to wear down several of those roller bearings, there was some metal in the bearing when those metal seals came out. Speaking of which I literally just pulled them apart with zero effort to expose the roller bearings.

 

Overtightening the hub nut is not going to move the bearing closer to the wheel speed sensor. The wheel speed sensor got trashed from the bearing failure and junk flying around. So, whether the bearing failure was caused by water intrusion or improper torque, is kind of irrelevant at this point. Replace both inner seals, the bearing, hub, outer seal, O ring and wheel speed sensor. The OEM wheel speed sensors are about $200 each for that stupid little piece of plastic. Cheap Chinese sensors are about $20/pair. I stepped up and bought the $90 each Beck Arnley sensors from Rock Auto. What level of sacrifice you choose to make on ABS sensors is up to you.

 

As for the abs sensor, I’ve had good luck with Napa ones. Oem is stupid expensive.

 

This ^ . It doesn't look like water got in as there's no rust; so the failure may have been from too much torque. But the inner seal has certainly been compromised now by all the metal particles. I personally think the outer seal is the weak point of the design as it's only a single face seal.

 

Shit don’t have my torque wrench, screw it, give me the impact.

 

You can (shouldbe able to) borrow one from a local auto parts store

 

I broke that little sensor last week doing axle seal. $189 for a "cheap" one.

 

Another thing I noticed the on chain store CV shafts the axle nut is castellated for the cotter pin so regardless of the torque the hole has to be lined up for the cotter pin to go in.......

 

Damn! I broke one wheeling like 3 years ago and found one for $16 on Amazon and it’s worked ever since.

 

LOL 150ftlbs is no joke!

OEM shafts are cotter keyed also, this was on an OEM CV shaft, and the cotter pin hole was lined up! lol, wonder what the torque differences is from one notch on the castellated nut to the next!

Just putting this out there, the CV axle does have play in and out, not sure how far you can get it to move outwards towards the bearing and if it will cause pressure on the bearing if enough torque is applied to cause the bearing seals to rub on the bearings, but I am pretty sure the that over torque was the cause of this bearing to fail.

Although it could have been a shit bearing to begin with, it happens with quality parts, could be a cause but I dont think so. It also could have been an issue with the assembly, it was a complete hub/bearing purchased from a vendor on here, but again, I think this was just caused by me being lazy and not torquing the axle nut to spec.

 

OEM is not a castle nut. It's a flanged nut and a tin thing that goes over the top. There's a mismatched number of slots and hex flats, so after you torque the nut, you try different positions with the tin thing till a slot lines up with the hole.

 

That's right lol, I was on muscle relaxers last night when I replied to that I forgot about that stupid tin nut. Either way, my point is its possible to over torque (or under torque) with a castled nut or the tin lock washer.

On a side note though the truck rides smooth as can be now, no abs issues, no vibrations, squealing or rattling around lol. I will be replacing the needle bearing soon when I lift the truck.