Front wheel bearing assemblies

Mr. Dealership says I need to replace both front bearings and wants to charge me my kidney to replace. Watched some videos and read some guides, seems easy enough. Instead of buying the bearings and having someone press them I would just rather buy the assembly and bolt on. Best bang for the buck on these? A1 has a set for about $150 but I don't really know who is more or less reliable in their parts than the next guy. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

2011 DCSB V6

 

I used Dorman full assemblies last time. Theyre excellent quality. no issues with them at all.
https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-87449-950-001.aspx

 

When mine go I plan on replacing with these. Expensive, but you get what you pay for.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/wheel-bearings-hubs-press-service-4x4-prerunner-nsk.537080/

 

Spray some penetrating oil on stuff a day or two before you start and do it yourself. Have a torque wrench ready for the axle nut. Not tough IF nothing is welded (rusted) in place as mine was. Local garage wanted $800 to do mine; I told them to put the wheels back on and park it out front! I saved myself a LOT of money and have the satisfaction of knowing I did it and did it right.

 

Here's a member that sells a quality product:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/wheel-bearings-hubs-press-service-4x4-prerunner-nsk.537080/

EDIT: Didn't realize @ryfox0276 posted the same link...oops.

 

I installed dorman wheel bearing assemblies on mine and haven’t had any issues. If you can change brake pads, you can do it.

 

I went ahead and replaced the entire hub Assembly since I didn’t have easy access to a press.
Hardest part was torquing the axle nut to spec.

 

I second contacting 05Taco4x4 fast response and good service.

 

I’m a traitor and went the Amazon route.

 

1 year on 05Taco4x4 assembles hubs, about 12k miles and they’re as good as when I installed them. I’ll probably cheap out at 200k when they go bad again...but who knows, maybe the reason they all let loose, consistently for almost everyone at 100k miles, is because the axel nuts were never torqued on to begin with. I put a witness mark on mine before loosening..when I reassembled it, I didn’t like how loose it was, so I ended up actually torquing it... went way past my witness mark. Not really a safety problem cause of the cotter pin, so we’ll never know. It’ll be interesting to see if the problem repeats for the 3rd gen crew.

 

Yep...purchase through this guy like many of us did...makes the swap easy peasy. He uses quality parts, ships super fast, excellent packaging, great communication. Many TW members have used him with the same positive experience. I'm only aware of a single occurrence where someone was not 100% satisfied and after reading the whole shitshow on his thread, I personally disagree with that customer's perspective, attitude, and expectations and think the seller did everything that could be expected of him.

 

Just note that this supplier has been down for a while, has a large waiting list, and had to substitute bearings due to a national shortage.

 

You can install Dorman parts if you want, but beware. Generally speaking, Dorman is the Harbor Freight of auto parts. Personally, I wouldn't put a Dorman part in anything I own.

 

Those hubs must smell like plasticides and heavy machine oil as soon as the box is opened... haha. JJ. HF is ok for some tools.

 

Dorman isn't exactly known for high quality parts, but maybe their bearing and hubs are ok. I guess in a few years we'll have more feedback as the Dorman units get some miles on them.

I've pressed apart 4 front wheel bearings, 3 of them were bad, and from looking at the failures, it looks like it's not the bearings themselves being too small, or similar bearing design issue, it looks like it's a seal and lubrication issue. The failed bearings are all dry. The good one has grease- of course. The outer seal is a face seal and only seals against the back of the hub. It doesn't circumferentially seal to the hub. The inside seal circumferentially seals to the CV and the CV also has a metal shield. Over time, water probably enters thru the outer face seal and eventually gets thru the bearing seal and washes out the grease. Either way, I don't see ~100k mile front wheel bearing changes going away, even with OE replacements, because they'll be dry again in about the same miles. In addition, the outer seal wears a groove in the hub, so it's probably a good idea to use a new hub. With the time it took, and the wear on the hub seal surface, I don't think I'd press them apart again. For a DIY, I think I'd just buy OE bearings again and next time an aftermarket hub and seal and press it together myself.

Eventually I'll post some failed bearing pics.

 

Ahhh,

A quick read through his thread doesn’t show a large wait list. Looks like he keeps his customers in the loop and updated when they ship out.

He let his customers know he was moving and would be down for a few weeks recently...

Further, he reports a national backorder on NSK bearings and has switched (while reducing $$) to Koyo bearings. Google Koyo bearings to see how they’re rated..

 

Having just done this, I put a supposed Koyo bearing in 3 years ago. This time I bought OEM, the real ones are supposed to be serialized on the edge according to a member here.

Try getting one from @05Taco4x4 first, if he is out of stock or long wait (as some have suggested), it can be found here https://www.ebay.com/itm/151386954892

The one problem I had getting the bearing off after unscrewing the bolts was getting the cv axle pushed through the hub, use a puller like below and it comes out easy. I also had a cross threaded axle nut, they're cheap, buy 1 or 2 from your local auto parts store.

 

I'm also generally not a fan of Dorman... the HF analogy is pretty spot on IMO. I sell it at work, and I think everything of theirs that they're not just reboxing good stuff (and they rarely do that) is Chinese white box crap and you're paying for warranty.

That said, pretty sure one of mine is getting noisy, and I'm considering buying a Dorman at work. Then I can jam it on in my driveway, and go press my old hub into a good new bearing, on my own schedule. My biggest hangup there is I wouldn't mind not doing the job an extra time to replace the Dorman with my own handiwork, but I wouldn't mind not having a Dorman on there long-term... it'd rather piss me off to have it go bad quickly and strand me or otherwise require replacing it ASAP.

 

Has anyone tried the TRQ (Trusted Reliable Quality) brand? I'm interested to hear long term reviews from them, seeing as I just installed them a couple weeks back

 

I bought OE bearings (Toyota box) a few weeks ago online for ~$130 each and they were NSK. No serial number, just a PN

If you have an air hammer, a pointed bit works great on pushing the axle thru the hub. It's also great for separating tie rods, ball joints, etc. I put the nut back on and use the pointy bit and it breaks things free in seconds. With that and an impact wrench you can pull the steering knuckle in a few minutes once you have the bearing and hub off​

edit for pic: