Why is my truck eating wheel bearings

All,

My 2014 DCSB TRD OR 4x4 has gone through 3 sets of wheel bearings over the last year. The originals made it to about 85k, then I did the Dorman hub replace which got noisy after about 200 miles, then got a set from a member here and those have now started making noise. It’s the same symptoms every time - rumbling noise under braking and squirrely tracking on the highway. After I put new bearings in, all is well for awhile and then it starts up again. I have decided I’m just going to hold out and wait until they are REALLY bad before replacing.

I know this is a weak point on the truck but how can it be this weak?! What could possibly cause it to wear out wheel bearings like this?

 

Are you properly torquing the axle nuts?

 

Is it both sides or just one side?

 

Yes. I am pretty meticulous on my work and I have a good torque wrench.

 

@TnShooter Mainly the right side

 

Are you running offset wheels?

 

Nope. Bone stock.

 

Are you sure it's the bearings going bad and not something else, typically bearings will make noise all the time when they fail and not just while braking.

 

Pretty sure. All symptoms go away when I change them. Front end tightens back up and no noise under braking.

I’ve kind of just figured I’ll go until something really seriously starts going out. I thought it might be the brakes, but the noise under braking is clearly bearing noise. It’s a whirly rumble that changes pitch as I slow down and sounds exactly like what I imagine wheel bearings rumbling around in a cage under load would sound like.

I thought maybe alignment, but my tires are wearing evenly and I had an alignment done when I got new tires about 49k miles ago. I off road a bit when camping but nothing serious. 99.9% of the miles are on the highway/freeway.

At this point, I’m out of ideas. I switched the shocks a while back for Billy 4600s, and they are a bit stiffer than the POS stock shocks, but not THAT stiff.

I have a really good alignment shop near me. If the World can’t steer me in the right direction, I’ll go there and see what he has to say.

Thanks to all for the input.

 

That was my thought too.
Sounds like and alignment issue maybe at play?

Or possibly a brake issues since the noise happens when braking. And it goes away for a short time AFTER you take the caliper off to replace the bearings.

 

Any squirellyness from a wheel bearing would mean loooots of play, wheel bearings dont care if your braking or accelerating. As long as the wheels are rotating, theyre making noise.

 

When you remove the old bearing hub assembly, does it feel rough when you rotate it by hand?
I replaced mine a few months ago and did the second one a couple of weeks ago. Both stock units I pulled out didn't feel too bad on the bench, but I'm thinking I'll try rebuilding them one day for spares.

 

Maybe seals are not seated properly. Sometimes the O-ring on the bearing assembly does not seal properly. This happened on one of my bearings, so I now put silicone sealant on the brake shield, fore and aft.

 

You can also have a knuckle that is deformed and when it is torqued, it puts a unusual load on the bearing. Are you putting in complete units with the bolts and wheel flange put together or are you pressing in the flange?

 

I still have the factory bearings in my 07 with 227,000 miles. There is something else wrong with the truck causing the bearings to go bad. Or you drive it like you stole it.

Having the factory bearings go at 85,000 might just be a fluke, sometimes bad parts get through. But for them to consistently go bad means something else.

 

Water and corrosion are the first things to cause this.

I went through tons of cheap bearings on my XJ when I had it.

Toyota bearings are a lot more robust, but offroaders still eat front bearings.

Last thing is bearing quality.

I would put these premature failures on the bearings, next time get OEM, or Koyo. I've installed hundreds for an offroading shop and neither had quick failures. Should last 100,000 miles no issue.

 

What torque are you using? Is there much rust on the spindles that could keep the seals from sealing?

 

Are you replacing the backside knuckle seals with OEM, greasing them and verifying that the CV stub shoulder isn't grabbing the seal lip and folding it over?

Are your CV axle stub seal plates in good shape?

Are your CV axles OEM?

Are your knuckles OEM?

Are you lifted and have you done the ECGS needle bearing replacement?

What kind of driving/off-roading do you do?

 

So I recently replaced the complete wheel bearing hub assembly on my driver side. Once I was done and putting everything back, went around the neighborhood to make sure everything sounded good and felt normal again. It did until I left to work and started hearing this loud scrapping noise. First I thought omg the new hub assembly has bad bearings! Drove back home after work and waited to inspect it in the morning. Took it apart once again, spinned the hub to see if it was bad but nothing bad occurred. No resistance or visual evidence that it was faulty. I put it back on the truck and decide to give it a few turns before I took it to the shop and let someone else figure it out. First few rotations nothing, but I kept going increasing the speed and then the nosie appeared again. It seems I slightly bent the break shield to the rotor and that was the cause of what I thought was the new hub having bad bearings. After I bent the break shield back everything was back to normal. Hopefully this helps.

 

That is “kind of” normal if your aim is off with the BFH.
You aren’t the first and won’t be the last