Rear wheel bearings: how many decibels?

My 2001 Forester with 117K miles has come down with an obvious case of the rear wheel bearing blues. For the past 15K miles the noise has been getting louder and I wonder how far I can safely drive the car before it becomes essential to replace them. Somebody said in a thread here that the noise gets really loud, but I read that posting a long time ago and I doubt if I could find it in the many, many threads here about the infamous bearing problem.

-- Charles Packer

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Reply to
Charles Packer
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You can probably drive for several months before it gets too bad. About 5 years ago my 2000 forester had the right rear go bad, I drove it way too long on a trip home, and wound up replacing a lot of other parts that it had chewed into. Don't wait too long. It really does get loud, though before it gets that bad.

Reply to
Tim Conway

Is the rear wheel bearing a recurring issue only with AWDs and RWDs but not with FWDs?

Reply to
Cameo

I don't know, but my 2000 is making the noise again which means I'll soon be replacing mine again - about 40k miles after the first time.

Reply to
Tim Conway

Charles Packer wrote in news:bbdface3-8212-43d8-a939- snipped-for-privacy@i13g2000yqd.googlegroups.com:

I just had to replace a rear wheel bearing on my '03 Forester last spring. I ran it for about 10,000 miles before the noise got so loud I couldn't stand it any more and decided to drop the coin to have it replaced. Before I had the work done, though, I'd periodically raise the car and try to shake the wheel. Other than the noise which got so bad the family refused to ride in the car, I was never to able to detect the bearing failure via any other method. If I'd have been willing to put up with the droning, I imagine it could have gone for quite a while longer.

On a related note, the fact that the bearing failed at less than 60K miles just added another reason to the growing list of reasons I'll never buy another Subaru vehicle. I can't believe how many Subaru owners are willing to accept this kind of poor engineering and/or build quality as just part of the "Subaru experience".

- Snuffy -

Reply to
Mike Bender

I was asking because I never had this problem with my '94 Honda Accord that has almost 300 K miles in it. On the other hand I did have to replace the rear wheel bearings on my prior RWD vehicles (VW Beetle and Toyota Corolla.)

Reply to
Cameo

Maybe it's the influence of Consumer Reports, which has consistently ranked Subaru as among the most reliable of cars. I have a theory about how _that_ came to be: The people who repond to their surveys are well-heeled folks who buy Subarus as extra cars and then don't drive them much. By and by, they decide to shed the unneeded asset, and folks like me answer their Craiglist ads. We're the ones who find that after 60K miles all the famous problems come up: rear wheel bearings, front axle boots, center differential, head gasket.

-- Charles Packer

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Reply to
Charles Packer

Consumer Reports adjusts their reliability ratings according to mileage and such as I remember. I think they ask people to rate cars seven years old or less though. It's been awhile since I bothered to fill out one of those surveys.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

There is a specific procedure to follow and an updated part. The concentricity of the knuckle must be checked.

Dave

Reply to
Dave__67

If you've been hearing the bearing grumbling for 15K miles, it's time to replace the bearing. Once the bearing is audible it's advisable to replace it sooner rather than later. I did the rear on mine recently about 5K km after the noise was noticeable. There's the bearing and 3 seals. The outer two protect the bearing, and the inner one protects the CV axle stub. If this has ingested dirt and water the sealing surface on the axle stub can be corroded, and you'll ideally need a replacement axle as well.

If you are planning on doing this yourself, you will need an appropriate bearing extractor/replacer tool, otherwise the whole knuckle has to be removed so the bearing can be pressed out and the new one pressed in. The two lower control arms are connected to the knuckle with one long 14mm (?) bolt. These bolts often rust solid in the knuckle, and require some persuasion to remove. One way is to heat the knuckle with an oxy torch. This bolt has to be removed so the axle can pulled out of the hub.

Otherwise, have the dealer do it.

SD

Reply to
Stewart DIBBS

Supposedly, it is extremely important to replace the bearing in a proper press. I've read reports of replacement bearings going bad soon after installation. Oh, and at one time, there was confusion as to whether the bearing was pre-greased or just had some protective 'cosmolene-type' stuff on it. Maybe someone here will know - if in doubt, install your own grease.

Reply to
1 Lucky Texan

They don't just go louder and louder indefinetely. I'd say replace them once they become loud.

Basia

Reply to
abjjkst

Reply to
zwols

The problem with your approach is that right now, your wheel bearing replacement is probably quite cheap--perhaps just the cost of someone slapping some greased up new bearings in.

If you delay that fix and wait for them to fail and explode, as happened to a friend of mine on a minivan, shrapnel generated from that catastrophic bearing failure may well take out some rather pricey ABS components and suddenly your $X repair will now cost $10*X or even more.

Reply to
idfixitnow

Reply to
Robert L. Wilson

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