Explorer front wheel bearing $$ sticker shock.

- C
- CRAngelo
  
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posted
19 years ago

Thu, Sep 9, 2004 6:34 PM

I think I have front wheel bearings on one side going bad on my 95 Explorer 4x4. After shopping around for parts, I was shocked to find that prices range from $198.00 each side at Advance Auto Parts to over $250.00 per side at the dealer!! It seems that when replacing these front wheel bearings, Ford requires that everything (wheel hubs with lugs, speed sensor & bearings) must be replaced as an assembly. Has anyone found a source for remanufactured wheel bearing assemblies (new bearings only)? It seems to be a big waste to have to ditch everything just to get new wheel bearings. Ford really needs to have a better idea for this. Any input on this would be appreciated.--- Ray

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- Jim Warman
  
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posted
19 years ago

Fri, Sep 10, 2004 12:10 AM

The hubs are pressed into the bearings (and bearings into flanges) with sufficient force to make replacement of the bearings only difficult even for those with both experience and a hefty press. These sorts of assemblies have been commonplace for all manufacturers for many years. They reduce manufacturing and assembly costs on the production line as well as reducing warranty costs.

By utilizing these types of assemblies, we have gotten as close to zero maintenance on wheel bearings as we can get. They are vastly superior to the old "pack 'em every brake job" we used to have (IMHO) and the incidence of failure, in my experience, is much lower than other forms of support.

Let us not forget that even antifriction bearings are, in the end, sacrificial devices.....

YMMV

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- CRAngelo
  
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posted
19 years ago

Fri, Sep 10, 2004 1:12 AM

Thanks for the information, Jim. I sort of thought that there was no fixing them, only replacing them (just wanted to make sure). On the same subject, do you have any advice on how to diagnose which side is bad? The car has 113k on it & with the prices being what they are, I would hate to replace the wrong one. Maybe with 113k I should just go for both. Any help you can provide would be appreciated. Thanks again - Ray

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- Jim Warman
  
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posted
19 years ago

Fri, Sep 10, 2004 3:13 AM

Listening to the noise during cornering *usually* does the trick....If we turn left, we load the right side bearing and vice versa. Most times, the bad bearing will get noisier when loaded. There have been occasions where the loaded bearing will get quiet - simple solution...... replace the other wheel bearing with the one we initially thought was bad (I've never seen these things fail in pairs). I know how this must sound to those caught in the "the other one must have been bad, too..." trap.....

Had a trade-in Sunfire late last week that did just that...... the noise appeared to be left front but loading the left front made the noise go away. Discarding logic (nothing new at my age), I went with my gut and changed the left front. The noise went away (even though Sunfires have to be the worst at allowing road noise through). If I had been wrong, I would have taken that bearing and swapped it with the right front - no biggie.

HTH