Re: Vibration Kills

Peter,

How did you arrive at this conclusion? Wheel bearing failures are a common source of discussion on Subie groups, but this is the first time I've heard out of round tires causing the problem. Not that they couldn't, but I'd think wheel bearing failure would come AFTER shock and suspension bushing wear was significant enough you would feel the vibration enough to stop and investigate (ever drive next to someone with an out of round tire or a broken shock and watched the tire bounce?) In other words, bearing failure would be the LAST in a series of "warnings."

We've discussed wheel bearings several times here, and IME one major source of failure is improper lubrication. There are lots of theories on what IS proper--you might want to do a search on "Subaru wheel bearing" to find some of the discussions on other groups, too. One of the things you'll find is a major disagreement between techs and Subaru on the subject of whether the factory grease is adequate.

You also didn't mention which tires you got from Sears. They sell everything from house branded Michelins down to price leader Brazilian made promos. My tire guy also sells some cheapo Brazilian tires (not ALL Brazilian tires are bad!), but won't let me buy any from him--he's mentioned out of round and balancing problems many times. He's even matched the price for me with better tires--it's that much of an issue with him.

Good luck with Sears...

Rick

Rick, I think you should add grease seal failure (water entering the bearings) as one important cause of bearing failure. Sooner or later those seals wear and...

Yes...

This is one of the "identified" problems that's been discussed on some boards. Makes me wonder if it's really common cuz I've never seen it to be a real problem with other cars. Of course, I live in a very dry area (SoCal) so the only time most bearings I see are exposed to water is if someone's been offroad and fording streams! ;)

Rick