WRX front wheel bearing failure...common?

Could the problem have anything to do with your email address (:

The rear wheel bearings on my '98 Outback Sport went out at 55K and 60K miles, and that is apparently a known problem with late 1990 models of the Outback Sport. But that doesn't affect the front bearings on these models...

My experience might still be instructive, though. Subaru Motor corporation categorically refused to issue a recall on these cars to replace the faulty wheel bearing assemblies. :/ They are not good about taking responsibility for design or manufacturing flaws on their cars. A pity, since the cars themselves are cool. :)

-- Catherine Hampton Home Page * The SpamBouncer *

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Not unreasonable mileages to be replacing wheel bearings. No problems on mine yet, though. Went through 66,666 last week.

David Betts snipped-for-privacy@motorsport.org.uk

Hi,

Seems most Subaru wheel bearing failures are on the rear--you can google "subaru wheel bearing" to learn way more than you might want to know! But you may be able to apply some of that knowledge to your front bearings.

In finding a "solution" to the rear bearing problem, it seems Subaru's come up with a "pre-packed" bearing they claim requires no further packing at installation. I look at that with a tremendous amount of skepticism, as do many others, since it appears Subaru doesn't put enough grease in to ensure long life. There are arguments on both sides of this issue.

But with that in mind, do you have a trusted independent mechanic who could possibly pull the outer grease seals and give you an educated opinion on whether there's adequate grease in your bearings? It might be worth a few bucks to do so, and correct a problem early if one's detected.

Some people don't think the mileage you've seen is bad... I don't either: I think it's attrocious! There are too many cars out there going

200k miles and more on a set of wheel bearings to believe 70k is "normal." At least in my opinion! (My fronts went over 300k, I lost one rear at about 250k miles, the other rear's still going at over 350k--but that's not on a WRX. Don't know if the extra power adds to the problem...)

Rick

I'm with Rick on bearing life. Have never had a bearing actually fail and I keep all my cars over 100k miles.

Replaced an 88 Sentra with >250k miles with an 00 OBW. Replaced the bearings at about the 240k mile point as they seemed a little noisy. Maintenance free bearing cartridges are the norm for front wheel drive and have been used on the rear axle as well on some cars for many yrs. This is not an Subaru exclusive or Subaru developed design.

I see these bearing as a + for the manufacturer as they eliminate the greasing and adj during manufacturer but they are a - to the end user. Bearing prices are high and requires a press to remove and replace. I cried when I had to pay someone to do the press work. Between the bearing and press work I had a little over $200 in to replacing all 4 bearings. With conventional bearings the job would have cost about a third.

Mickey

I hope Subaru knows that myself and others did not buy a Forrester for this very same reason. A $600 repair every 10k is not what I look for in a car.

Well, my 1998 FoRester just turned 200,000 miles last Sunday. The passenger side rear wheel bearing was replaced at 82,000 miles for a little over $400. All the other bearings remain factory original.

George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of youth that doth not grow stale with age." ---- J.W Muller

Hmmm...

$400 for wheel bearings in 200k miles doesn't seem unreasonable, assuming a bearing's about $25, there's an hour's labor per wheel at $75, and all four corners are done.

But bearings that, more often than chance would dictate, fail in

Every *10*K? It sounds like the Forrester had a much worse problem than my Outback Sport, then. Mine went out at 50K and 55K, as I recall. Which is way too soon, of course, but not to the same extent.

-- Catherine Hampton Home Page * The SpamBouncer *

(Please use this address for replies -- the address in my header is a spam trap.)

As near as I could tell with the Forester, those that had premature bearing failures had repeated failures, which points to a faulty bearing or carrier design or possible just bad alignment, and Subaru didn't cover any of them. That's why I went for the Rav4, it's slower but it's bulletproof as far as reliability, I still plan to get an Impreza wagon next time around if !@#$ Subaru hasn't priced them into BMW M3 territory by then.

Anyone remember when the Subaru sales slogan was "Inexpensive, and built to stay that way?" Apparently Subaru doesn't... :D

Rick