My wheel bearing has gone bad. There is a loud hum in the the back seat of my car. I know its not the tires if anybody suggests that.
I just had a few questions.
What would cause the wheel bearing to go bad?
What is there life expectency.
Is there a write up on how to change the bearing. I know its not just the bearing but the hub has to be changed as well.

Thanks

 

mine was filled with water . with 100K on it.

drive down the road at speed where the noise is most noticable. jerk the wheel one way, if the sound disappears for a second its on that side. if it doesnt jerk the wheel the other way, same thing.

1. remove wheel
2. loosen hub nut (32mm)
3. remove brake caliper and braket
4. remove rotor
5. pop hub off. comes off like nothing.(hub and bearing is an assembly on the rear) about $90 at advance auto)
6. replace in reverse order

 

The hub reall just pops off? Of course with a little banging. But nothing else is holding the hub?

 

Yes, the rear hub comes off once you remove the (4) 14mm nuts holding the hub to the knuckle. It'll take some convincing to come off, but it'll come off.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bb_one &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yes, the rear hub comes off once you remove the (4) 14mm nuts holding the hub to the knuckle. It'll take some convincing to come off, but it'll come off.</TD></TR></TABLE>

you are talking about the spindle. the hub/wheel bearing just slides off the spindle.

 

make sure you clean the spindle off so theres no dirt, dust etc. i replaced mine with my buddy and it took less then an hour! very easy fix.

 

the one poblem i had, was that the back past of the old bearing was rusted onto the spindle. that was a pain to get off

 

if you use different size rims, usually bigger then what factory recommend. what happens is that your camber is off and putting some much weight on the bearings, it will kill them in no time, like a year or so.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jjr_99prelude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i replaced mine with my buddy and it took less then an hour! very easy fix. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah very easy fix. Sucks that it's a $100 dollar part though. IIRC the only hard part was getting the axle nut loosened.