Ok well recently I noticed the same side (drivers) wheel bearing I replaced about a year ago seemed bad again. I have been hesistant to just buy another one to replace it with until I can get under the car and inspect since I was in disbelief anyway because it was relatively new....well I got under her and sure enuff its the damm bearings again on the same side.

The axle really does not seem bad. And does not make any noises when turning or none of the usual bad axle indicators. In hindsight I should have maybe held the axle shaft and then spin the wheel to try to get a feel for just how much play it does have. I did however find manuf date on or I should say likely reman. date.....and it was for 2006.

I checked and double checked the big nut that holds the axle through the bearing and it too was not loose or anything. With still no explanation I decided to just draw it conceptually and quite ugly I might add on paper...technically if the axle is pinned down fairly tight within torque specs or in my opinion even possibly tighter....a loose or play having/Worn axle should not create the kind of disturbance to cause a bearing to wear and give.....since it is also aligned with the transmissions outputs the shaft so long as it maintains inside that alignment WORN or NOT should not really vibe or shudder enuff to damage bearings.

Then the obvious hit me.
This should be all true so long as the Transmission does NOT give from it's intended position!!
The transmission being afixed to the engine....and the engine being afixed in it's place by it's engine mounts to the chassis.....and of those mounts I beleive the most critical is the rear. OF Which is exactly the replacement I have(in shed) and know I've been needing to get to for over a year.
So in my opinion it should definitely be possible that if the engine has a bad rear motor mount which would allow it to shift or rock back and forth ...i think it would lead to the bigger axle of the two definitely transferring that rocking to the bearing....this would be more of an exaggerated rocking/slapping; in and out of alignment rocking than a simple Worn cv joint could produce....this knocking out of alignment from the shafts intended path might be enough to over some time short or long....ruin a driver side bearing. And perhaps not so much the passenger because the passenger is just so short that it may not transfer this out of alignment rocking as easily as its longer counterpart on the other side.

What do you guys think?

This is my 2nd swap out....for a total of #3 to be installed.
Please tell me what you guys think...or if anyone out there has just experienced this to just be the fugn axle in its entirety.

 

You have obviously put more thought into this than I have, but I don't see how some extra engine play results in a damaged bearing. The axle absorbs all these motions by design. In addition your motor Is only rocking once per acceleration change and it rocks in the plane the axle spins so I don't see how that would hurt the bearing.

 

Not so sure it's designed to absorb that kind of shock...as opposed to its designed to more allow it to spin from different angles as the wheels move up and down during suspension.

The motor rocking back and forth would not really be an angle...since one head of the axle is going into the tranny then that head would lead the axles shaft and at some point transfer some of this impact to the other head inside the bearing.

Now I do see what your saying about the engine rocking once per change....I thought that as well....
But I cannot see if the engine is truly rocking back or not while the car is coasting or driving.....if it is then it would not just rock as you and I may think it does only from a stop at a light and such. It may rock as the driver decellarates and re-accellerates as well. Multiplying the "impacts" more than just once.
I've done internet research and other ppl have bumped into this problem as well on different model cars...but it is the bermuda triangle of car problems no explainations as well.

 

Hmm. I can picture small shock to the splined hub/axle because of a bad mount and even still maybe not much more than a motor with a good mount. Those acceleration forces still have to go somewhere with a good mount or bad. But I can't picture the "shock" to the bearing. If there's a "shock" to the bearing, like some sort of temporary stall, that "shock" would also be present at the tire, and I would imagine you would be hearing and feeling all kinds of weird things if that was the case.

I guess what I'm saying is that the bearing spins free from the axle. Bearing only bears the weight of the vehicle and support the transition between the moving wheel and the sprung suspension. Seems to me all forces would be absorbed by hub/control arms/tie rod...leading you to feel something in the steering wheel. Even with a small jolt the wheel will still be spinning freely with no effect on the rolling bearing.

Maybe I'm overlooking something here.

I've seen bearings die for two reasons:
1) age obviously
2) heat - and this heat is from a dragging brake pad.

I'd love to know the conclusion. Interesting issue.

 

i do not see how transmission movement could cause any kind of shock to the bearing as the axle shaft will slide in and out and has a fair bit of lateral movement possible as well.

 

I guess if engine mount play can only be so much and that adds up to as little as you describe it....then this should be fairly impossible.

Those 2 reasons you posted are definitely not the ones in my case. And no there is no temporary stalling ...just as the play got worst you could feel a vibe at certain speeds which is what prompted me to discover it was bad again.

I just hate the fact that there is no explanation. Id like to cure it before just replacing.

Im going to get a hold of a torque wrench this time when i tighten down the axle nut...so there can be no excuses. I really dont want to do the blasted rear motor mount until its colder.
I do see what your saying about them absorbing to some degree...but Im also viewing that as the engine would shift it's the whole head of the axle on the tranny side that is shifting with it....so that would transfer to some kind of movement beyond the scope of the cvJoint to sort of push the shaft and the outer shafts head forward or backwards in whatever direction engine was doing. But like you said it could only be so much.

I suppose a better explanation maybe over-torque-ing. Just sounds like bullchit tho. Even if it gets me off the hook of the blasted rear motor mount again.

The phenomena in my case HAS to be one of these:

Over torqueing or under. (ahh I used my favorite torque arm my own to just a nudge over pretty fugn tight = 180-210lbs imo)
Really bad rear motor mount. (def. is pretty bad)
Bad axle shaft. (cant confirm)
Really bad wheel balancing.(this has not been done in a long long while)

U gotta checklist for symptoms to find if an axle is bad or not? It does not seem to "ker-klack" bad which is my usual test. Or during turns...
Altho I forgot to do it with my hands and spin tire back and forth when I had it jacked up.

edit:
to try to further explain a little to you guys...the outer head of the axle shaft is pinned down with the big nut. So it is able to rotate thanks to the bearings but it is for all intents "fixed" in its location. SO is the other head but onto the tranny. IF the tranny were to move enuff to take up the "slop" of the 2 joints (big ball bearings on the inside) between the inner and outer heads joined by the middle shaft to both heads....then this movement once the slop was taken out would definitely impose onto the outer head and thereby impose onto the bearing....and it could do so I think without an announcement or alarming noise...as well as gradually.

the big question would be is the engine/tranny moving enuff to take up the slop afforded from the 2 joints to do what my suggestion attempts to explain?

 

remember the head end of the cv shaft is designed to be able to handle the full turning angle of the wheel while rolling and bouncing up and down a rough surface. to go beyond that you would need to have some very serious problems with the car such as having been in a really bad accident and poorly repaired (and other problems would come up), usually if the turn angle goes too far the axle shaft just pulls out of the cup and falls apart. for the engine to move enough to do damage it would also be hitting the firewall or bouncing off the radiator.

 

Mayhem J30 is right, the CV axles are designed to take up any side to side motion. the inner joint is a telescoping joint and can extend almost 2 inches! you could remove a mount altogether and wouldn't get this amount of movement.

there is no "hammering" effect of the axles on the bearings.

this issue seems to be unique to your vehicle though. have you done both of the previous bearing replacements yourself? could you describe your methods? maybe in that the root cause will be realized.

 

Ok then it would seem the motor mount is out of the picture.
Hondamark35. I bought the bearings I beleive online they were not the cheapies...and then I had them pressed on also not cheap at a reputeable shop for like 40 bucks a pop if not for both. The passenger side was done just to do things in pairs but it too just like now was not damaged. ( i shoulda kept the ones they pressed out)

Other than that I re-assembled. And re-used the existing axleshaft....now I faintly rememberd but there seemed to be I think some kind of metal ring a big ring like 3 or 4 inches wide and its not clear but for some reason it seemed to have come off the axle head and had been rattling loose for a long time in between the bearing surface and the axle head(stuck but loose) and it made a lot of noise. I work on lots of cars and mix up which one is which in memory but I think that may have been this car. Anyway I did not put that ring back on....I dont know what the hell it was or for...and Could not secure it for it stay put and did not want the rattling. When I mocked set the axle through the hub it did not seem to need or have a gapping space withoout it and seemed perfectly fine without it so I left it out. I hope im not mistaken or confused I had never seen any crap like that before and didnt think much of it to leave it out. But it would have been on this same side with this same axle and it would have been I guess some sort of spacer ring that may have been pressed on to the end of the axle side and the hub or bearing basically would sandwich it. It some how came loose and had been rattling for a long time and made me sick to imagine putting it back on and it coming loose again.

I arm torqued the axle nut but often times in life I've gone back and borrowed a torque wrench only to find out my arm torque was dead on or close enuff to specs. its why i dont think thats the problem.

I cant think of any other components on my part of the installation that would be due to me. I guess its possible the bearings just failed.

what do u think about if the wheels are horribly off balanced ? It doesnt drive bad or pull or L or R....tires are wearing even....it does have a vibe about 75 but above that and below smooths out.

If the play has to be that magnificent as you guys say then yea it cant be what I was suggesting.

Ill try to recollect some more about that ring and make sure it wasnt a toyota i had awhile back........be back later.

 

Replace your Hub next time before you put in a new bearing

 

First thing I would do is make sure your axle isnt bent!! Then make sure all your control arms and bushings are in properly and not bent,broke or torn!!.

 

Thank you. This is in the works.

The fender on this side is not the original....I am betting that although the car's chassis is in perfect shape....it mustof been in some form of an accident....the culprit is just like you said the hub.
If it's warped or out of shape in anyway....it would eat up the bearing.

I tried to order from partsgeek.com and they sent it without the hub....let me tell u about their customer service......u can go down a mud hill onto razors and feel more gratified.....never again...first and last time all in one.

I scored it locally for 40 bux.

This is all I wanted something that explained and made some sense.

I am going to check on the outer side of that axle being straight as well. Although as some of you pointed out the axle has some play and slack to sort of dance around in previous theories...i would assume that true here too.
Either way anyone have a good method to checking it being straight?
I probably won't be removing it out of the tranny or the car....so I may just lean a straith edge on it from under the car. and if there's a noticeable gap then it would be bent.

My bets on the hub being distorted and the weight of the wheel spinning on it is ruining the bearing. Apparently not enuff to destroy the tire. I'll look at the tires closer tho.

Thanks all and thanks doom.

 

I was told in class that the axle nut and lug nuts can have a huge impact on the bearing preload if it isn't torque to spec meaning tighter than it should. So everything must be torque to manufacturer specs; otherwise, it can ruin the wheel bearing.

But, people use impact gun with torque stick everyday, and don't seem to have any problems with wheel bearing failing though, so I guess in your case, check into this!