wheel bearing replace again 2006 Trailblazer

RayP(MI)

Well-known Member
Seems like I'm replacing front wheel bearings on my wife's Trailblazer almost on a yearly basis. Did it again today. This time I opted for the more expensive "lifetime" (3 year guarantee) ones. One I took off was hardly rusty, all fittings came off easily, so not on car for long. Was noisy and grating when turned off the car. Sounded like tire noise when driven. Car has about 190,000 miles. To keep it tractor related, pulled a trailer with aFarmall 200 last week.

Any others having trouble with premature bearing failure?
 
It's just the way things are, now. Front bearings in lots of cars and trucks seem to need replacing every 60 to 80 thousand miles. Name brand bearings (timkin, etc.) do seem to last longer. Store brands have been a waste of money to me.
 
Ya every time I get the cheap ones. If I get the good ones from NAPA I don't have any problems with them.
 
I have a Saturn Vue that goes through a wheel bearing about every year. It seems to make little difference if it is high priced ones or the lower cost ones. The right goes out about two to one when compared to the left.
 
Ray, I'm sure you know what you're doing, you've done it enough, but I had to laugh when a friend was complaining about his going out shortly after replacing it. He said it was only 6 months old and growling again. I asked if he torqued it, he said, "yeah, I stood on the ratchet handle, that's what the parts guy told me to do, good and tight". Even though they warrantied the hub assy, he was mad he had to change it again. I told him to be sure to actually get the torque spec this time around.
 
Bearing on these is a complete sealed unit complete with electronic sensor. - just bolts up to wheel suspension framework and stub axle like a front wheel drive car. No chance of tightening bearing too tight, lubing, etc.

Told store clerk I wanted the one with grease in it this time!
 
NO reason for bearing failures that often.

Are you torquing the axle nuts to "spec"? Loose is no good, overdoing it can distort things, throwing off intended bearing preload.

Is "someone" awful rough about hitting the curb with it?
 
The axle nut can be tightened too tight and cause premature bearing failure. Cheaper hubs are softer and distort when over torqued. SKF is the OE on those, they have a spacer that helps keep over torquing from damaging the bearing. Under torquing is just as bad, the torque load keeps the bearing together. Those bearings will come apart if axle nut is loose.
 
Still running the original wheel bearings on my 97 Blazer. Something around 165000 km on it. Bearings fine but front rotors vibrate something awful on braking so I need to replace them.
 
The early failure on these seems to be industry wide. While I normally don't recommend "lifetime warranty" parts, you might consider buying them. Dodge, or I guess it's now "Ram" uses a similar setup and they've had some premature failures also.
 
(quoted from post at 02:38:43 10/18/17) Bearing on these is a complete sealed unit complete with electronic sensor. - just bolts up to wheel suspension framework and stub axle like a front wheel drive car. No chance of tightening bearing too tight, lubing, etc.

Told store clerk I wanted the one with grease in it this time!


Yes there is a torque that must be met when reinstalling a wheel bearing. When you tighten up the CV shaft you can "compress" the bearing to much causing premature failure. I would start a Google search and figure out the proper torque.

I know this as I have replaced wheel bearings only to have them fail prematurly as I did not torque them correctly. Once I researched it and torqued them correctly I never had a problem after that.
 
(quoted from post at 20:24:44 10/17/17) Still running the original wheel bearings on my 97 Blazer. Something around 165000 km on it. Bearings fine but front rotors vibrate something awful on braking so I need to replace them.

That's only 102,000 miles. Hardly broken in.

If it's a 2 wheel drive, your '97 blazer has traditional spindles and tapered bearings, the kind you pack with grease when installing.
 
RayP(MI) wrote
Any others having trouble with premature bearing failure?

Used to have trouble between 90,000 and 200,00 thousand miles.
I figured out how to grease them and no more trouble. If you value your time
over $1.00 an hour you might as well purchase new bearings.
 
I posted about this issue on our 2010 Impala. Took it to Chevy dealer. Requested old parts back, as this was the second set of hub assys. on the car during the time we have had it. It has about 88K on it. Rather than installing genuine GM parts they put Duralast hubs on and charged the GM price. I raised a fuss, and they wrote me a check of neat $300 for the difference in price. They gave the old hubs back to me in new Duralast boxes. Bet they don'd give old parts back to customers who request them in shipping boxes any more.
YOU can't always expect GM parts to be installed by GM dealers.
Loren
 
Lots of things that can accelerate wear;

Tires out of balance
Bent rim
Warped brake rotor and or dragging brake
Bad CV shaft
Alignment off
Bad shocks
Aggressive tires or driver
Driving through deep water

I have had good luck with SKF hubs/bearings.
 
Quite a few years ago Chrysler had a problem with premature bearing failure on their K cars. They found the ground wire between the engine and body was loose or missing. The ground from body to engine then went through the wheel bearings and axles thus arcing inside the bearings and burning them out at around 30 to 40 K miles.
 

We had the same thing with my oldest daughters Trailblazer. I hated that thing! Went through wheel bearings, even the "good" ones like mad.
 

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