Dealership said my hub bearing is starting to go

[mattjones]

Ac Delco is GM house brand, $200+ online. Also IMO a hub or wheel bearing is either good or bad. Not "starting to go". How do they define that? If you replace, you should do in pairs.

Just found this thread again and figured I'd bump with a two-years-later update.

So apparently the dealer was just completely full of shit. Based on what everyone was saying here I decided to wait it out and see if I ever had any ACTUAL symptoms of a bad hub besides a dealership saying "pls give us $600."

Well, I never replaced it and it's been over two years and probably 20-30k miles. I guess the hub wasn't actually "going bad."

 

[Erik G]

Just found this thread again and figured I'd bump with a two-years-later update.

So apparently the dealer was just completely full of shit. Based on what everyone was saying here I decided to wait it out and see if I ever had any ACTUAL symptoms of a bad hub besides a dealership saying "pls give us $600."

Well, I never replaced it and it's been over two years and probably 20-30k miles. I guess the hub wasn't actually "going bad."

Like was said before, the check for this is to jack the truck up, grab the wheel at 12 and 6, and wiggle. If there is any play at all, the hub assembly needs replaced. They do get worse over time. if you grab at 9 and 3 and wiggle, any play is tie rod related

this is a very very common issue with all GM full size trucks and full size SUV's. Timken from Napa or AutoZone is the preferred part. do not buy cheap ones, they will fail in a year. It's easy, I've had to do it on all of my GM trucks at about 90 to 100K

 

[2007tahoe]

Like was said before, the check for this is to jack the truck up, grab the wheel at 12 and 6, and wiggle. If there is any play at all, the hub assembly needs replaced. They do get worse over time. if you grab at 9 and 3 and wiggle, any play is tie rod related

this is a very very common issue with all GM full size trucks and full size SUV's. Timken from Napa or AutoZone is the preferred part. do not buy cheap ones, they will fail in a year. It's easy, I've had to do it on all of my GM trucks at about 90 to 100K

With a sealed bearing on newer cars like this one, checking for play like this usually does not help. If you actually have play in it, its prob been making nose for a very long time. You can not always jack it up and put it in gear to hear s bad bearing ether because then you do not have a load on the bearing so prob not going to make noise. Yes Timken is the only bearing i would buy for anything. kind of a funny story because the dealer told my friend his 2008 silverado needed a wheel bearing, that was over 150k ago and still never been changed. An aggressive tire or one not wearing correctly will sound just like a bearing.

 

[mattjones]

With a sealed bearing on newer cars like this one, checking for play like this usually does not help. If you actually have play in it, its prob been making nose for a very long time. You can not always jack it up and put it in gear to hear s bad bearing ether because then you do not have a load on the bearing so prob not going to make noise. Yes Timken is the only bearing i would buy for anything. kind of a funny story because the dealer told my friend his 2008 silverado needed a wheel bearing, that was over 150k ago and still never been changed. An aggressive tire or one not wearing correctly will sound just like a bearing.

Yeah from what I remember I was getting the front brakes replaced because they had started squeaking. I think the dealer just saw it as an opportunity to try to squeeze an extra 600 bucks out of me.

 

[rook]

I change my own brakes, rotate tires, and take the opportunity to check the bearings when I change brakes - you can feel any play, hear any noise, etc. having owned an AWD Audi at one time and working on a motorcycle more recently has made me a little more aware of hub bearings... No fun when they do go... They usually fail quickly after giving a little "heads up".


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[wildmanjr1980]

Bearings are twitchy on their last leg. I drive a Yukon xl and when mine went out I had been driving about two hours, no symptoms, then parked at walmart for about 20 minutes, I guess that break was long enough to seize the molten parts together and cool because when I went to back out of the parking spot, I heard a pop and felt the ride height drop with the sag of the bearing busting. Then stabilitrak and traction control lights came on and the rubbing sound was awful. I now feel for heat on my wheels after every trip. Paranoid.

 

[Erik G]

yours sound like they were already long gone

As long as you replace with quality timken, you will be fine. The autozone ones though - 20k miles and they will fail

Just my opinion.

 

[rook]

I put a pair of Timken hubs on mine. One was bad so I did them both. I figured the other side wasn't too far behind.

Did the same thing, also used Timken. Not hard. Take the wheel off, take the rotor off, turn the wheel and listen. If you hear bad things, you should probably consider replacing the hub. They go bad, it's not hard to replace. I check mine on all of my cars (had Audi's, Suzuki AWD's, 'burb K2500, now Denali) every time I do a brake job - because the rotor comes right off. My K2500 isn't so easy... You don't want one to go out - I know from experience, when they go out completely, you feel money exiting your wallet and your weekend plans go out the the window...