Which front wheel bearing is bad?

Lug_Nut

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"People need to stop fixing stuff that's not broken, lol."
says the man with "160ish bhp".......;)
 

Seatman

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"People need to stop fixing stuff that's not broken, lol."
says the man with "160ish bhp".......;)
Keep it to yourself but I'm also running on chinese wheel bearings, living life on the edge :D




But just to be clear, that wasn't me that said that
 

supton

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Lasts at least thousands more if it goes at all, get it right.

Only takes me 1 hour max to do one at home with crap tools or half that if I pop into a friends shop, no biggy. It's also not that common, certainly no more common than any other car and maybe even less.

But if you want to do both at once that's up to you.



Where's the OP?
At the time was driving nearly 3k per month, and not in a position to do the work myself. Watching this job I'm not sure I'm in a spot where I could. I'd guess a full day--takes me an hour plus to rotate tires. I tried to flush brake lines once, and gave up after three hours. I'm no mechanic as you can guess.

So "thousands more" of life is pretty nerve wracking. I'm not happy when my car starts going in the shop on a monthly basis.

Pretty sure it's a common complaint on the A4. Then again our Civic ate a set of bearings around 150k. Now that I have three vehicles maybe I'll start shopping for the HF tools so I can be ready for the next time a bearing goes, then again I've found the local shop down the street does good work, they just need the vehicle for a day plus for any repair it seems.
 

vwdieseling

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Keep it to yourself but I'm also running on chinese wheel bearings, living life on the edge :D




But just to be clear, that wasn't me that said that
A several of years ago several mechanics or technicians did an independent study. This was in the U.S. I don't have the material anymore, but they did multiple wheel bearing replacements at that time most of these failed at about 100 or 500 miles all were manufactured in China and sold at U.S. discount auto stores in the U.S.. I can tell that most tire chain shops and auto repair shops buy their parts from these stores. I think after millions of consumer complaints the quality issues were addressed. Customers must utilize their warranties on parts and service to get these things done.

Unfortunately labor costs have driven most if not all our manufacturing in the west to Asia. And another down side the Asians they are getting good at making quality parts. I hate to say it but I have bought junk parts made here in the good old USA. Also parts from Germany, primarily Flennors parts for VWs and German engineered cars.
 

AXFarmer

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Testing for bad wheel bearings

Best bet is to raise up the entire front end then,
stop one front wheel from turning with a floor jack.
Start the car up and place it in first gear, gently release the clutch which will spin up the wheel that is not being held by the jack.

Listen to the bearing using a long screwdriver with the tip up against the bearing housing. if you hear any shushing or grinding this is the bad bearing.

If not, check the other one. One should be louder than the other!

The reason the left/right turning thing does not work correctly is because these are double sided bearings so either side could be bad!
 

Seatman

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At the time was driving nearly 3k per month, and not in a position to do the work myself. Watching this job I'm not sure I'm in a spot where I could. I'd guess a full day--takes me an hour plus to rotate tires. I tried to flush brake lines once, and gave up after three hours. I'm no mechanic as you can guess.

So "thousands more" of life is pretty nerve wracking. I'm not happy when my car starts going in the shop on a monthly basis.

Pretty sure it's a common complaint on the A4. Then again our Civic ate a set of bearings around 150k. Now that I have three vehicles maybe I'll start shopping for the HF tools so I can be ready for the next time a bearing goes, then again I've found the local shop down the street does good work, they just need the vehicle for a day plus for any repair it seems.
Maybe they're one of those places that just book lots of jobs in at once then do what they can in that day, it can be a bit hard sometimes to give a customer a specific time and cost due to unforeseen things like rust, knackered bolts, other parts that are also broken but previously unknown. I've seen me strip hub carriers down to do a bearing only to discover that the owner has left it so long that the bearing has spun on the hub itself and wrecked it so then that car ends up stuck on the ramp in bits while you wait for a replacement hub to arrive. This then has a knock on affect on all the other jobs that are due to be done.




A several of years ago several mechanics or technicians did an independent study. This was in the U.S. I don't have the material anymore, but they did multiple wheel bearing replacements at that time most of these failed at about 100 or 500 miles all were manufactured in China and sold at U.S. discount auto stores in the U.S.. I can tell that most tire chain shops and auto repair shops buy their parts from these stores. I think after millions of consumer complaints the quality issues were addressed. Customers must utilize their warranties on parts and service to get these things done.

Unfortunately labor costs have driven most if not all our manufacturing in the west to Asia. And another down side the Asians they are getting good at making quality parts. I hate to say it but I have bought junk parts made here in the good old USA. Also parts from Germany, primarily Flennors parts for VWs and German engineered cars.
I don't know what it's like in the states but I think we have a pretty reasonable quality control set up so that parts have to be at a fairly decent standard in order to be sold here.

But, some of my favourite guitars are asian, fantastic quality and workmanship, I really think it depends who's in charge. I think they can make stuff to a very high quality if that's what is needed.



Best bet is to raise up the entire front end then,
stop one front wheel from turning with a floor jack.
Start the car up and place it in first gear, gently release the clutch which will spin up the wheel that is not being held by the jack.

Listen to the bearing using a long screwdriver with the tip up against the bearing housing. if you hear any shushing or grinding this is the bad bearing.
That's basically what I said but in a less dangerous way, sod sticking a screwdriver in amongst it while it's spinning, that's an accident waiting to happen lol
 

LNXGUY

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You didn't want to post my entire reply? You should have it would have made a lot more sense for people reading it.

As for bearings, why do one, then say 5k down the road have to do the other one? If the car has a lot of miles on it, do them both and forget about it.
 

Seatman

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You didn't want to post my entire reply? You should have it would have made a lot more sense for people reading it.

As for bearings, why do one, then say 5k down the road have to do the other one? If the car has a lot of miles on it, do them both and forget about it.

Would only have made sense if we were talking about turbos but we're not. I replaced one ages ago, thousands of miles ago, the same bearing and hub are now on a friends car but he also has the other hub with the old bearing that is still going strong. A lot more than 5k.

I've yet to see a second one go that soon myself and as I was saying earlier I usually find it's the one that's taken the abuse more that tends to go, could be you've hit a pot hole or whatever but often there's a trigger somewhere that's started the whole process of wear.
 

LNXGUY

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I still don't quite understand why you thought quoting my reply from the other thread was helping your cause at all, lol.

As for me, if I've got 200k on a set of bearings, I'd be stupid to just replace one and not both. Even if it's 50k down the road, I don't want to be doing that job again.. It's like replacing brakes on one side of the car only, lol.
 

Seatman

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I still don't quite understand why you thought quoting my reply from the other thread was helping your cause at all, lol.

As for me, if I've got 200k on a set of bearings, I'd be stupid to just replace one and not both. Even if it's 50k down the road, I don't want to be doing that job again.. It's like replacing brakes on one side of the car only, lol.

The quote thing wasn't really helpful but it amused me ha ha (Might only be me though)


Well if nothing else it's an excuse to work on your own car again later which I like and haven't been able to get any medication for :D
 

eb2143

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Well, I am in the "do one side" camp. The reason being that, other than having the tools out, there's no time advantage to doing both sides at once. LNX, replacing wheel bearings individually is definitely NOT like replacing brakes on one side, lol.

Backing up my point, my R/F bearing failed/was replaced at at 138,772. That replacement then failed at 214,268. My L/F WOULD be original, if it wasn't for the fact that I misdiagnosed which side it was coming from and replaced a perfectly good original bearing at 214k.
 
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PilotPat24

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I drove over a 200 miles yesterday and then I checked the temperature of my axles ends with my infrared thermometer. On both sides of the trip the driver's side axle end was reading 5 degrees warmer than the other side.

I have to look it up later but I changed, the struts, wheel bearings, ball joints, and tie rod ends not too long ago. I will let you know how many miles I changed everything later today.

Pat
 

LNXGUY

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Backing up my point, my R/F bearing failed/was replaced at at 138,772. That replacement then failed at 214,268. My L/F WOULD be original, if it wasn't for the fact that I misdiagnosed which side it was coming from and replaced a perfectly good original bearing at 214k.
Don't ya love misdiagnosing wheel bearings? lol!
 

PilotPat24

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I just checked my logs and I replaced the front wheel bearings only 41,000 miles ago.... Doesn't seem like that much of mileage on wheel bearings...
 

PilotPat24

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I also did the stethoscope trick with the screw driver and I heard only noise coming out of the drivers side hub. Between the noise in the hub and the 5 degrees in higher temperature coming from the drivers side hub, I think it's a safe bet that it's the drivers side wheel bearing that is going bad...
 

Pat Dolan

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a couple of notes:

first of all, count me among the "do them both" brigade. I usually score the correct one in diagnosis, but not always. Bearings are extremely predictable when built properly, and failure of one is a good sign to just get the other out of the way. There ARE considerable savings in time as it takes a fair bit to set up to do this job properly. Also, for me, this is a time to get everything apart to have a good look around at what state the whole works is in.

Spend the time and money to make proper tools to push on the right parts of the bearing when installing. I usually just turn something on the lathe, but in a pinch, you can take an old bearing and grind the outside to remove a few thou (letting it spin slowly to keep stock removal concentric). You need to be able to push the old one out by the outside race only, and push the new one in by BOTH the inner and outer race at the same time, fully centered (thus easiest to turn a tool to do exactly that).

Make certain that you do everything in the correct order re-assembling - as you can NOT take it off again without destroying the seal (unless the hub is worn to loose fit - in which case you shouldn't be using it anyhow). Please don't embarrass me by asking why I need to remind myself of that.

Again, need a really good puller to get the inner race off of the hub without whacking the crap out of things with a chisel or having puller jaws slip off of race.

Whole thing works best in a properly tooled press

Also, while there is no question Chinese parts COULD be made to Western OEM quality, you really have to have been there to understand how little importance that is within Chinese industrial culture. Results today are all that matter (i.e. the original sale at max profit), not any view towards tomorrow or more so your brand or client's reputation or costs. Truth is, they really can't understand why we care - as it just means more sales to them if they fail sooner. In case I didn't make myself extremely clear: use only FAG, SKF, NTN or other well established brand name parts and if there is a choice, made anywhere BUT China.
 
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supton

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Maybe they're one of those places that just book lots of jobs in at once then do what they can in that day, it can be a bit hard sometimes to give a customer a specific time and cost due to unforeseen things like rust, knackered bolts, other parts that are also broken but previously unknown. I've seen me strip hub carriers down to do a bearing only to discover that the owner has left it so long that the bearing has spun on the hub itself and wrecked it so then that car ends up stuck on the ramp in bits while you wait for a replacement hub to arrive. This then has a knock on affect on all the other jobs that are due to be done.
That is a big definate on rust complicating things up here, though, and getting parts from a parts place is probably an hour plus. The local shop lacks rental cars, if I drive to the bigger shops (or a stealer) I could rent a car I suppose. Going to a TDI guru usually means being stranded there (after a few hours drive), so what's another hour of labor to prevent a near-future return?
 

9mmkungfu

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Also, while there is no question Chinese parts COULD be made to Western OEM quality, you really have to have been there to understand how little importance that is within Chinese industrial culture. Results today are all that matter (i.e. the original sale at max profit), not any view towards tomorrow or more so your brand or client's reputation or costs. Truth is, they really can't understand why we care - as it just means more sales to them if they fail sooner. In case I didn't make myself extremely clear: use only FAG, SKF, NTN or other well established brand name parts and if there is a choice, made anywhere BUT China.
And for anyone doing this on a 2005.5+ Jetta, Moog part number 513253 (front wheel bearings/hubs) is made in China. Well, at least mine was marked as such.
 

vwdieseling

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And for anyone doing this on a 2005.5+ Jetta, Moog part number 513253 (front wheel bearings/hubs) is made in China. Well, at least mine was marked as such.

Yes the trend is Asian made parts. There may be a shift, but that won't be soon. Most manufacturers have shifted their manufacturing to China and have invested in tooling and plants over their. With that said the Chinese worker is under more scrutiny as far as quality and number of parts made. Most of the name brand parts manufacturers such as Moog, and others operate plants out of China. I stated this several years ago. I work in manufacturing and it is the trend, I would also like to say the American manufacturing worker is not overly paid in comparison to other European and North American countries. Germany and Canada are the highest paid per hour as a matter of fact Japanese workers are up there is pay rates.
 
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PilotPat24

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I got a FAG wheel bearing for the driver's side front wheel. I am going to press it in and out. We'll see how it goes this time around...
 

PilotPat24

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Replaced the one wheel bearing yesterday. Problem fixed. The car is quiet again. Thanks for all of your help!
 

9mmkungfu

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Great, did you have any issues?

Was there any play if you tried to rock the wheel back and forth from top to bottom? Just curious.

I replaced a bad bearing that had no play in it.
 

PilotPat24

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Great, did you have any issues?

Was there any play if you tried to rock the wheel back and forth from top to bottom? Just curious.

I replaced a bad bearing that had no play in it.
From what I can remember, there was no play top to bottom on that wheel.
 

Golfrunner

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To truly detect a failing wheel bearing I've relied on spinning the rotor after removing the tire and any brake pad drag... then hold a screwdriver on the hub and putting the handle to your ear will tell you if the bearing is "rough"... maybe saving you from replacing a good bearing. Never had much luck with the looking for play in the bearing method.
 

Rembrant

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To truly detect a failing wheel bearing I've relied on spinning the rotor after removing the tire and any brake pad drag... then hold a screwdriver on the hub and putting the handle to your ear will tell you if the bearing is "rough"...
Can't really do that with the front wheel bearings though...
 
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