I got stuck changing the wheel bearings on my cousin's 94 Tahoe 4x4 (6 inch lift, 33 inch tires) last Saturday when I encountered some unanticipated problems that made me wonder if it was only Chevy that was like this or all modern 4wd trucks. Anyways, I went to the parts store and they said that you can't just replace the wheel bearings on it, that the entire spindle assembly must be changed. Approximate cost was $188.00 for one front side because the spindle has an ABS sensor built into it. I tried Autozone, Kragen, Napa, even the dealership and they all said the same thing.

I've changed the wheel bearings on numerous vehicles and never encountered this before. It's been my experience that pressed on wheel bearings were never supposed to go out. My Supra never needed them after 200,000 miles of extremely hard driving, modern Crown Vics aren't supposed to need changed. I lost the wheel bearings on my 74 F100 and it only cost $40.00 for parts. Are all the 4x4s today like this. I've never worked on the wheel bearings on any other modern truck before, so I don't know.

On a side note, the brake calipers were exactly the same as the ones on my 98 Ram 1500, right down to the hex key bolts and even the brake pads (I just did a brake job the Dodge in November, so that's why it stood out to me).

 

Now many trucks are using hub assemblies. Assemblies are expensive. Ive heard of quotes as high as 800 dollars each from dealers. Upside is they have much more uptime and less periodic maintanence. Seems like a good tradeoff.

 

Were they ball or tapered roller bearings?

 

Roller bearings.