My '02 X was making classic wheel bearing noises - wheel speed rotational grinding noise, goes away in turns, etc.- so last weekend I replaced the hub assembly and while down there replaced the axle seals and ball joints as well. Unfortunately, the noise didn't go away and is there all the time, 2wd or 4wd.

The new hub assembly came from NAPA, and it replaced a NAPA assembly with less than 35,000 miles on it. I see two possibilities here. 1) the NAPA hubs are crap and I managed to find a defective hub right out of the box in addition to the one that failed in less than 12 months, or 2) something else is going on and the hubs aren't the issue. The inner axle seal had been leaking for awhile and came out in three pieces. The outer hub seal was in two pieces, so they were good and shot, but I don't see where this could be the cause of my noise. I also noted that the dash ABS light was on prior to replacing the hub, and is still on afterwards.

I'm perplexed - any ideas/comments?

 

Pull the hub, take it for a drive and see if that fixes it. Your hub might be dirty and cant disengage.

 

The ABS light is a clue that it might be a bad set of hub bearings, though these aren't prone to fail at the rate YOURS are!

Jack up the truck and grab the tire at 12 and 6 o'clock, and try to rock the entire tire/wheel assembly up and down (in and out). If it moves, it likely IS yet another hub assembly.

MGolden has a good idea, too, and I'd try that as well.

BTW, there is a difference between a "hub", and a "hub lock" assembly. The hub is the thing that has the wheel bearings inside and the lug bolts are a part of, and the hub lock is the little thing in the middle that you turn to lock the hub to the drive axle.

Pop

 

Well, well, well.

I went out and jacked the truck up and sure enough, the hub is shot. A brand new assembly from NAPA. I figured this had to be the issue all along, but I just couldn't bring myself to believe it. So, based on this rather unfortunate turn of events, I can only conclude NAPA wheel hub assemblies are shiite.

 

That suxx, but fortunately, they're not all that time-consuming to change.

Different offsets are really hard on hub bearings, not to mention some other suspension components.

Are you running stock rims and tires, or aftermarket rims with a different width and offset?

Pop

 

Wheels are stock with stock tire size. I drive it a whole bunch, 35-40K per year, but that doesn't explain the assembly that was toast out of the box. I don't necessarily blame NAPA - they didn't design or manufacture the things - but this continues a trend I've been having with them. My alternator failed last June and I bought a new one from NAPA. That one failed in September, replaced under warranty. The next one failed in November, again replaced under warranty. And it's giving me indications it's going to fail again soon. I really do have better things to do than work on this pig.

 

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhhh. It may be a pig, but it's YOUR pig. And it's a pretty pig. And it's a helluva WORK PIG when it's runnin'. And it'll be just fine again, too. Just need to turn those wrenches.

Ever read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"?

(But I don't buy much from NAPA any more.....)

Pop