What are the symptoms of a bearing gone bad and should they be gone bad at 41000 miles 2002 ford explorer

 

A lot of times you'll hear a droaning sound, sometimes a grating sound, that usually comes and goes with the turning of the wheel, or just constantly. Sometimes it's worse after it rains (if it's a bad seal) or when you just start out in the morning, then the sound lessens a little later on. It usually gets more ominous-sounding the longer time passes before you take care of it, and ultimately the wheel will just stop moving, probably at some very inopportune moment (say, at 2:00am in ****ing rain on the highway).

Bearings should last longer than 41,000 miles. It could be from not being serviced properly, or a part failure (a bearing gone bad, or a bad seal letting in water, for example). I think the recommended check and repack of bearings is like 30,000, but if the truck sees heavy duty, they need to be checked more often.

What kind of symtoms are you having? Have the bearings been checked on this vehicle, or any brakework done?

 

I have it serviced on a regular basis at a ford dealership I get a humming noise at 55 mph from the rear end area

 

rear wheel bearings are a soft spot at least in the 02's . Mine went (passenger side rear) and took a lot of stuff with it. The tech at a local dealer told me that my experience was far from unique.

The bearings used are a sealed unit so no maintance to be done on them so one failing is no reflection on how the vehicle was being maintained. When my bearing got bad you could definitely hear a subtle grinding rather than a hum (sounded like the tire was rubbing on something - i thought initially that a chunk of ice had gotten wedged in the wheel well and that the tire was rubbing on it).

All this being said there have been a huge number of complaints about rear end hum in the new genaeration EXplorers which seems to be related to the rear diff rather than the wheel bearings