Wheelbearings ?
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Wheelbearings ?
Anyone else having front wheelbearing problems?I had a front tire seperate today and while changing it I found my right front wheelbearing is loose,53,000 miles.I replaced the left front at 38,000 mile range.I am starting to think I should have bought another brand of truck.Wheelbearings should last alot longer than this and be the last thing to worry about,and they don't give them away ether at $400.each.Now my chip will have to wait for a while longer.
Hotshot
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 18,423
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From: iowa
I replaced mine at 80k and 84k miles. I got mine at napa and with my discount paid $272 each. It is one of my major gripes about this truck, and the one thing I really don't like along with the balljoints which I have also replaced. basically I think the front end in these trucks atleast the 4x4s was a huge mistake, and one I plan on correcting the next time a wheelbearing goes out by replacing hte entire thing with a KP D60.
One thing I am testing out currently is I believe that part of the problem with the wheel bearings is the vacumn activated hubs actually put vacumn on the backside of the bearing and suck the grease out through the seal, I noticed this after I replaced miy first wheel bearing and then 4000 miles later had to do the other wheel bearing and ball joints it already had a lot of grease sucked out. I replaced the manual/auto hubs with a set of warns, disconnected the vac line and plugged it with a 1/8" pipe plug, I then pulled it apart 10000 miles later and no grease bieng pulled out of the seal, and so far have approx 20k on the new bearings I am hoping this may stop the loss of grease and thus atleast slow down the bearings going out.
One thing I am testing out currently is I believe that part of the problem with the wheel bearings is the vacumn activated hubs actually put vacumn on the backside of the bearing and suck the grease out through the seal, I noticed this after I replaced miy first wheel bearing and then 4000 miles later had to do the other wheel bearing and ball joints it already had a lot of grease sucked out. I replaced the manual/auto hubs with a set of warns, disconnected the vac line and plugged it with a 1/8" pipe plug, I then pulled it apart 10000 miles later and no grease bieng pulled out of the seal, and so far have approx 20k on the new bearings I am hoping this may stop the loss of grease and thus atleast slow down the bearings going out.
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Joined: Feb 2004
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yes i had a lot of trouble with mine too, have doen them each twice
first i would swap to the dyna trac or whatever it is called or maybe this dp60 or whatever he was talking about, I WOULD DEFINITELY try to change to something other than stock, i spent way more than i would have if i had changed to an aftermarket set up and wasted a lot of time, it is worth the investment
if you don't swap it out check EVERYTHING as far as seals, etc on the axles when you change the bearing and get rid of the auto locking hubs and do warners or whatever works for your truck, my probelms most likely started out as hub problems but no one including the ford dealer caught it , no one could find anything wrong with it until it finally broke
i got my hubs at checker, they were 250 or something, 2 year unlimited mile warranty
my first pair of bearings i got at ford and it is 12000miles, well i am out of that in 2-3 months so i had to turn right around and do it again becuase no one checked to make sure all the seals, etc were good and i trashed the new ones
i had a rear end shop completely tear all of it down up there and put new seals both sides the last time and no more prob, oh also changed to manual hubs at the same time
first i would swap to the dyna trac or whatever it is called or maybe this dp60 or whatever he was talking about, I WOULD DEFINITELY try to change to something other than stock, i spent way more than i would have if i had changed to an aftermarket set up and wasted a lot of time, it is worth the investment
if you don't swap it out check EVERYTHING as far as seals, etc on the axles when you change the bearing and get rid of the auto locking hubs and do warners or whatever works for your truck, my probelms most likely started out as hub problems but no one including the ford dealer caught it , no one could find anything wrong with it until it finally broke
i got my hubs at checker, they were 250 or something, 2 year unlimited mile warranty
my first pair of bearings i got at ford and it is 12000miles, well i am out of that in 2-3 months so i had to turn right around and do it again becuase no one checked to make sure all the seals, etc were good and i trashed the new ones
i had a rear end shop completely tear all of it down up there and put new seals both sides the last time and no more prob, oh also changed to manual hubs at the same time
New User
Joined: Feb 2006
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From: Escondido, CA
If I'm not having a problem yet (70,000 miles), do you think the stock setup could be salvaged if the bearings are greased and seals replaced with exaggerated frequency...like every 10-15,000 miles?
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From: lost angels
i had to change mine out do too me sinking my truck wasn't fun or cheap after i was done i was close to buying a kp d60 but the lug nut pattern threw a wrench in that upgrade anyone have any fixes for this cause i gotta get rid of that d50
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No vacum lines just manual lockin/lockout-free hubs with a floorshifter for the 4x4.No push button4x4. 2000 F-350 DRW cc.
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From: Rio Rico, AZ.
Originally Posted by BuickTurbo
How's your alignment? I would check that. Always leads to a bearing failure....at least in my portfolio it does.
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I think the alinement is ok,53,000 miles on oridginal tires with even ware ,however I did have one seperate yesterday on same wheel with the bad bearing.I am starting to lean toward undersize bearings for this truck and this truck sets all winter,[not driven] and maybe the bearings are drawing moisture then form a then layer of rust causing failure.I guess I thought this had a dana 60 frontend.I have worked on vehicals for over 25 years even set up ring and pinions, but really don't know rearends apart by just looking at them.
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Joined: May 2004
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From: Minnesota
This thread caught my attention. My fathers 2000 dually made it 140,000 miles before losing a bearing. Anyway, now when I was crawling around under my truck, I noticed on the back side of the front hubs what looks to be a seal lip that has come off. Now it is on both sides, just hanging there, obviously boucing around. This makes me wonder, do they have some kind of seal on the back side? I was told they are a sealed unit. I would like to get a picture up to show what I am referring to, looks like some kind of seal lip, about 3-4 inches in diameter, just hanging on the u-joint. Had to go somewhere at some point I would assume. Any ideas?
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I put a new wheelbearing assembly on today,it went together with any problems and only took alittle over an hour. The fellow at napa said theres had a life time warrenty, so I kept the receit.Hopfully I won't need it.
Posting Guru
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Originally Posted by lusher21
If I'm not having a problem yet (70,000 miles), do you think the stock setup could be salvaged if the bearings are greased and seals replaced with exaggerated frequency...like every 10-15,000 miles?
I wanted to switch to the aftermarket SERVICEABLE bearings (I think Dynatrac), but they were going to cost more than I could afford - best price I found was about $1700 - not including tax, shipping, or installation. The stock type cost me about $600 including tax. I had no choice but to go with the stock-type, crap bearings.
My truck had just short of 120,000 miles when the left bearing died. I don't know if it was ever replaced before - I've only had the truck since 89k miles. I know it wasn't done on warranty, as there is no warranty record of it, and Ford has no record of having done it before. If these bearings don't last 100,000 miles at least, I'll be scaping the money together to switch to aftermarket setup.
Other things that can contribute to wheel bearing loss:
lift kit
oversize tires
non-stock offset wheels (almost anything wider than the stock 7 inches)
and, certainly, alignment.
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Originally Posted by Clint Knotts
I put a new wheelbearing assembly on today,it went together with any problems and only took alittle over an hour. The fellow at napa said theres had a life time warrenty, so I kept the receit.Hopfully I won't need it.
