Wheel bearing replaced 3 times in less than a year???

fuel-n-fire · Apr 21, 2014

I've searched this and other Toyota forums but I came up empty.

My 2003 V8 4wd that I recently bought has had to have the front passenger wheel bearing replaced 3 times now in the last year. The first of which was a Toyota part, the last 2 were not. It currently has an aftermarket bearing installed.

The front passenger wheel also rubs the mud flap when I turn the wheel full right. However, the left tire does not rub when I turn full left. I am running slightly larger tires but I do find it weird that it only happens on the same wheel with the bearing issue.

I also had new control arms installed on the vehicle to fix another issue, I thought that might have solved the rubbing issue as well. It didn't.

Does anyone have any ideas of what to check next?

JUST REALIZED THIS IS THE WRONG SECTION, MODS PLEASE MOVE? SORRY

kaizer427 · Apr 21, 2014

fuel-n-fire said:
I've searched this and other Toyota forums but I came up empty.

My 2003 V8 4wd that I recently bought has had to have the front passenger wheel bearing replaced 3 times now in the last year. The first of which was a Toyota part, the last 2 were not. It currently has an aftermarket bearing installed.

The front passenger wheel also rubs the mud flap when I turn the wheel full right. However, the left tire does not rub when I turn full left. I am running slightly larger tires but I do find it weird that it only happens on the same wheel with the bearing issue.

I also had new control arms installed on the vehicle to fix another issue, I thought that might have solved the rubbing issue as well. It didn't.

Does anyone have any ideas of what to check next?

Wheel bearing is weird, have they been installing all the dust seals, etc? Sounds like poor install or install with a bad hub.

Having all the stuff on one corner makes me think your truck was wrecked at some point and not repaired correctly.

fuel-n-fire · Apr 21, 2014

kaizer427 said:
Wheel bearing is weird, have they been installing all the dust seals, etc? Sounds like poor install or install with a bad hub.

Having all the stuff on one corner makes me think your truck was wrecked at some point and not repaired correctly.

I don't think the entire hub was replaced until this last time. I am not 100% sure that this is the first new hub. I will look into that. My first question was about the vehicle being wrecked also, the carfax doesn't show anything and I've asked the mechanics if it looks like its been wrecked and each one has said that they can't see any evidence of a wreck.

HokieRunner · Apr 21, 2014

fuel-n-fire said:
I've searched this and other Toyota forums but I came up empty.

My 2003 V8 4wd that I recently bought has had to have the front passenger wheel bearing replaced 3 times now in the last year. The first of which was a Toyota part, the last 2 were not. It currently has an aftermarket bearing installed.

The front passenger wheel also rubs the mud flap when I turn the wheel full right. However, the left tire does not rub when I turn full left. I am running slightly larger tires but I do find it weird that it only happens on the same wheel with the bearing issue.

I also had new control arms installed on the vehicle to fix another issue, I thought that might have solved the rubbing issue as well. It didn't.

Does anyone have any ideas of what to check next?

JUST REALIZED THIS IS THE WRONG SECTION, MODS PLEASE MOVE? SORRY

Can you give a breakdown of everything you've had replaced and why? Done an alignment recently?

I know you mentioned new control arms - did you have both upper and lower replaced? Only the uppers? Or upper and lower but only on one side?

I agree with the prior poster about the hub. If the bearings aren't pressed in correctly or the hub is damaged, it will eat through the bearings pretty quickly. Can you tell if you have any CV binding issues? You may have an issue with the steering knuckle or some other suspension component that is causing the issue.

Oh, and carfax is typically pretty useless. Don't get me wrong, it's worthwhile to check it but there are plenty of accidents, etc that go unreported and never make it to the carfax report.

fuel-n-fire · Apr 22, 2014

HokieRunner said:
Can you give a breakdown of everything you've had replaced and why? Done an alignment recently?

I know you mentioned new control arms - did you have both upper and lower replaced? Only the uppers? Or upper and lower but only on one side?

I agree with the prior poster about the hub. If the bearings aren't pressed in correctly or the hub is damaged, it will eat through the bearings pretty quickly. Can you tell if you have any CV binding issues? You may have an issue with the steering knuckle or some other suspension component that is causing the issue.

Oh, and carfax is typically pretty useless. Don't get me wrong, it's worthwhile to check it but there are plenty of accidents, etc that go unreported and never make it to the carfax report.

Since I've had the vehicle I've had both upper and lower control arms on both sides replaced. I've had the wheel bearing replaced twice, and found out it has been replaced once before at a dealer less than a year ago. Recently had it aligned and wheels balanced for the 4th time! (thats an entirely different issue) No other issues from what I can tell.

kaizer427 · Apr 22, 2014

fuel-n-fire said:
Since I've had the vehicle I've had both upper and lower control arms on both sides replaced. I've had the wheel bearing replaced twice, and found out it has been replaced once before at a dealer less than a year ago. Recently had it aligned and wheels balanced for the 4th time! (thats an entirely different issue) No other issues from what I can tell.

That is goofy, my money is on bad press job or bad hub. After that maybe no dust shield. Beyond that if you have another problem I would replace it all...spindle, cv, everything.

gm350reratliff · Apr 22, 2014

You may want to make sure the caliper isn't dragging. Maybe it's only dragging sometimes. This could cause the bearing to get too hot and shorten its life.

toyotatech84 · Apr 22, 2014

make sure the knuckle isnt bent either or tweaked.

Sungod · Apr 22, 2014

All these suggestions are great, but you really need to start by putting your 4runner on an alignment rack and find out what is going on. It sounds like something is probably bent and you have been throwing a lot of money at parts that are not addressing the problem. The fact that your tire is hitting the mud flap is a pretty good indication that something is wrong. Bent parts will put stress on others that will cause excessive wear. After 3 times, I think you can rule out it being as simple as a missing dust shield or poor press work.

BlackWorksInc · Apr 23, 2014

Sungod said:
All these suggestions are great, but you really need to start by putting your 4runner on an alignment rack and find out what is going on. It sounds like something is probably bent and you have been throwing a lot of money at parts that are not addressing the problem. The fact that your tire is hitting the mud flap is a pretty good indication that something is wrong. Bent parts will put stress on others that will cause excessive wear. After 3 times, I think you can rule out it being as simple as a missing dust shield or poor press work.

This is pretty much the way to start the diagnostics at this point, but I will mention that you seem unsure of what exactly has been replaced.

How many times has the Hub been replaced in these 3 times? Also what parts exactly have been replaced in terms of the Wheel Bearing; because Toyota only considers the bearing itself in their part's diagrams, which means most of the hub assembly has to be broken down and pressed apart (a few of those 6 lug vehicles have a giant lock nut an require a Toyota specific jig to do right), we see a LOT of improperly pressed bearings and many times people just cut the old races off with cut-off wheels.

At this point I'm going to say Sungod is on the right track, something is killing those bearings; but I wouldn't rule out improper assembly. There's a reason why many people on this forum (both professional and not) advocate pre-assembled units for these vehicles.

jimmied · Apr 23, 2014

Maybe you can start here and buy a preassembled unit from hte one or two members that sell them here. At least you know the assembly is done right and they will back it up. Install yourself and go from there.

Aside from that, sounds like something is definitely wrong with the extra rubbing and alignment issues. For this much trouble, something has to be out of spec somewhere underneath.

fuel-n-fire · Apr 23, 2014

jimmied said:
Maybe you can start here and buy a preassembled unit from hte one or two members that sell them here. At least you know the assembly is done right and they will back it up. Install yourself and go from there.

Aside from that, sounds like something is definitely wrong with the extra rubbing and alignment issues. For this much trouble, something has to be out of spec somewhere underneath.

Thanks for all of the input everyone.

So I verified that this last time was the first time that the entire hub was replaced. I agree that the mud flap rub on one side is cause for concern. The only issue is that I just had it aligned and the dealer said that everything was fine. This dealer was in Nevada where I was training for the last few weeks. I am now back in San Diego. The dealer that I had the work done at was in a tiny town and I am going to call them tomorrow to see if it was done by a certified Toyota mechanic, if so I am going to take it to the dealer near by my house.

Other than checking the alignment and a preassembled unit if this one does fail, any other suggestions on diagnosing the problem?

Wheel bearing replaced 3 times in less than a year???

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