Don't wait replace your rear wheel bearings!

[bigskyeric]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share my experience with what started as an issue with my abs/vsc/e-brake lights and ended up a being a bad rear wheel bearing.

And more importantly... why you should have them replaced sooner than too late.

After discovering a bit of play in my driver side rear bearing I researched and researched some more only find a lack of info on the job. The closest video I found was for the FJ Cruiser. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxWuSt3LFjE&list=PLeZxX-BJX271q5QmHVz6vzKgLh-vOGlR1&index=8

Something I noted from the video is that it takes a special/custom sleeve to press the old bearing out and back onto the axle and housing.

Next I ordered up 2 bearing from Amazon. Timken (the best)
Part numbers HA590050 passenger side and
HA594246 driver side. These are expensive bearings but are currently sold for $105 each on amazon... so buy em up now if you can.

Then I went to Toyota Parts - OEM Toyota Parts (best prices I found) and ordered the hardware necessary for the job. I purchased 2 of everything.
Snap ring- Fits Left/Right 9052041019 Toyota 4Runner 2004 2 $1.40
Inner- Fits Left/Right 9031058003 Toyota 4Runner 2004 2 $5.85
Washer- Fits Left/Right 9020844001 Toyota FJ Cruiser 2014 2 $3.39
O-ring- Fits Left/Right 9030183002 Toyota oem 2004 2 $2.63
Retainer- Fits Left/Right 4242360050 Toyota oem 2004 2 $18.05

After calling around I couldn't find anyone who had the custom sleeve for the press. I called a friend who owns an independent shop and he knew a guy. So I dropped off my 4runner for the day.

About 4 hours later I got a call that the guys at the machine shop couldn't get the axle to press out of the bearing because the bearing had gotten to a point where it had essentially welded itself to the axle due to heat. Eventually the machine shop got them apart.... 5 hours of labor.... at $80 an hour. Luckily I'm friends with the shop and he's friends with the machine shop so I was only charged 1 hour of labor for the machine work and 1 hour of labor for the rest. Had we not been friends this could have been much much more expensive. The machine shop said that they're not too bad if they're replaced before they fail, preventing heat which welds everything together.

I should note that the local Toyota dealership referred me to the same machine shop...even they didn't want to do the job.

My driver side bearing failed at 210,000 miles but they can go sooner especially in hot climates like arizona, cali, florida...etc. My friend said we need to wait a while before we do the other bearing to let the machine shop guys "cool off' from the ordeal yesterday.

I hope this story helps prevent what could be a very expensive situation.

-Eric

 

[Bishops]

Interesting, I just got my 4th gen a couple weeks ago. Coming from a 3rd gen, which are notorious for bad rear axel seals, I can agree that wheel bears are a b****, IMHO.

 

[fdbyrne]

I replaced my rear bearings last week. It can be an intense job, especially compared to the front which can be done in less than an hour.

I have a press adapter to push the axle out. That part was fairly straight forward. I had to use an angle grinder and Dremel to grind off the retainer first. After I pressed out the bearing I found that the outer most race was still stuck on the axle and I had to grind it off too. That's some hard steel and I had to be careful not to cut into the axle. Metal shavings were everywhere. I have metal splinters in both hands. I have a bad cut on my left hand from an angle grinder mishap. Just generally not fun.

The thing that took me the most time, the first side anyway, was getting the parking brake back together. After I figured out a few tricks the second one wasn't that bad.

I had to knock out a couple of the serrated studs that hold the bearing assembly to the differential tube to get the bearing separated from the backing plate. When they came out they took some material from the backing plate with them and wouldn't stay in place when I went to reinstall them. I had to actually tack weld them in place. Since they are held in tension and it's not the welds themselves that hold any pressure once installed, I don't see any long term problem with doing it that way.

I was able to do it all with a HF 20 ton press, but I had to modify it and anything less than 20 tons wouldn't have done the job.