Autozone Value Craft Wheel Bearing Destroyed in 4 months AGAIN!

I am officially not a fan of Autozone House Brand wheel bearings (Value Craft). Before I sold my 94 Ex Sport I did the wheel bearings with Value Crafts (Including new Races) 3 months after I sold it I got a devastating call from the new owner ---- The wheel fell off the truck... The wheel bearing had disintegrated. I felt obligated and installed a new set and rotor (Timkens).

On my own truck I could only afford Value Crafts on the passenger side and Timkens on the other. and had every intention on changing them over to Timkens when I could afford... Well needless to say the value CRAP wheel bearing disintegrated too during rush hour in Chicago tonight.

The same failure occurred on the other side which prompted me to do a full bearing job to begin with. (They were.......you guessed it.....Value Craft) They were on it when I bought it.

My truck had to get towed and now I have to pay someone to do something I can do with my eyes closed. (I work 60 miles from home)

I don't get it!? I specked these to the T. I used a quality Torque Wrench and have been doing wheel bearings since I was 15 (Now 32) Could it be a fluke x3? OR are these just that poor quality?

Side note (We did wheel bearings on my buddies Blazer and used Value Craft- they also failed in under a year) Unlike mine they were $100 a side for ea assy.

Anyone else have experience with these?

-Mike

You get what you pay for it is my best piece of advice.

You're just under twice my age, so I'm sure you know that.

I try to get mid-grade products as much as I can (If money is tight).
And never, EVER get house brand products.

Just my 2 cents.
Sorry to hear about all of your unfortunate messes.

my buddy is the manager at O'reilly auto parts near my house and he won't sell me their house parts, even if i asked. i stopped going to autozone 5 years ago when they gave me the wrong gasket set 4 times in a row

They are crap quality. This is even a topic on the Gen II's right now in another thread- at $100 per side for Timken's on Rock Auto and Amazon right now, it shouldn't even be an issue. The market is being flooded by way too many inferior parts right now. They're just plain dangerous.

Sorry for all the issues Mike, that really stinks.

I know and that s the worst part is that I Do Know...uuuuhg Timkens from here on out. God only knows what this shop is gonna take me for? He did have a few vintage Broncos there so maybe I'll get a family discount

stop buying crap bearings.

it's OK to buy the crap versions of some parts, but not others.. choose wisely. bearings and U joints are not parts to go cheap on.

thanks for the heads up though - i didn't realize valuecrap was that bad

Some parts you just can't skimp on. I equate the cheaper parts as something you might put on just to sell a vehicle. Of course, that didn't even work here- so it's just a caveat.

Sometimes only the best will do...

joe dirt said:

some parts you just can't skimp on. I equate the cheaper parts as something you might put on just to sell a vehicle. Of course, that didn't even work here- so it's just a caveat.

Sometimes only the best will do... :d

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haaaa! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ rofl! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Ya, I've had the wheel come off on a D35 front axle when I used to have it under my B2.
Coupled with the nut backing off and cheap bearings this was a recipe for disaster.
Then I went to the best bearing I could find and also modified the lock nut and then Thread Locker Red. Never had a problem then.
Then when I went to the front D44 it was naturally best bearings and did a lot of research on Ball joints also. I wanted and got Cold forged ones. So far so good.
On a side note, the distance between the inner and outer bearings on a D35 is short.
This means there is less lateral support for the wheel and tire.
It's a must that you get the best bearings to handle this load.
Ought to be a law against selling junk bearings to the public.

Rookie: as I sat on the side of highway HUMILIATED (I sport a giant FORD oval) with my broken weak ass front axle.... the only thing I could think was D44, D44, D44, D44.... The only thing that has held me back is lack of experience.

Nothing worse than sitting broken down with a giant FORD sticker on the back is having a Chevy come tow you away -- I said a little prayer ans sure enough the tow truck was a Super Duty (Small Accomplishment in a bad situation )

sounds like you lucked out on the wrecker man, for some reason around here it seems like the tow trucks are mostly fords though

uhhhg update

Well the shop called and as I suspected the outter WB is siezed on the spindle. So now I am faced with : buying a new spindle (Probably $100+) on an axle I plan on scraping

OR having him buff out the carnage, slap new bearings on it and limp it home 60 miles to figure out what to do next.


hhhhmph


I am livid right now at these **** @SS bearings! I know I should be happy I didn't crash and burn - but really 3 months on these, 90 day bearings. wow.


researching SAS for sure

...I feel your pain...

...I posted about these a few months back...Post #106
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199915&page=6&highlight=project

T-bars I replied to your post (more publicity about this the better) I plan to write the purchaser at AutoZone to let them know about how their product is fairing/failing.

The thing is this: it is not even a matter or offset or non OEM tire size because when I had my 94 Ex Sport I used Value Craft bearings and a brand new Autozone rotor with pre installed bearings races (ON OEM WHEELS and Tires) and within 3 months they had the same catastrophic failure as on my BII with 31x10.50 ---

My sister who is a metallurgist and Welder Fab'r (MIG, TIG, Stik, Gas) of 20 years chimed in just now and said:

"they have no QC as far as metallurgy goes in China. They have no idea about what alloys work well with heat and which become brittle with heat-thus the failures we are seeing..."

Looking at the pics in your post they are IDENTICAL to that of the failure in my Sport and that in my Bronco this week.

...The sad thing is I was kind of doing a test on them as I know Timken are the brand to buy...

...I like to shop for less expensive parts and give them a test to try them out...Timken's had gone up to $20 a piece when I found these for ten...Wouldn't you know it, when this cheap bearing failed Timken's had went back down to $15 a piece...

...These failed miserably...I won't even carry them just for emergencies nor will I break down some where and buy them if they were the only store open with these parts...:thumbdwn:

There is no type of manufacturer's warranty? They usually last 90 days. Given that you've had three failures in a row I'd go talk to the manager of the Autozone you got them at and say, "Look either you make this right or you just lost a customer for life. On top of that I'll tell everything I meet with a heart beat to avoid your products like the plague". And don't let them give you the old "user error" excuse either.

...I do not believe there is a bearing warranty on these bearings once it is installed...

..I just looked these up on AZ and they reduced the price to $7.99...

OneLever said:

There is no type of manufacturer's warranty? They usually last 90 days. Given that you've had three failures in a row I'd go talk to the manager of the Autozone you got them at and say, "Look either you make this right or you just lost a customer for life. On top of that I'll tell everything I meet with a heart beat to avoid your products like the plague". And don't let them give you the old "user error" excuse either.

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The problem is- they could care less. Most of the people there are in gap jobs. Unfortunately, you may be in a long term vehicle, not a gap vehicle.

Just take them in, get a new set. Then return them for a refund, and go get some Timkens. I don't think I want the Autozone solution.

Joe Dirt said:

Just take them in...for a refund, and go get some Timkens. I don't think I want the Autozone solution.

Click to expand...

I second that.

OneLever said:

There is no type of manufacturer's warranty? They usually last 90 days. Given that you've had three failures in a row I'd go talk to the manager of the Autozone you got them at and say, "Look either you make this right or you just lost a customer for life. On top of that I'll tell everything I meet with a heart beat to avoid your products like the plague". And don't let them give you the old "user error" excuse either.

Click to expand...

Already checked and no official warrantee; however, the manager I spoke to did offer me another set of value craft bearings. I politely declined.



UPDATE:
still waiting to hear from the shop... I still may not get my truck back til Monday - which means yet ANOTHER day I cannot work. This is turning out to be a real costly can of worms - possibly a can of worms that may be jeopardizing my job.