HOLY crappy hubs!

[TourGuide]

My Explorer's first set of front bearings went almost 100k before giving up and needing replacement. Considering I've driven cars before that never needed replacing I thought that was less than desirable.

Little did I know that after replacing that set with a pair of Motorcraft hubs I'd only get about 40k out of the driver side front. Huh?!

:thumbdwn:

 

[TourGuide]

So now that I've posted this - what is the SHORTEST amount of miles you've gotten out of a decent set of bearings? 40k makes me kind of suspicious of the units I bought this past time.

 

[wsar10]

One thing worth mentioning that can shorten or help prolong hub assembly life, is lug-nut torque and sequence.

edit:
and aftermarket wheel weight

 

[Explorer_PL]

I am at 188k miles, and from the front Motorcraft hubs I usually get around 70-90k miles.

I believe the lug nuts do not matter as much as the torque of the center 32 mm axle nut

I think I would get more out of my hubs, but I just tighten it with a breaker bar, and reuse the old nut , which is both "no" by the books.

 

[bschnur]

45K on both fronts for my 2010 Explorer when they both failed.

 

[TourGuide]

One thing worth mentioning that can shorten or help prolong hub assembly life, is lug-nut torque and sequence.

edit:
and aftermarket wheel weight

I don't have any idea what happened with the lug torque. I suppose I really ought to stop trusting the shop and buy myself a decent torque wrench then re-do that myself every time I have the work done.

In the case of aftermarket wheels - these are stock.

40k - that just isn't enough out of OEM bearings.

 

[TourGuide]

I am at 188k miles, and from the front Motorcraft hubs I usually get around 70-90k miles.

I believe the lug nuts do not matter as much as the torque of the center 32 mm axle nut

I think I would get more out of my hubs, but I just tighten it with a breaker bar, and reuse the old nut , which is both "no" by the books.

Your mileage is right in the range that has been reported for quality hubs and seems reasonable.

Are you saying that you don't torque the old axle nut to spec?

 

[TourGuide]

45K on both fronts for my 2010 Explorer when they both failed.

No kidding?! Wow! What the hell happened there? No way should a vehicle be burning through bearings that fast. They both went out at the same time - or you just replaced them both?

When I bought my Explorer it had 96k on it and I had one or the other front that needed doing - so because of miles on the set I just replaced both fronts since at least one needed replacement and the other surely wasn't far behind.

 

[Explorer_PL]

Yep, never used a torque wrench on the axle nuts even thou I have one

 

[bschnur]

No kidding?! Wow! What the hell happened there? No way should a vehicle be burning through bearings that fast. They both went out at the same time - or you just replaced them both?

Not exactly sure why the early failure. Started getting a lot of front end noise and steering wheel vibration when slightly turning to the left. The noise and vibration got much worse over a 1,000 miles or so. The Ford dealership said the left was very bad, but that the right was wearing as well, so they replaced both under the power train warranty. Now the truck rides and sounds like new again.

 

[TourGuide]

Not exactly sure why the early failure. Started getting a lot of front end noise and steering wheel vibration when slightly turning to the left. The noise and vibration got much worse over a 1,000 miles or so. The Ford dealership said the left was very bad, but that the right was wearing as well, so they replaced both under the power train warranty. Now the truck rides and sounds like new again.

It's amazing to me that when they go bad - how fast it can happen. At first I couldn't tell if it was tires or not. I had the tires rotated and balanced and right after that was when I started hearing the noise - which I thought might be from the tire rotation. Finding out it was a bearing was a surprise.

This time I went with a Timken part from Amazon. They can be had there for ~$180 and they looked like a much higher quality part than the Motorcraft hubs I bought the last time. If it performs as I expect I'll use Timken parts from here on for bearings. I put them in the rear axles and those are doing fine.

 

[edwx]

I replaced my fronts last year at about 100K miles. My torque wrench wouldn't go above 200lbs so I just stood on the end of the breaker bar. I weigh about 220. So far so good at 118k.

BTW just had the rears done 2 weeks ago.

 

[admsbmr]

I had one go out at 10,000 miles, I believe it was a defect and Amazon sent me a new one to replace the one that failed. going good now at 1000 miles on the new hub.

 

[hwydave]

My right side is bad at 56k. The noise come out after the power train warranty expired. :-(