Wheel Bearings and Front Strut Mounts Worn | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Wheel Bearings and Front Strut Mounts Worn

Mikepaul

Well-Known Member
Joined
December 27, 2012
Messages
101
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1
City, State
Saskatchewan
Year, Model & Trim Level
2013 Explorer Limited
The wife's 2013 Explorer Limited was due for a service. It has 23,000 miles on it, 90% of it on the highway.

Recently she mentioned there was a whining sound at any speed and a clunking sound when she puts it into gear.

I had the oil change done at the dealer where I bought it and was told the rear wheel bearings are shot, parts are on order and come back next week.

I was also told the front strut mounts are shot are parts are unavailable. They will let me know when they become available.

I was also told that as of Dec. 31 2014 the dealer is done Ford and I will have to find another dealer to deal with any Explorer issues. The nearest one will be a 2 hour drive each way. Oh joy.

23,000 miles and a $54,500 upscale SUV needs wheel bearing and strut mounts. This is a testament to Ford quality.

This will be the last Ford product My wife and I will ever own.
 



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The wife's 2013 Explorer Limited was due for a service. It has 23,000 miles on it, 90% of it on the highway.

Recently she mentioned there was a whining sound at any speed and a clunking sound when she puts it into gear.

I had the oil change done at the dealer where I bought it and was told the rear wheel bearings are shot, parts are on order and come back next week.

I was also told the front strut mounts are shot are parts are unavailable. They will let me know when they become available.

I was also told that as of Dec. 31 2014 the dealer is done Ford and I will have to find another dealer to deal with any Explorer issues. The nearest one will be a 2 hour drive each way. Oh joy.

23,000 miles and a $54,500 upscale SUV needs wheel bearing and strut mounts. This is a testament to Ford quality.

This will be the last Ford product My wife and I will ever own.

Your repairs are under warranty, right? Relax. Take a breath. Price has nothing to do with it. If that were true, a $100,000 car would break less, and a $200,000 car would never break. We know that's not true.

As for the dealership closing, that sucks, but you live where you want to live for a reason.
 






I'm definitely glad that the repairs are under warranty, my main worry is the cost of repairs when the warranty runs out.
We had a 1995 Crown Vic for 9 years, a 2004 Crown Vic for 8 years, and 1999 F150 that I still have. Never a warranty claim on any of them, the F150 did have a recall on a cruise control wiring harness. All 3 were/are bullet proof.

We've had the Explorer for 19 months, the wheel bearings will be the 9th trip to the dealer (45 minute drive each way) , and the strut mounts will be the 10th trip when the parts are available.

You are correct, we live where we want to live for a reason. And where we choose to live we need a reliable vehicle. The Explorer isn't it. Ford doesn't make them like they used to. Wheel bearings and strut mounts at 23,000 miles says it all.
 






And how many miles away is the Chevy dealer? The Honda dealer? The Yugo dealer?
 






It will be the same as the Ford dealer, the nearest city is a 2 hour driver each way. I'm not assuming that the reliability of other brands is better than Ford. I was thinking of a Buick Enclave but it appears to have issues as well according to that forum, although I haven't found a 63 page thread on exhaust smell yet.
 






Good luck to you, as all vehicles can and do have issues. I'm back at Ford due to 4 sets of struts on a Honda. The Honda's tires never left concrete or asphalt. At the time of trade in it was under 30k miles. Honda never responded to any complaint. My first set of struts were 5k miles, but what pushed me over was resetting the computer during a normal oil change. That resulted in gas mileage 11 mpg from 32.

Back to the point, no auto manufacturer is perfect- always check the recalls and speak to owners as they should provide the down and dirty details.
 






Wheel bearings are a weird fail, though combining that with front strut mounts makes me wonder about the kinds of roads you have to drive on our there.

Sucks to have such a long trip, though I'm sure you have learned to be self sufficient in many things.

The fails you have are not typical, and unfortunately the Explorer is not as heavy duty a vehicle as the others you have owned. Good luck with the repairs.
 






It will be the same as the Ford dealer, the nearest city is a 2 hour driver each way. I'm not assuming that the reliability of other brands is better than Ford. I was thinking of a Buick Enclave but it appears to have issues as well according to that forum, although I haven't found a 63 page thread on exhaust smell yet.

You will find 63 pages of transmissions failures, steering rack failures, timing chain failures, and more.

I know - I came from a 2008 Buick Enclave to an Explorer after my 2nd transmission failure within 80k miles.
 






It appears it doesn't matter what brand you buy today, reliability of vehicles is not what it used to be. Both my wife and I do like the Explorer, hopefully we won't have to throw to much money at it once the warranty runs out.
 






I'm definitely glad that the repairs are under warranty, my main worry is the cost of repairs when the warranty runs out.
We had a 1995 Crown Vic for 9 years, a 2004 Crown Vic for 8 years, and 1999 F150 that I still have. Never a warranty claim on any of them, the F150 did have a recall on a cruise control wiring harness. All 3 were/are bullet proof. QUOTE]

You've had 3 bullet proof Fords and now one bad experience your EX and you vow to never buy another Ford ever again??? Really? C'mon....
Relax already and stop worrying about something that may never happen.
 






I'm an old dog that is used to reliability, something that apparently seems to be lacking in all makes these days from what I've been reading. As for worrying about something that may never happen, 10 trips to a dealer in 19 months does nothing for my confidence. Regardless, the wife says she wants to keep it so we'll see how it goes.
 






The wife's 2013 Explorer Limited was due for a service. It has 23,000 miles on it, 90% of it on the highway.

Recently she mentioned there was a whining sound at any speed and a clunking sound when she puts it into gear.

I had the oil change done at the dealer where I bought it and was told the rear wheel bearings are shot, parts are on order and come back next week.

I was also told the front strut mounts are shot are parts are unavailable. They will let me know when they become available.

I was also told that as of Dec. 31 2014 the dealer is done Ford and I will have to find another dealer to deal with any Explorer issues. The nearest one will be a 2 hour drive each way. Oh joy.

23,000 miles and a $54,500 upscale SUV needs wheel bearing and strut mounts. This is a testament to Ford quality.

This will be the last Ford product My wife and I will ever own.

Thank you for reaching out on the forum about this, Mikepaul. I understand that this is a frustrating situation. Has your local dealership completed the repair? Please let me know; I'll be on the lookout for a status update and will do all I can to assist.

Brittany
 






Yes it's frustrating, only because I'm not used to dealing with vehicle issues, something I apparently need to adjust to. The Explorer goes in tomorrow morning for the wheel bearings, I haven't yet heard when the strut mounts will be available.
 






Just got the Explorer back, parts came in for the struts so wheel bearings and struts are fixed as well as a loose exhaust mount. Hopefully this will be the last trip to the dealer. Fingers crossed.
 






Wheel bearings are a weird fail, though combining that with front strut mounts makes me wonder about the kinds of roads you have to drive on our there.

Well it appears he is from Saskatchewan. Google Saskatchewan road potholes and look in images tab and you'll see why there are failures. You need to make a concentrated effort to avoid all the holes in the road.
 






Google anywhere and you'll get images, they are not representative of actual driving conditions. I've never had a wheel bearing fail in 40+ years of driving. My F150 has 180,000 miles on it and the wheel bearings are fine.
 






Because of Saskatchewan's harsh weather and freeze/thaws... They probably have the worst roads in Canada. It's so bad on some highways you can tell when you cross the border from AB to SK without needing any signage. There was little money invested in infrastructure when SK was a have not province so it's going to take some time to get things where they should be now that they have the funds to do so.

I can see if you weren't diligent when driving and hit many potholes, this could happen.
 






Just got the Explorer back, parts came in for the struts so wheel bearings and struts are fixed as well as a loose exhaust mount. Hopefully this will be the last trip to the dealer. Fingers crossed.

Glad to hear that the repairs were made by the dealer, Mikepaul. Moving forward, please let me know if this issue becomes persistant or if you have any other questions; I'm happy to assist in any way I can.

Have a great day!

Brittany
 






Thank you Brittany. Moving forward we are hoping the Explorer will be trouble free.
 



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I have the same Issue on my 2011(out of warranty)
Upper strut bearing is gone on passenger side and I only have only 30000 Km(not miles)
Ford dealer told me that I need to replace both sides and it will cost me over 700 Cad dollars(parts ,labor and alignment).This is clearly a faulty bearing so why should I have pay from my own pocket to have it replaced.????
This is just ridiculous.I still consider this car in new condition and it is frustrating to have to pay repairs when you are still making payments on the original purchase.Ford should extend there warranty like many manufacturers do.
We purchased a WV for my wife the same time that we got the Ford and beside oil change we never had any other issue with it(no recalls ,no TSB and certainly no repairs)
I am strongly contemplating of trading this in for the new Q7 that will be available this year
P.S. All the km on the Ford are done in the city and we have very clean roads with no potholes or anything like that.
 






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