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front wheel bearings

fordmanwv

Member
Joined
September 5, 2011
Messages
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City, State
South Charleston WV
Year, Model & Trim Level
2010 Explorer XLT
With 90k on the 2010 the front bearings are making noise time to replace. Anyone have any suggestions as to quality,brand and price. This is second time replacing them. Wish I could get 100k out of a set. Thanks for any help.
 



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What did you use the first time?
 






Motorcraft are the highest quality based on users comments here over the years. Search the internet for prices as they are all over. I found mine on eBay from a Ford dealer in the SE. 80K seems to my observation of how long they last based replacing them on two Explorers (150K and current one at 180K).
 












My original fronts made it to 115,000 on the passenger side and 130,000 on the driver side. Replaced both with Motorcraft. I just did the driver side rear with Timken this week at 138,000 miles, Quiet for now but that passenger rear original bearing will surely need replacement soon
 






motorcraft uses timken bearings, so thats what I went with. The one I puled out was a motorcraft and the bearing did indeed say timken on it.... There are two different part numbers for early vs late years, and the difference is only the length of the abs wire or position of the clips.... Mine is also a 2010 and this one worked perfectly, the wire was the right length with the right clips, This is what you want Timken HA590156 https://www.amazon.com/Timken-HA590156-Front-Bearing-Assembly/dp/B009AA2HDO
 






i also heard motorcraft are/were the best, but i wasn't willing to spend that much moola for them. went to autozone trying to find ones that have lifetime warranty. unfortunately they had ones that were 2year warranty i think. I believe the prior ones i had were from ebay some detroit parts or something like this. lasted a few thousand miles. when you buy things from autozone, and return under warranty.... no questions asked. I returned sway links that were just pure trash as well as other parts that have lifetime warranty.
 












I want the best front hub that money can buy.... is it Ford ? SKF ? or BCA(owned by NTN) ?

Originals lasted 80,000 miles.... Put in 2 Ford Hubs.... one only only lasted 20,000 miles and Ford replaced it under warranty.... the other is just starting to growl bad at another 80,000....

I hate hubs - so want the longest life part I can buy..........
 






The oem parts are made by timkin, so that's what I used when I replaced mine.
 






I have used both timkin and the oem motercraft the timkins lasted ~30k original motorcraft 93k miles. I would recommend motorcraft, SKF, or timkin.

If you search on here bearings are hit and miss some expencive bearing last some dont. The same is true for the cheap ebay bearings people have had them last a really long time. Use what you want brand name or ebay/ non name brand bearings you may get luckey.
 






Make sure you torque it properly. If you use a gun to tighten it, you are crushing it, and the life expectancy is much lower.
 






i bought hubs when replacing mine. Have not had any problems. I got OEM from Amazon for a good price then getting them from auto parts stores or the dealer.
 












Just took a new NTN hub out of the box and just spun it for fun.....Did not spin smooth like I was expecting, felt like tiny notches in places, as I spun it.....about 15 degrees apart...

Is this a bad new NTN hub or something with the ABS sensor or what should they feel like when you spin them by hand....I am use to bearing spinning SMOOTH......
 






Just took a new NTN hub out of the box and just spun it for fun.....Did not spin smooth like I was expecting, felt like tiny notches in places, as I spun it.....about 15 degrees apart...

Is this a bad new NTN hub or something with the ABS sensor or what should they feel like when you spin them by hand....I am use to bearing spinning SMOOTH......
Should definitely be smooth like your were expecting. I'd you feel notched at home speed.. then the bearings won't last at highway speeds.
 






Agreed, my new always felt perfectly smooth in my hands. Used ones always felt notchy
 






I did have one timkin on my explorer feel a little notchy in my hands when I fist got it, but a different kind of notchy than a bad bearing, like, a smoother notchy, if that makes sense, which i know it doesn't..... Its been fine for close to 10k so far.
If you aren't comfortable with it though definitely see about an exchange,
 






The only Motorcraft offered on RockAuto for the 4th Gen is a "service grade" variety, which I suspect is sourced from China. This is not the same quality as the 3rd gen HUB-67 OEM version (which some have said was made by Timken).

There is a suggestion on this thread that the only differences between the two front hubs is the length of the ABS wire. If true, and your old wire is still good, and you can pry it out of the hub without breaking it, then you'd be better off buying the HUB-67 (see the 3rd gen pick list), not the 4th Gen Motorcraft "service grade" part. Service grade is lower quality/cost line designed to compete with aftermarket stuff, for high-mileage vehicles that people don't want to spend more $$ for parts on, based on my research. If anyone else has alternative, reliable info, I'm all ears. I have no idea why Ford only offers "service grade" front hubs for 4th gens now--but it might have something to do with the fact that (I believe) they sold a lot less 4th gens than 3rd gens.

I've read that the timken and the OE wiring harnesses are identical. If you order the Timken part, and you can successfully pry out the ABS wire from your old hub (they sometimes break), you can save a little hassle by using the old wire, and save the new wire as a spare (or sell it on Ebay). As an aside, you can also buy the ABS wires (OE and aftermarket) new, separately, but they ain't cheap.

According to Ford Tech Makulocko (sp?), on 4wd models, proper torque of the axle nut is critical. He says in a YouTube video (5 years ago), that you can ruin even an OE hub in 5,000 miles if you don't accurately torque the axle nut (for proper "preload"). I'm not sure if this is all in his head or not, b/c I'm not seeing how the same hub, mounted to a 2wd model, operates so well w/o any "preload" from an axle nut at all. Just sayin' . . . .

I got 195k miles out of each front bearing on my '02 (3rd gen) Hub-67 Explorer XLS (2wd). Pretty good. I replaced them with WJB HD hubs (so far, perfect) b/c I figure that truck is not going to last more than 300k miles before it starts rusting badly. Seemed cost efficient. I also used never-seize around the interface between the hub and the knuckle (the surface that is most responsible for causing the hub to be hard to remove), relying on the new hub bolts and geometry/physics (rather than rust) to hold it all together. Works perfect, and it will be much easier to change a second time, if nec. So far, no issues.
 



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I have replaced mine with HUB-67 on my 06 many times. They fit just fine.
 






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