Hub Bearing Failure ??

[sljccj]

I started having a friction type noise in the front driver side break area. I took it apart and one the caliper pucks was sticking. I replaced the pads and rotors and the driver side caliper (the passinger side was fine) Any how I still have the noise it sounds similar to break drag but I noticed when I turn right it quiets down but as soon as the wheel is straight again it comes back when I turn left its still there. I think maybe the dragging caliper dried the grease out of the hub bearing. However I am not certian. I am a Mustang guy and this 4x4 stuff is new to me. I bought this 98 explorer for my wife. Its driving me nuts when I drive it listening to this noise and I worry if its a hub bearing.... will suddenly fail and break?. .....How can I be certian if its the Hub bearing or CV shaft? BTW the CV Shaft on the driver side appears to have been replaced.... I have jacked the truck up and tried to wiggle the wheel and I do not feel any play side to side or top to bottom. Please help me out here, I did use search but didnt find any exact info. Thanks Shawn

 

[jblackbu]

Mine does the same thing. It's probably the hub. I hear the Ford replacement is way $$$. So try Pep Boys.
Good luck.

 

[mrboyle]

Sounds like the driver wheel bearing is bad.

 

[sljccj]

thanks. I am leaning towards the hub bearing also. I just hate to throw $ at it and just be guessing.

 

[agallant]

Same thing happend to my truck. It was the driver side hub. Here is hw you test it.

Get going about 40mph or more
Turn the weel to the left and then again to the right
Which ever side the weaght of the truck is on when the noise stopps is the hub that needs to be replaced. IE if you turn left the weight of the truck will be on the right tire.

I got the hub from Auto one for $198 better than the dealer @ $390. The hub also comes with an ABS unit attached to it.

The reason why the hub os bad in the 4x4 is the bolt that holds the CV joint in the hub will some times loosen causing watter to enter betwen the CV plate and the back of the hum. Now there are seals here but they do fail. That is why mine went bad. You can not repack the unit i tried you end updestroying it in the process.

Whe you change the unit make sure you have some bering grease to luricate between the CV plait and the back of the hub. also clean out the hole that the hub its in to. If watter got in there all of the grease will have turned a wired green color and there will be some rust.

Trus me his is what is wrong with your truck. I went throught the same exact thing a few weeks ago. Also if you let the hub go longer the humming noise will turn in to a grinding noise. I let mine go and it took about 3 months for it to get to that point.

Best of luck,
-AG

 

[Opera House]

On mine the wheel would kick in noticibly when you jacked up the lower arm. You can grease these through the sensor hole but it is possible to snap off the sensor because the first 0.2 inch of the hole rusts pretty bad. An oversize thread zerk fitting fits in nice to force the grease in. This would only be temporary if you have noise. If the internal grease is polyurea base this could be very incompatable with common lithium greases. I was able to get Timken (same as factory) locally for only $140, shop around.

 

[sljccj]

agallant,

What you said about turning the wheel is true. when I turn right and transfer the weight to the driverside the noise goes away. and when I turn left it gets louder. So its definitely a wheel hub bearing. I found a source to get them for 99.00 plus shipping thru ebay...... I will check it out, if its true I will post about it. Thanks for all your help guys. Ill keep you posted on the repair. Later Shawn

 

[agallant]

Yeah what happens is when the grease dries up the bearings have no lubrication and ware down. Orignaly i thought that it was the passangers front thinking that when the weight was taken of of the wheel the noise stopped but what happens is when more weagh goes on the wheel it compresses the hub and no noise because every thing is packed tightly again. It is real easy to replace. took me aout an hour and a half with standord tools (No air tools).

-AG

 

[sljccj]

Sounds good Thanks for sharing the info with me.

 

[sljccj]

I replaced the hub and the noise is gone.

Now the new problem is this.

My wife ran the explorer through the car wash yesterday whiule the old hub was still on it. now today the 4x4 high and low lights in dash are blinking on and off. and it will not let me turn on the 4 wheel drive. 1998 xlt explorer. Is there a way to reset the computer to see if it just had a problem due to the old hub failure?

 

[sljccj]

Just a quick update..... I jumped into the chat room and the guys helped me out. I disconnected the neg battery cable and reset the puter and the 4x4 lights quit flashing and the 4x4 now works,

My 98 X is now a pleasure to drive again. No annoying noise and it now has excellant breaks to. I replaced the rotors and the driver side caliper and the front pads. Thanks for everyones input I really apreciate it. Have a Great Weekend!!

Shawn

 

[itbejared]

ok.. now you guys are talking about replacing the entire hub with the bearing in it... My bearings have just started to squeek and I was wanting to just replace the actual bearing and not the entire hub assembly. has anyone tried to do this? aren't the bearings just pressed in?

 

[jasonb]

you can't. they are a sealed unit.

 

[itbejared]

thats horrible... there is some lovely engineering on Ford's part.

 

[sljccj]

There is a guy on ebay who starts the bidding out at 99.00 on new hubs.

 

[itbejared]

did you end up getting yours from him? If you did, would you buy from him again? If he treated you OK I would be willing to do that.

Thanks

 

[sljccj]

I bought mine from someone else on ebay. But the other guy has excellent feed back. I cant access my ebay page from work so Ill post the info later this evening.

 

[itbejared]

hey thanks.. I was poking around on ebay and say a couple of potential candidates. thanks again for the info and help.

 

[sljccj]

here is the guy I bought mine from. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42605&item=2462031029

 

[itbejared]

$50 not bad... now if only it would go for that