10 Wheel bearings so far in 115K miles, 11th coming soon I think.

[Explorer_PL]

Yes, 10 (4 original ones of course in it) wheel bearings so far my 06 Explorer has used.
Left front, and right rear still factory ones: total = 2.

Front right: OEM lasted about 99K (ABS sensor went bad in it, not realy the bearing), bought a replacement on EBay for 110 bucks, lasted 500 miles or so, sent it back to them, got a new one (both made in China). That one was loose as soon as I put it on the car, so 0 miles. After that I bought Motorcraft one from Ford for $ 320 so total = 4

Right rear: OEM lasted 75K, shop replaced it for $ 380, lasted 25K miles, they replaced it again under warranty, lasted about 14K, wheel was wiggling both, times. Since out of warranty on that, bought again a Motorcraft one for $108, took the rear apart, took the knuckle to a shop with a press and for $ 50 they replaced it. Total = 4

Now I am driving and I hear the noise again coming I believe from front right. That one was replaced 15K miles ago with the OEM one - I am going nuts here !

I tow a trailer ocasionally, and I plow in the winter, but c'mon Ford. I am reading people have this issues with just "driving" the car to work.

 

[Cozmik]

Welcome to my nightmare. I have replaced my right front 3 times now. Last time was 6 months and approx 1500 km ago...guess what needs replaced again??

My only original bearing is right rear. Left rear done twice and left front done once. Ex only has about 75,000 miles on it.(120,500km) Other than that my Ex is great.

 

[PEAR0119]

We are about to replace all 4 wheel bearing in our 2003 X with 92K miles on it. The front right was replaced about 40K miles ago and is done all others are still OEM bearing from the factory. We bought only SKF bearings for the front and bought Timken for the rear. We will see how long they last.

I have 45K miles on my 06 on original bearings and no noise as of yet.

 

[Explorer_PL]

Whoa -

so I am not the only one in the club.

Are you using Motorcraft, Timken or others ?

 

[PEAR0119]

Whoa -

so I am not the only one in the club.

Are you using Motorcraft, Timken or others ?

Actually I think that the OEM Motorcraft ones use Timken bearings, well at least the one that was replaced at about 50K miles was an OEM from Ford that used Timken bearings. I have no idea what they use now, since this was about 3 years ago.

We are replacing the bearings as we speak. The front hub/bearing assembly that we are now using are SFK. The rears are Timken.

SKF bearings IMO are the best you can buy. They are pricey but definitely worth the extra dough.

 

[nleipziger]

92K and still have all originals on the vehichle. Don't seem to have and problems yet. Just lucky I guess.

 

[PEAR0119]

We got the two front ones in. Working on the rears, they are much more of a PITA then the front. But I must say after taking them off they needed to be replaced thats for sure.

We also took this opportunity to change the transfer case and front diff fluid. Will be changing the rear fluid as well. I totally forgot how much gear oil stinks, WOW.

 

[PEAR0119]

Just out of curiosity, are the rear wheel bearings pressed into the spindle just like the 3rd gens are?

 

[Explorer_PL]

yes, you need to get the knuckle of the truck, and bring it to the shop with press but I took mine off in 40 minutes including the main brakes and stupid e-brake. I think the 4th gen is easier than 3rd. I read someones step-by-step how he took the knuckle off on his 3rd gen, and they need to bang and pry the links and whatever there was. The 06-10 are held by 3 18mm bolts if I recall correctly (it was only 2 weeks ago and few other small ones, but nothing major.

 

[PEAR0119]

Man, we just took all 4 bearings off my dads 03. What a pain in the ass the rear toe link and upper ball joints took about an hour to come out on both sides. What a pain in the ass that was they were so rusted in there we hammered a chisel in the gap to get it as wide as we could and used a BFH to break them free.

Thats the reason I asked about the rears cause I know how much of a pain they are on the 3rd gen to take out and was wondering if mine ( 06 Explorer) were going to be a pain.

We went and bought a 12 ton press at the local parts store for $120. Ford wanted $125 to press them out and press the new ones in, and that was only for one side. So we gladly going to be pressing out the bearings ourselves.

 

[Explorer_PL]

I was concerned and thought it would take me half a day to take it apart, but it was so quick. I used electric impact wrench (110V) which helped, also, that side was taken apart not too long ago, but I think regardless it was not as the previous generation. Nothing to spread apart like that.

The only thing, it took number of rings and washers and blocks to position the knuckle on the press, i was standing next to the guy doing it. The 3 "ears" do not make it easy.