Replaced rear wheel bearing, 2015 XLT w/ 21K miles

[mikepier]

Hi all, in the past few weeks, I've been noticing a roaring sound on my drivers side rear wheel when cruising on the highway, and it definitely sounds like a bad bearing. Its not extremely loud, but loud enough for me to notice.
Just to be sure, I swapped the front and rear tire to eliminate the possibility of it being the tire, and the noise was still these.
Is it common for these to go bad so soon? I have an appointment for the dealer this week.

 

[Sixonemale]

I had to replace my front passenger wheel bearing with less than 20,000 miles on my '15 Explorer.

 

[mikepier]

Update: I had my son drive the care on a quiet highway while I was in the back. The sound is not just confined to one wheel, I can't tell which side its coming from, it sounds like both sides, which leads me to believe it is the differential that has the bad bearing sound.
Is this a common issue?

 

[peterk9]

Update: I had my son drive the care on a quiet highway while I was in the back. The sound is not just confined to one wheel, I can't tell which side its coming from, it sounds like both sides, which leads me to believe it is the differential that has the bad bearing sound.
Is this a common issue?

I don't believe it is. You can always try using the Forum's 'Search' function to check it out.

 

[mikepier]

I did search, and I did not get too many results back for "rear diff noise" or "rear axle noise".
Now I'm afraid if I take it into the dealer, they are going to tell me they could not find anything.
I've driven cars with bad bearings before, and this definately sounds like a bad bearing. I just cant narrow it down to where the noise is coming from.
The only thing different I did recently was rotate the tires, but I doubt this is the issue since the stock Hanook tires have been pretty quiet since I owned the truck.

 

[Sixonemale]

A fairly easy test to find out if it's a front wheel bearing going bad is to drive around 40 mph or so and turn the steering wheel to left and then to the right to find out if one direction is silent or has less noise. If it's your driver's side wheel bearing it may be more silent or quieter if you turn the steering wheel slight to left because your putting more pressure on the passenger wheel bearing. And vice versa, if you turn to the right it you should hear the current noise and maybe even louder.

A back wheel bearing is a bit more difficult to pin point in the early stages. A tech was able to detect by coasting down a grade keeping the ambient noise as quiet as possible and then he slightly turned the steering wheel each direction and one direction produced a slightly louder noise and he knew immediately that the source of the noise was a wheel bearing.

 

[mikepier]

I did try the side to side test on the road, made no noticeable difference in the sound.
Pretty stumped right now.

 

[peterk9]

You may have to try getting it up on a hoist and see if that may help in pinpointing where the noise is coming from.

Peter

 

[Sixonemale]

I did try the side to side test on the road, made no noticeable difference in the sound.
Pretty stumped right now.

It took me almost no time at all to detect a bad front wheel bearing on my '15 Explorer, but it took lots of trial and error and over a year to finally pin point a bad rear wheel bearing on my '02 Explorer, so I understand your frustration. Hopefully the dealer has something similar to stethoscope for vehicles so that they can easily isolate the source of the noise.

 

[mikepier]

I searched and googled everywhere, and got no hits of this problem, so I hope the dealer does find something.
Otherwise if they cant, I might raise the car on all 4's and run it in gear to try and find the problem.

 

[Sixonemale]

I searched and googled everywhere, and got no hits of this problem, so I hope the dealer does find something.
Otherwise if they cant, I might raise the car on all 4's and run it in gear to try and find the problem.

As discussed, rear wheel bearings are not easily diagnosed. I had one mechanic that absolutely thought it was the front wheel bearing on my '02 and replaced it only to find after further diagnosis with another mechanic it was the rear wheel bearing. Good luck.

 

[mikepier]

UPDATE: Well I got ambitious and decided to put my Explorer off all 4's and run it in gear. I used 2 jacks in the back , and 2 jacks in the rear. I made sure there was a clear path in the front in case if the car hit the floor.
I first was in the drivers seat,a and my son stood outside to hear the noise, and sure enough when the car hit about 35MPH, we heard the noise coming from the rear.
My son and I switched places, and I stood outside, and the bearing noise was coming from the drivers side rear. The passengers side was fine. So at least I know now where its coming from, and I can tell the dealer.

 

[idahobobb]

glad you found it.....ala ferris bueller style.

 

[mikepier]

Thanks. I meant to say I put 2 jack STANDS in the front, and 2 jacks in the back.

Putting those jack stands under those lifting points (pinch points) in the front made me a little nervous.as they do not look like all that supportive.
I would have rather placed them under something beefier like a control arm mount.

For the rear, I placed each jack under the control arm mounting point.

 

[mikepier]

UPDATE: Dealer found both rear bearings bad. Replaced them, all is good now.

I'm just curious now how long it will be before the front ones go. I have a feeling they must have had a bad batch at the assembly plant when they built my truck. From what I understand the front and rear hub bearing assemblies are the same part number.

 

[Daheim111]

Have also a kind of noise (pulsating while driving especially on the highway) / thought until now it comes from the tires but I am not sure...

Next step for me: Is it not possible to measure temperature difference between the bearings after stress (f.ex. with infrared tool on all rotor center surfaces) ? Bad bearings must give a measurable temp difference ?

 

[JETZ]

How much did the dealer charge to repair?
How does the dealer test for this?

UPDATE: Dealer found both rear bearings bad. Replaced them, all is good now.

I'm just curious now how long it will be before the front ones go. I have a feeling they must have had a bad batch at the assembly plant when they built my truck. From what I understand the front and rear hub bearing assemblies are the same part number.

 

[Daheim111]

Sorry, once again: 1. Is it not possible to measure temperature difference between the bearings after stress (f.ex. with infrared tool on all rotor center surfaces) ? Bad bearings must give a measurable temp difference ?
2. A problem it means a noise from wheel bearings must disappear or become less noisy once I use the brakes !?? Correct ?

3. Is it not possible to check problems with OBD (look at this video below / the part about 4 min. from beginning) ?

 

[UtahX]

I just replaced the driver side front wheel hub assembly, 201,000. Closing checking on the passenger side front now. $250. Going out after only 21,000 is a joke.

 

[peterk9]

I just replaced the driver side front wheel hub assembly, 201,000. Closing checking on the passenger side front now. $250. Going out after only 21,000 is a joke.

You had 201,000 miles on the left side hub and 21,000 on the right. Is that correct?