2006 Explorer Front Wheel Bearing

[brockdog08]

Hey everyone...saw a picture of the 2011 Explorer this morning, pretty sharp...anyway why I really am posting...I drove the wife's Explorer Saturday and noticed a slight, low volume hum from the front end that did not vary with road surface change. I have not noticed this before and I do not have this noise in my Mountaineer. Her tires have been replaced with Geolanders but that has been over a year ago. I don't recall road noise from them. Has anyone had a wheel bearing hub assembly fail on their Explorer and what were the symptoms if you did, how did you check it? This looks like something I can replace myself. Thank you in advance.

 

[edwx]

If the left front wheel bearing is going bad, it usually gets louder during a right hand turn, and quiets as you straighten out, or turn left. Of course the opposite is true for the right bearing. If both are bad at the same time, which was the case with my '03 X, it was just loud all the time. Both my front bearings went bad on my '03 X, but none on my '06.

 

[michael loibl]

you can jack up both front tires and spin the wheels by hand and compare the sound with ear close to rim. Also, rock the tire up and down with hands at 12 O'clock and 6 O'clock then 9 oclock and 3 oclock compare relative looseness. A bad tie rod would also cause loose 9 - 3 oclock test

 

[Explorer_PL]

I had the left rear go bad on my 2006 v8 twice; first the original one was bad and you could wiggle the whole wheel, and it was making noise at 75,000 miles. I had it replaced, and then few months later I started hearing a noise from the left side again, so I thought it's got to be the front since I replaced the rear. Wrong, I bought new front bearing on EBay and replaced it myself (not that hard) and the noise was still there. So I jacked up the car again and found that the "new" rear one went bad again. They replaced it again and no issues since then. You can do the front ones yourself, it's a whole assembly held by 3 or 4 bolts. The rears need to be pressed in into the knuckle (???) so you need a shop to do it.

Good luck

 

[eddie06]

Front Wheel Bearing Replacement

I had a loud whine from the front end, especially when taking right hand turns. It was in fact the front wheel bearing assembly. I ended up changing both however one way to determine what side is causing the issue is to jack up the car, remove the caliper and reinstall the wheel with a couple of lugs. You can easily determine which wheel is causing the issue. For me the right one was actually in worse shape however most woudl have looked at the left first.

If you are on a budget you can also pull it off and bench test it. If it is good you can put it back on and check the other side.

All in all from parking the car to pulling it back out of the garage it's about 1 hour 45 per side.( with air tools)
For 2006 the parts are prety expensive however the dealer was priced best at 252 per unit. ( For earlier years there are some really inexpensive ones on the net at 138+ but I rather spend a little more now and be safer in the long term)

Thanks again for all that posted their tips