please help, my 03, eats rear hubs. :(

[hardcorekid83]

hello,
im new on this forum. i opened it because i have a big problem. i have an 03 ford explorer 4.6. i bought it used with 70,000 miles on it. like 3months after i bought it i had to change the rear driver side hub. now i cant afford to take it to the ford shop so i did it myself. i torq everything to specs. i have put about 80,000 miles on it and in that 80,000 i have had to change the rear hubs about 8 times. my dad paid for me to take it to a shop to get it inspected one time and they said i needed all four done so he paid to have them do it and ive changed the hubs atleast 3 times since then. this truck is sucking the life out of me. my whole life i had bought beaters. then i was like ok, im gunna spend some money buy somethin nice and somethin i dont have to work on. i have never worked on a vehicle so much as this explorer. is there anyone that can help me? im ready to either jump off a cliff or push this $13000 turd off a cliff!

thanks

 

[tower]

Welcome, sorry you truck is giving you problems.


What brand hub have you been installing? Is it just the drivers rear or are others going out too?

If you have been using a good one like Timken and have been installing them correctly I would start looking elsewhere. My first stop would be the knuckle, it is rare but if the cast is in any way worn in the raceway it will eat bearings and hubs. I would just replace it as it would be almost imposable to tell if it was worn (other then you would be going though lots of bearings), you can get a used one $50-$100. How are the shocks? To much bouncing could lead to bearing failure. I am guessing that you have had new tires and an alignment in 80k miles but if not have the alignment checked, if that side is fare out then that also could lead to a bearing going out.

Good luck please keep us posted on what you find.