Wheel bearing questions (races)..... And Sears run around!

[doonze]

Ok, so, here's my story (those that know me know I HAVE to tell the WHOLE story!!!)

Last week I go to my local Wal-mart to get my tires rotated and balanced. It had been about 6k miles, and was time. I have the lifetime R/B thingie, so yeah. So all is well it seems, but when I start driving home it's pulling HARD to the left, and the wheel sits at about a 6-10 degree angle to go straight. Now I know enough to know that a normal Rotation shouldn't do ANYTHING to the alignment, so I'm thinking either something let loose while it was on the lift, or they lifted it wrong somehow and messed it up. So today I take it to Sears (for alignment), tell them whats what, and that I want to document anything in case it's Wal-mart's fault.

Well, I get the call......wheel bearings they say, they are so bad in fact they can't even do an alignment, and that they seen them this loose causing problems like what i have. $68 to fix they say, I say ok.

So we mess around the mall and come back, guy says "oops, I quoted you wrong, I quoted you for $68 for both (2 wheel drive), but the real price is supposed to be $119+ PER SIDE (4 wheel drive), I say, you told me $68, and what I'm paying is $68, if not, then stop them and give me my truck back....

So he goes out into the shop, comes back and says "They have the right side done already, we'll do if for the 68$ plus 9.99 for the oil seal, because that wasn't in the quote I gave you before. Ok, I say....but the wife hears this and notices something I didn't.... They were just talking about ONE SIDE, not both here.....I had thought they were talking about BOTH. So she JUMPS ALL OVER THE GUY, and once I understand what they were trying to say I'm all like. "When I said OK, it was to 68$ for BOTH SIDES, your NOT going to charge me $68 and only do ONE SIDE! Either I get both for $68 like you said when I said ok, or you give me my truck back right now, and you get nothing at all and I'll do the other side myself"

They gave me a bunch of flack about "It was so bad, we would have had to have you sign a safety waiver to leave here even" And blah blah blah. So he goes back to talk to the "manager" again, comes back and says "We'll do both for the $68 I promised, and then $9.99 for the oil seals. Our normal price to do all this is $270 before tax." So, in the end, I said ok, just get it done, and they did.

Now my question is, at one point, before all the run around, something had been said about possible warped races. It got lost in the back and forth about the prices of the work, but once I got home I remembered it. So if I got warped races, how will I know?

Also it no longer pulls left, now it pulls right!!! LOL, used the alignment money on the bearings today, so going to get a proper alignment next week....

 

[Gadget X]

That's why I WON'T go to sears for auto work! You can buy new bearings (with races) for @$15 or so apiece, and seals for $5 or so apiece. That comes to @$70 total for all front bearings, races, and seals! That's a savings of $200 to you for doing your own bearings!

 

[pteepee69]

Replaced mine on the right side Sunday. I noticed going to work friday night every time I turned to the left it sounded like metal to metal brake sound. So at the bottom of my drive saturday morning I stopped to lock my hubs in and gave my right wheel a good tug. Pretty sloppy. So at the parts house I figure I'm gonna go ahead and replace both sides. $80 for inside and outside bearings and seals.

So sunday afternoon I get up and get to work. Take off the wheel. Take off my hub and spindle nuts. Pull my rotor off with several good tugs and..... ain't it funny when you see how things could have been a bad accident..... No inside bearing. Completely gone. The roller bearings fall out on the ground. The outer lip of the oil seal and the inner part of the bearing that goes onto the spindle is all that was left. Needless to say the steering was a lot better on the way to work sunday night.

 

[doonze]

I agree, I don't have them do my work in most cases, and was only there for the alignment (and I tried to get in 5 other places before I gave up and went to Sears), to say it was BAD, would be an understatement, at 70 if you let the wheel go it would run you off the road the second you let go, it turned HARD. And I had priced the parts already, this was to be a project I was going to do myself soon (I knew the wheel bearings were iffy). So for the $94 I spent, tax and all, it wasn't too bad. I WOULD NOT have payed the $300 for the job. But I had to have it done NOW, TODAY, couldn't wait till tomorrow, and light was getting short too.

I would have rather had new bearing, races, and everything all around, but like I was saying, had to have it for work this week, and the way it WAS...well.... I knew something was major wrong, couldn't drive it like that.

But it no longer pulls left at all, now it pulls right, just not as bad. I didn't have them do the alignment, so that still needs to be done.....

I have a feeling I might just redo the whole thing, rotors and all, this summer....just to be SURE it's perfect.....

 

[Gadget X]

I think that would definitely be your best bet! I know what you mean about the sears thing being an emergency, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do! Good luck!

 

[doonze]

But, back to the question, if your bearings have been redone how do you tell if your races are warped, what should I be looking for? I'm going to assume they packed them right, and they tightened them right, so what should I look out for, nothing else changed but it stopped pulling to the left, there were not "other" sounds to clue me to a wheel bearing problem, I had just noticed a little play in them when I had the wheels off the ground last fall.

 

[Gadget X]

I think that if the races were warped, then you would have vibrations and "roaring". If the wheels roll smoothly, and there's no vibrations or anything when you're driving, then they should be ok. Just jack up the front wheels from time to time and check for play, it's a good preventative measure anyway! Good luck.

 

[Tony H]

In the end. you had Rear seal and Bearings replaced? No Races?

A warped race would not cause a Pull. It would cause a shimmy in the front. It's literally Bearings rolling over bumps.
The pull to the Right. Probably their ****ty alignment job.

Teh people that know more about Ailigning a car then anyone else is a Collision shop. They do it more often then any Firestone, goodyear or Sears. See if you can convince a collision shop to do it for you.