Wheel bearing already? Again?

[Tha Fella Dylan]

So here's the story: (Drivers side, Front, FWD, NT)

Before winter came, I decided to do all the maintenance before the lovely Michigan cold weather prevented me from doing stuff myself. In that process, I discovered I had a bad wheel bearing. The auto parts store here only had one brand: Duralast. Hadnt heard many great things but decided I'd give them a shot as the nearest other parts store was an hour away. (I live in a rural area). Bought the hub assembly, had my trusted mechanic install it, all was well.

Now what happened lastnight:

For the passed two weeks ive been hearing a humming sound coming from that same wheel, the one I repaired maybe 6 months ago. Lastnight i was on my way home from work and the vibrating got signifigantly worse. To the point where i could feel it in the whole car. I slow down on the freeway, and i could hear what sounded like metal on metal. I jacked up my car on the shoulder of the expressway, had TONS of play from top and bottom and side to side. The outside of my tire was ate up too. Towed it home, here we are.

Since the new bearing I put maybe 10,000 miles on it over 6 months. Could it just be a defective part? My mechanic thinks so but doesnt wanna have me blowing more money and throwing parts and cash at it. What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance, sorry about all the reading....just wanted to be descriptive.

 

[95talongirl]

Stay away from the Chinese crap. Those won't last very long, as you found out. Maybe once in a while, you get lucky with one, but more often than not, you are lucky to get a year or two out of them. I used to defect exchange them all the time when I worked for the auto parts store.

The other ones tend to cost more, but IMO its worth it.

Also check your ball joints and alignment. If the tire is wearing oddly, you are probably looking at some more suspension work.

 

[Tha Fella Dylan]

Update to anyone who may read this down the road. Dont buy the cheaper parts. I learned the hard way, again. Two weeks ago i replaced my wheel hub assembly again. Last night it busted again on the expressway and almost totaled my car and came close to dying.

Cheaper parts are not worth it.

 

[luv2rallye]

Cheaper parts are not worth it.

Ya we keep telling people this constantly (along with you get what you pay for) but they don't want to hear it or don't care. This is the buy it as cheap as you can generation. So don't waste your breath on what's been said millions of times before cause people always ignore what they don't want to hear.

 

[kclan]

Ya we keep telling people this constantly (along with you get what you pay for) but they don't want to hear it or don't care. This is the buy it as cheap as you can generation. So don't waste your breath on what's been said millions of times before cause people always ignore what they don't want to hear.

Sadly this is so true. I try to go for the more costly options but try and get them cheaper. Got to love rockauto

 

[knochgoon24]

If you got it from Autozone, get the Timken next time. They will let you "upgrade" from the Duralast to the Timken. You'll just have to pay the difference in price.

And if the store doesn't, just call corporate and they'll take care of you. I've never seen a company so quick to give the customer whatever they want, no matter the cost, for the sake of "retaining a valuable customer."

Most mechanical parts branded as Duralast are just parts made by various companies, supplied by the lowest bidder. Occasionally, you'll get a gem, like a repackaged Moog ball joint or a TRW tie rod end. And some stuff is even OEM. But that's becoming much rarer now.

And NEVER buy the Valuecraft or TrueGrade suspension products.

 

[SmoochDarling]

I have only done 2 wheel bearings in my life, both timken parts. 1st one failed, 2nd seems to be ok...

 

[WES_393]

I replaced both front hubs with cheap Master Pro parts and they both failed in 1k miles. No to mention they took the rotors with them. I coughed up the extra cash and upgraded to their Precision hubs and have yet to have issues.

Immediate failure isn't just possible, it's nearly guaranteed with the cheap hubs.

 

[boarderlib]

Duralast is worthless. I bought a Duralast water pump for an Explorer I had. I put it in everything was fine for 3 months. While my wife was out driving the beast, it overheated. I went to the rescue. I got it back to the house and tore into it, only to find the fins on the water pump were half gone. Moral of the story. I saved like 40 bucks on the pump, and spent almost 2000 to fix the Explorer. Heads were trashed from the overheat. I bought better parts the second go around, and put almost 90000 more miles on the pump. It was still running when I got rid of it.