Wheel Bearings - Signs Your Due to Change Them

For folks who’ve moved past their original wheel bearings what signs, in order of increasing severity, indicated you were due for some new bearings? I’ve got bigger wheels and tires. And I’ve done some moderate wheeling. Specific to 5th Gens. what should I watch out for? Also, what can one expect to pay to have new OEM bearings put in. Thanks in advance.

 

You can tell when driving tusts me.

 

That and the pitch of noise will change when loaded through a turn on that side.

 

Just want to make sure it’s not something that goes unnoticed then suddenly catastrophic failure.

 

Unless you hit something and it breaks instantly. Which would probably break other stuff too.

You will hear and feel it first.

 

When you replace them, be sure to get OEM bearings and order the hub and bearing assembly pre-pressed. Makes it a helluva lot easier. bluepitbearings.com is one source.

 

I have a 22 lifted and bigger tires. Heard a groan took it to Toyota and I need a new front differential (covered) and a passenger wheel bearing. I have 72k miles. The wheel bearing is 1,004 dollars installed. The bearing is also covered. We off road a lot. Just got back from Moab, Colorado and Arizona. Was it the off-roading or 72k miles? Or a combination of all.

 

A guy on Tacoma World makes and sells quality wheel bearing/ hub assemblies from Hawaii. I bought a set in 2019 for my FJ, which had 242,000 miles on the original wheel bearings. His set also includes new studs for the lug nuts.

 

While 72k is on the lower side I wouldn't say its impossible to go bad by then.

Now why the hell it costs so much to replace is another story.

 

There is actually a TSB (quiet recall) where Toyota is replacing the front diff, and bushings that hold the front diff up. Its called a TSB short for Toyota Service Bulletin. Its basically one of those things they put out as a quiet recall, something they realize is wrong but not something everybody is going to notice or have a problem with. So rather than do a massive recall costing them a fortune they put out a TSB and basically tell the service managers "if someone comes in complaining about this or having xxxx problems, refer to this service bulletin and if they qualify we will pay for it."

No your diff didnt go bad in 72,000 miles, BUT the 16-22 models did have a bit more slack in the outboard bearing and along with the cheap outboard bearing in the diff, it causes a harmonic vibration in the inner CV joints that most people hear as a humming or vibration sound at 40-45mph. The bearing is essentially the problem, but the machining tolerances on these years made the bearing and harmonics worse so they are replacing them for people who come in complaining or have issues.
NOW, the wheel bearings are likely from the larger tires and hitting rocks and such. Think about the stuff you've done and then try to mentally calculate how long on pavement it would have taken you to also have that same amount of abuse. It takes a whole lot of pot holes to give the same amount of loads as aggressive wheeling and riding lots of rocky roads would do.

I have seen on the low side about 120,000 miles for front wheel bearings, and 250,000 miles on the high side of normal.
Sure your 72,000 miles is going to bring the low side numbers down a bit, but i have heard of 1st gen tundra guys getting 400,000 miles out of their stock front wheel bearings. There isnt exactly a mileage at which they quit, i think its mostly due to water, sand, ect ect. People who cross streams and creeks are likely going to have much shorter lifespan versus someone who drives a shipping route from Atlanta to Dallas on the highway every day. The same thing happens with offroad machines, for example, if you take your ATV which is meant for offroad and you ride it on trails and for recreation its not uncommon to get 5000-10,000 miles out of wheel bearings. If you are a person who rides in the mud a lot, and treats the machine like a submarine, you are lucky to get 1000 miles out of wheel bearings and if you ride lots of sandy creeks you are lucky to get 200-500 miles out of wheel bearings.

If you are "in-tune" with your vehicle you will hear wheel bearings. The vast majority of time they go dry and start making a metallic hissing sound almost like brakes dragging the rotor. You should hear it audibly when your windows are down and driving on a bridge or next to a building. You can normally tell its a wheel bearing if you hear it echo'ing against a building and you turn your wheel one direction and then the other, if the sound shuts up when you turn one way, and not the other, its normally putting enough load on the wheel bearing that it will shut up. You can jack it up and shake the wheel side to side and see if you have any slack and spin it and see if you can hear a low groaning from the balls in the bearing running around the race dry. Pretty much every one i have ever seen go bad went dry and started the metallic "groaning" or "whirring"

 

Thanks for all this info. Exactly what I was looking for, especially that last paragraph there.

 

You will hear the wheel bearings if they go bad. There is no mistaking it. It’s nothing to worry about and is an easy repair.

 

Sounds like they are about to fall out and you're driving on square basketballs that are out of round