2013 Honda Accord wheel bearing failure

I have a 2013 Honda Accord with 34000 miles. It had a noise from the rear that was speed dependent. It needed both rear hub bearing assemblies replaced. Why do wheel bearings fail? Is 34000 miles common for wheel bearing failure? My Honda dealer could not give an explanation why the bearing would fail.

Because things wear out and not all wear at the same rate. just because you had a failure at 34000 does not mean everyone will. So no it is not common.

It can be because you hit curbs, don’t know, you didn’t say… And if one bearing is going bad, it makes sense to the dealer to replace both.

I’ve never had a wheel bearing go bad in 50 years of driving, so it is unusual.

edit: I did have a failure on my GF’s car, a small Mercury of some sort. Left us stranded on R93 in NH, bearing froze after making noise for an hour or so.

Five years is very early for wheel bearing failure, but if the OP ever drove through high water, that is one possible explanation for the failure.

Other than that, it is possible that Honda got a bunch of bad bearings from a supplier. That happened to Subaru, many years ago, and they did a recall as a result. If the dealer didn’t mention anything about a recall, then I suppose that there isn’t a recall, which would imply that it isn’t a widespread problem with 2013 Accords.

Does the OP recall driving through high water?