some aftermarket stuff is just poor quality these days
"some aftermarket stuff is just poor quality these days"
Absolutely!
In addition to poorly remanufactured alternators and starters, I think that we can add wheel bearings that are bad right out of the box.
I can recall when GM closed their Hyatt Roller Bearing plant in Clark, NJ, probably some time in the early '90s. At that time, GM announced that they were moving production to China.
I think that this was an early indicator of where things have wound up in terms of qualityâand not just with aftermarket parts.
Yosemite, it might not be too soon. I myself have trashed a few bearings on the potholes weâve had in the Northeast the past few years. This spring was a particularly bad year for them.
In order to reduce rolling resistance, Toyota has taken to using double-row ball bearings instead of the old-fashioned tapered roller bearings. Iâve gotten that directly from the Toyota documents, to which I used to have access before I retired. Theyâre on tapered races to provide axial integrity, so they call the âtapered ball bearingsâ but theyâre ball bearings. Any first year engineering student will recognize that there is far less contact area to distribute force in ball bearings than in roller bearings, and they simply donât stand up to impact as well as roller bearings. Bearing damage is becoming common in the pothole-prone Northeast.
@The same mountainbik.
I agree with the assesment on the bearings. And the lack of surface area to contact.
Iâm more saying that a good bearing should last much longer than they do. Years back it was rare to have a bearing go out in a car before it got half way to the junk yard.
Like most partsâŠthey are getting cheaper and cheaper in their design.
Yosemite
I wholeheartedly agree. The Toyota documents donât suggest the reason for the lower rolling resistance goal, only that the lower rolling resistance is the reason for the ball bearings. My guess is that itâs just one more concession we need to live with due to the constantly more stringent emissions and CAFE regulations.
Nothing wrong with the ball bearings, they last a lot longer than the tapered roller bearings of old. They have a lot more surface contact than you might think too.
But there is something wrong if you are going through that many bearings. My suggestion is that you have the hub replaced with the bearing. Hub/bearing sets donât usually cost much more than the bearing by itself. As I recall, the hub/bearing set was only about $10 more than just the bearing for my Saturn, and Saturnâs used the same assembly as the Toyotaâs, a spin off from the UMI(?) project.
If you have equal length axles, then you probably have a short shaft between the axle on one side and the transaxle. There is a center bearing at the end of this shaft where the inner CV joint plugs in. This bearing could be the source of your noise instead of the wheel bearings. Its often overlooked.
Kieth:" They have a lot more surface contact than you might think too."
I cant see how you can figure that.
Which has more surface area in contact with the ground
A basket ballâŠor a 2 foot piece of 6 inch pipe laying on itâs side???
No fair letting the air out of the ball either!!!
Yosemite
The races are grooved so quite a bit of the ball makes contact.
@Kieth; you got me.
I was picturing in my head a ball type bearing and a taper race.
Hey I turned 60 in Feb. things are starting to melt together up there!!!
Or maybe itâs all the rolaidsâŠthe wife cooked again!!!
Yosemite
The raceway groove radius is always greater than the ball radius. Otherwise there would be sliding friction between the ball and the race:
Hereâs a typical cross-section of a non-cartridge type front wheel bearing like in my Insight.
I have the exact same issue with my Chrysler town and country. The sound of draging metal is present somewhere in the front and only sounds when driving slow after just starting the van. It goes away after driving it for awhile.
Did you ever find the issue?
Please let me know
Youâll get better results here @dleyte2 if you post your query as a new topic. Click Maint/Repair upper left, then New Topic upper right.