As I mentioned in another post, my ex-mechanic is awful. He replaced the front hubs and bearings on my car about a month ago. The passenger side had been making noise and saw some give in the wheel. Well, the driver side, has since started making noise like the passenger side did. But this is a new hub with new bearings. I put the car up on a jack and pulled the wheel and found the rotor (which is only a year and a half old) was warped, one caliper bolt was missing and one of the little bolts that hold the rotor on was also missing. Also one of the control arms was dangling like it had never been reattached. I lost another morning at work, and the cost of a new rotor to deal with this. But I digress. Could he have pressed the hub bearings in too tight causing them to fail on the driver side? Is there something else in that assembly I should check. Please keep in mind that I don’t have “take it to the dealer to diagnose” money. I already paid this jerk to fix it and now he won’t come back to deal with his mess up.
Ask your mechanic if he pressed the wheel bearing into the hub using the outer race. Pressing the bearing into the hub using the inner race will brinnell the innner race and cause early failure.
I can’t get hold of my old mechanic. He won’t return my calls. But he said it was the hub bearings and not the wheel bearings. The rotor was wobbling, so I thought it was warped. I replaced it and I still have the same problem. I can’t afford to keep fixing things I paid someone to do already, but I guess I am just going to have to start replacing parts. Luckily the junk yard has a car like mine (front end at least). I am tired, but I don’t want to make payments on something new. Bleh…
The “hub bearing” are the wheel bearings in the front. On the Kia Rio the hub bearing installation procedure calls for a simulated assembly of the bearings and a measurement of the turning torque. If the torque is too low a thinner spacer is required. If the torque is too high a thicker spacer is needed. If the bearings were just installed and the axle shaft drawn up with the axle nut, it is possible that the bearings were left too loose which would have caused earily failure due to lack of preload or the bearings where left too tight which would have caused earily failure by overloading and squeeze out of grease from the races.
From the description of your previous mechanics work, he/she probably missed or omitted this critical step.
Turns out he messed the whole thing up. I ended up pulling an entire unit from the junk yard, with the knuckle connected. Had by friend swap it out real quick for me and now I am golden. I have a brand new hub now with bad bearings just sitting around now.
Thanks!
@unknownusr…you have been the victim of a person who can use a wrench and calls themselves a “mechanic.” I’m very adept with a scalpel but I would never call myself a surgeon.