Have a 2000 Forester with 114K. Had to replace driver’s rear wheel bearing at 100k & again at 110k; when replacement bearing started to fail, ABS light came on because wheel was not spinning true! Replaced passenger’s rear wheel bearing at 105k (this one is getting noisy now).
Anyone have similar experience? Hard to believe I got 2 "bum’ bearings! Not a difficult repair, but this will be 4 bearings in less than 2 years. The car’s driven on paved roads & with little load, so it’s not from harsh road conditions or heavy loads.
noted on a post on another thread where you said you did the bearing replacement yourself. You might have gotten bad bearing, but the bearing could have been damaged during the installation. If the “redo” has similar problems you might use a different shop for the “press” in of the new bearing, or take it to a Subaru mechanic for the repair.
Did you buy the cheapest ones you could find? If you did, this is probably why you keep having to redo your work. I have found in my experiences, both personal and professional, that wheel bearings is one product where you truly do get what you pay for. The cheap ones last just long enough to get past the warranty period, then start making noise or going loose. Buy brand name bearings like Timken or National and watch your problems go away. They cost more, but are well worth it.
This is probably not helpful; however, I had to replace both my front wheel bearings after I replaced both front axles. Every parts salesman says that the axels are universal; there is no need to remove the ABS ring pressed onto the axle. My 1999 Legacy Outback has the ABS ring inside the knuckle. Well, the rings came into contact with the knuckle obviously producing metal shavings. I could tell something was wrong because the car would pull to the side and two weeks later it started pulling to the other side. I had to replace the passenger side bearing only two weeks after installing the new axle. This is after the car went without any noticeable problem for over 200,000 miles. The driver’s side bearing lasted four weeks before it started to pull. Having removed the wrings and replaced the bearings, the car is back to driving perfectly straight.
Sorry, just a rant! But maybe it’ll be helpful.
In each case, I took the hub out & took it to the machine shop. The $30 is well worth it since I’m not setup to work on bearings like these.
The first bearing replacements on each side were pressed at the local NAPA machine shop - don’t recall the bearing manufacturer though. The second driver’s side rear bearing was pressed at a different shop with a ‘premium’ bearing (NAPA was relocating at the time & the new machine shop was not up & running).
I’m more surprised the original bearings failed at all - 100K miles should be nothing at all with today’s bearing metals.