Had a front passenger side wheel bearing replaced 50,000 miles ago on a 2004 Mustang GT and its bad again.Is there anyhing else that could cause a wheel bearing to go bad so soon.
A wheel bearing needs to be replaced in pristine conditions. Any speck of dirt will cause the replacement bearing to fail very quickly. If you had a chance to inspect the failed bearing, you might have seen a score in the bearing caused by dirt.
Or else there is a tolerance issue with the bearing(s) or the shaft itelf. It might just be that the shaft was never in tolerance and is worse now that a bearing has failed on it. If this is the case you’ll burn out one wheel bearing after another.
Who knows why the first bearing failed, but the second one might not have been installed correctly…Front wheel bearings stayed the same for about 60 years, Open, tapered roller bearings hand-packed with grease…Today, different types of sealed bearings are used…
With the old bearings, the goal was zero torque on the spindle nut and zero play in the bearing…A cotter pin maintained that setting…Maybe someone will educate us as to how it’s done today…
The first one lasted 106,000 miles…No complaints there.This car requires a hub assembly and its all one piece.
Those hub assemblies have three things working against them compared to the roller Timken bearings of old: higher torque loads (due to a more compact design), a flimsier design overall, and no way to adjust or maintain them. Unfortunately, they are also much more expensive to replace than the old style bearings. Not all hub bearings are created equal. I have had cheap ones go bad in less than 10k miles. Try a different brand. I have had good luck with CarQuest wheel bearings and the worst luck with ones from Advance Auto Parts.
I’ve usually gotten over 200K on front wheel bearings. Might be worth popping a new axle on as long as everything is apart, but take a look at the bearing and it will say “Made in China”.
There is no axle of any kind on the front of this car. Newer Mustangs have a sealed hub bearing bolted onto the steering knuckle. Not even a spindle like the older ones. They are also rear wheel drive, as they always have been.
I’d say either a poor quality bearing or possibly a bearing contaminated by driving through deep water would be behind this problem.
You never set up the old bearings with zero play when cold. If you did, the bearing rollers would score when the bearing heated up. You seated the nut to take the play out,loosened it a little bit with a wrench, then seated it with your fingers, put the castle nut on and backed it up to the next notch and put the cotter pin in. I never had to replace a wheel bearing except ones that were bad when I bought an old used car.
Whatever the inner race of that sealed bearing sits on is by definition a spindle.
I think its just a poor quality hub bearing.I think I may just pay alittle extra and get one from Ford as the original one lasted a long time.Thanks for you replies.