SRX wheel bearing

[kevm14]

SRX is making a low frequency grumble that increases with speed and varies with steering angle but not engine torque. This has been going on for at least 5 weeks probably. My ear said a wheel bearing on the right side of the vehicle. Today I decided to jack the right side up and see if there is any play.

Yup, right rear. Getting pretty bad actually. So that's nice. I will restrict the vehicle to local roads at this point.

Car has 107,5xx on it, so, as sealed drive bearings go, this is well within normal.

Parts available on Rockauto vary pretty widely in price. Featuring a $35 "WJB" brand (never heard of it) on the low end. A $59 option and $86 option round out the Economy offerings.

In Premium, Raybestos, Timkin, AC Delco, SKF and Moog. SKF may be OEM, though I think these replacement ones are actually better than the original spec. That one is $146, which is the most expensive in Premium. The Timken and AC Delco have the heart though. They are $129 and $141, respectively. I remember someone I trusted said SKF is a very good name (better than Timken had become) so I will get that one.

I looked up the job in the FSM and it doesn't look too pleasant. I will post that in a bit.

[kevm14]

Some references:

1 hour? Hmm
http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/ca ... aring.html

Oh, this guy struggled for 6 hours. That seems more like it.
http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/ca ... stion.html

Here is a good writeup:
http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/ca ... stall.html

[kevm14]

Sounds like the big issue is the bottom hub bolt. I can expect a fight due to angle, clearance with the CV joint boot, factory thread lock compound, and corrosion on the bolt. But this sounds doable, I just won't have a very good time. As long as it's not as bad as the power steering pump...

Bearing comes Thursday.

[kevm14]

Bearing/hub arrived today.

[kevm14]

Finished today. This job went surprisingly smoothly. It is possible that the bearing was replaced previously because there was less fighting than I expected. I have no way to confirm. The evidence I have is less thread lock on the bolts than I expected and the axle popped free of the bearing splines pretty easily.

Here is roughly how it went.

Jacked up. Removed wheel, caliper w/ bracket, brake rotor and parking brake shoe.

The next thing to do is one of the things I thought I would struggle with: the 3 mounting bolts that thread from behind the spindle into the bearing/hub assembly. I think one thing that helped was pushing the axle inboard to move the big CV joint away from where I need to get a socket. Before I started I also indexed the axle so the CV boot clamp crimp wasn't aligned with a bolt. The axle nut was a 35mm and my now-old Harbor Freight electric impact broke it free almost instantly. Freeing the axle from the hub spines took a couple whacks with a mini-sledge and a block of wood. So easy.

One bolt had pretty clear access, just small turns at a time with the ratchet. Patience but nothing more required for that one.

Another one required the upper control arm ball joint to be disconnected from the spindle in order to back the bolt out. I thought this might be difficult. I loosened the nut toward the end of the threads. Everything is aluminum here so I didn't really want to pound on it. I got a pry bar and pried between the spindle and the upper control arm where the ball joint is. It just popped free. Easy. I put a jack under the lower control arm and that was that.

The bottom one is the one everyone complained about. However, all I did was use a few 3/8" extensions and no problem at all. Online people were talking about U-joints and all this nonsense. Maybe the trick is using the 3/8" extension which is narrower since it did pretty much touch the lower control arm. So that one came right out, too.

The next thing that I wasn't sure about was actually getting the hub free of the spindle. I used a chisel in a couple places and also hammering lightly on the parking brake backing plate seemed to help knock the bearing free of the spindle, since the hub sandwiches the plate onto the spindle. Nothing really fancy just patient tapping in different places to pry it out.

Once that was out, there was still what I think was a dust cover, a seal and part of the wheel speed sensor. More prying and hammering with a chisel and that comes out pretty easily. I just cleaned up the spindle with 600 grit and some air. Here's that progress.

Now I was ready to install the new bearing. Pretty easy. Just get it set straight and start the bolts. Snug them up in a pattern and the hub sucks itself into the spindle. I did use Loctite blue on the threads but I torqued them to "tight." I put a new coating of anti-seize on the hub just to make a potential future rotor replacement easier. Side note, look how fancy the rear suspension is. Lower control arm, upper control arm, front control link, and a toe link.

I thought I was home free but then I struggled for way too long getting the parking brake shoe retaining spring/wire back on with the shoe. It was kind of funny to have gotten through everything and then this just wouldn't go. Eventually I got it but it was frustrating.

Oh, when I got the rotor back on, I applied the parking brake so I could torque the axle nut. I did 110 lb-ft but then I checked just now and it called for 118. I think I'll be fine, though I thought some FWD cars get closer to 200 lb-ft on that nut. The upper control arm ball joint nut wanted 15 lb-ft + 210°. I did that as best as I could. It felt seated in the taper which is the point.

With that all done, I did a road test. Fixed! Rides and sounds smooth again. Hopefully this SKF bearing lasts a long time. And hopefully whatever happened to this bearing doesn't happen to the others. I read the front bearings are more of a pain. The rear couldn't have taken more than 3 hours taking my time and that was including wasting probably 15-20 minutes on the parking brake shoe.

This is the first sealed wheel bearing I've had to replace, which doesn't mean a whole lot. Bill was pretty incredulous that I had to do this at 107k. I'll paste a little write-up I did on sealed wheel bearing life expectancy and some other musings.

[kevm14]

I don't know exactly what causes some bearings to last over 200k, and some to fail before 100k. It doesn't really seem to go by brand, or country of origin. You will find literally every car has experienced "premature" bearing failure. My intuition says Japanese cars are probably the best but I can tell you that they are not immune.

On the other hand, what is "premature"? Just a few links that came up on the first page of a search about how long sealed wheel bearings should last:

This says 80 to 120k is fairly common: http://www.counterman.com/how-long-shou ... ings-last/

This says 85 to 100k is fairly common: http://www.tirereview.com/wheel-bearing-q-a/

This says 85 to 100k again: http://www.brakeandfrontend.com/wheel-bearings-101/

What I did NOT see, and what you will not find, is "anything less than 200k means the car is junk."

Factors include: road forces/usage (pot holes, cornering, vehicle loading), water intrusion/submersion, and the last is probably just how well the bearing was made originally. Manufacturing things I can think of would include how well it was packed with grease, grade of grease, seal quality (seals can wear out if debris gets in there then it's just a matter of time), and machining tolerances of the bearings and races. I'd imagine the seal is among the top important items - once that starts letting crap inside the bearing, you are screwed.

Some can go early (like before 50k) and others can go over 200k. It would be great if they all lasted over 200k but many do not. Whether or not we think it is "acceptable" from an industry standpoint, 107k on the SRX is right in the range of the above links. That begs the question - how long will the remaining three bearings last? They are all currently in good working order.

My Caprice uses repackable bearings (and greasable suspension joints), and I think I am supposed to repack/grease every 30k. I don't do that. I have replaced the front wheel bearings on my Caprice many times over its life. But not necessarily because they were "destroyed" - I've never had one "fail" or make grinding noises. Usually there is some play in the bearing that I will notice and the first thing I usually do is readjust the preload nut to see if I can take the play out. Sometimes that works. This is the way all cars worked for decades up until the 80s and 90s. Bearings and races are quite cheap because it's not the whole hub assembly.

New rotors come with new races on that car so replacing all of the bearings isn't an abnormal thing to do with new rotors. On sealed bearings, you basically do nothing until it fails, then you replace it. There is no maintenance possible.

[kevm14]

Some references:

1 hour? Hmm
http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/ca ... aring.html

Right from this thread:

For those of you upset with replacing bearings with low mileage, my wife's Acura TSX had to have rear bearings replaced at 72,000 miles

[bill25]

By everything you posted, twice in 107K is a lot.

[kevm14]

Yeah. I don't know when the last one was done, if it was previously done. I did see a few threads of people saying that the replacements didn't last very long, so who the hell knows. Probably why I didn't get the AC Delco, just in case.

I am OK with all of this, of course. I never said this was the most reliable vehicle. So far it's been fine though. A power steering pump last year and a wheel bearing this year. On the order of $300 total in parts for both jobs (I did do a full brake job last year but that is just maintenance).

The MSRP of this vehicle in 2008 was $53,425, or thereabouts. I will put up with a few things to own a nice vehicle at a price I can afford without years of car payments. It looks nice, drives nice, rides nice, handles nice, is great in the snow and is quick for a crossover. It even has a (compact) third row of seating. I like driving it and Jamie likes it. The fuel economy sucks (~17.5 MPG average on premium) but I knew that going in. Works for me. I guess we'll see how the next year goes.

[frankbreau]

What would be a reasonable price to pay a shop for that job?