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Left wheel bearing - again?

10K views 15 replies 9 participants last post by  hermie 
#1 ·
About 20k miles ago I changed out both front bearings because the left side was making noise. Starting to hear some bad noise from the left front again. Only 82,000 on the odometer.
When I ran a Google search on the subject it came up with dozens and dozens of early wheel bearing failures. I wonder how many of you had replaced yours before the clock hit 100,000. I've owned several front wheel drive vehicles and never had one eat up bearings like this.
I wonder if the steering knuckle is deformed? Maybe Ford made some malformed parts? From what I have read on other sites the drivers side went bad on all of them. Usually the right side goes first because of the potholes, water, dirt and hitting curbs.
 
#3 ·
Most of the failures I have seen have happened because of improper installations.

True, perhaps the factory has had problems with suppliers only because of the frequency of failures.

Good wheel bearings should last a long time.

But remember, there are plenty of offshore brands offering great prices with very little quality control. Most consumers snap those up readily.

In saying that, even good name brand parts are being manufactured with shoddy workmanship.

I have changed out a few of these to a point now where I don't require an alignment afterward (the steering knuckle to strut connection is not disturbed - a small home made puller used right at the knuckle assembly does the trick).

I doubt if there is a concern with the steering knuckle design.

It is a cartridge style wheel bearing and they are a weak design to begin with. Especially when compared to the old style replaceable tapered roller wheel bearing.
 
#5 ·
Just wondering what does it sound like when teh bearings are going bad? I didnt buy my escape new soI dont have anything to campare it too. i have heard that escapes are loud(wind, tires etc) and it is louder than my old subaru. I cant tell if it is just the tires or if it si the way esacpes are. No big deal to me a long as is not the bearings.
 
#7 ·
the left AND right front bearings are going out on my escape...and it does feel like a tire is out of balance and i do feel it in the wheel and on the floorboard.
 
#8 ·
I do agree 100% with what Manic Mechanic said earlier.
Wheel bearing failures are caused mainly by bad installation and also by incorect torque applied to the wheel lugs.Usually the tire shops with their pneumatic drills do start the road to Australia for the wheel bearings.
 
#9 ·
So, you are saying the lug nut torque may be deforming the hub? From what I found on the web it happens on the left side. My OEM left went bad so I replaced right and left sides with Timken bearings figuring Ford may have a poor supplier. Left side is starting to make noise again.
 
#10 ·
1X4WDEscape said:
So, you are saying the lug nut torque may be deforming the hub? From what I found on the web it happens on the left side. My OEM left went bad so I replaced right and left sides with Timken bearings figuring Ford may have a poor supplier. Left side is starting to make noise again.
Excessive lug nut torque transcends from the hub to the bearing, constraining its normal operation.
Why is the left bearing which first bears the damage regardless of the cause?
Because in the V6 Escape the left front mass to be rolled is much more than the right front mass.If to that you also add the driver's mass, the difference gets even bigger and thus the additional strain that the front left wheel bearing has to deal with causes it to be the first to fail.
 
#12 ·
Replaced a number of bearings over the decades. All sorts of sounds emanate from that area of the drive train. Growling, scraping/rotating noise like muck in a coffee can. One car made no sound at all. Suddenly, one morning, my brakes were going halfway to the floor on the first try then OK a second later. The brake rotor was pushing the piston back into the caliper which increased the travel.
The element that makes me believe there is a defective part on some of the Escapes is this. There are so many over a vast number of years with high mileage and no problems. Similar to the problems I had on my 2 Contours. Ford installed the black plastic impellers in some of the 1995s. These exploded after a while. Back then Ford laid off their quality department and it took years to catch the goof up. The black dye was causing the plastic to fail prematurely.
 
#15 ·
it was not wheel bearing supplier problems from ford

SKF which supplies the wheel bearings to ford SKF were being plagued with FAKE chinese copies of the SKF bearings out in the market

the only way to tell if you have a FAKE SKF bearing , check the inner/outer bearing race , you are looking for the country of manufacture

the FAKE chinese SKF bearings do not show the country of manufacture stamped on them

my front wheel went out at 69,423 kilometeres ( mainly due to faulty front coil springs that knocked the front end alignment out )

hopefully the dealership my escape is at can convince ford to cover the new wheel bearings and labour costs

( he said he will try to convince ford )
 
#16 ·
well my passenger side front bearing is in fact pooched

the mechanic`s play deaf to the loud growling sound

( extensive googling reveals that other ford dealership`s are refusing to replace wheel bearings under warranty )

so i bought 2 spare front knuckles from a wrecker , and i will replace the bearings and hubs in those 2 knuckles and then swap the knuckles and hubs out

and take the defective bearings to the dealership and show the mechanic himself
 
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