Average life ofwheelbearings

Determining proper shaft and housing fits is critical to ensure long bearing life. The fit, or amount of interference that exists between mating components (such as the shaft and bearing bore), can be devised into three categories: loose (slip), transition, and press (tight). For more information on recommended shaft and housing fits, please download this catalog excerpt.

There are a lot of different signs you may run into during day-to-day driving that can indicate a problem with one or more hub assembly on your car. Grinding, roaring, knocking, or popping sounds from your wheels can indicate a bad bearing. These can be constant or only noticeable when you turn; they’re usually not audible unless you’re moving faster than 30 MPH.

Frontwheel bearingnoise symptoms

The type of fit required varies on a number of factors such as load, operating temperature, bearing type, and shaft or housing material. A good rule of thumb for most applications is to use a press fit on the rotating component.

Damaged wheel hub assemblies may fail catastrophically, causing you to lose control of your vehicle. This is a worst case scenario and few people suffer through it. A damaged assembly still impedes the proper functioning of your car, though! It can increase the wear and tear on other vital components including your brakes and tires. By reducing those parts’ effectiveness, a damaged wheel bearing can compromise your safety while you’re on the road.

How totell whichwheel bearingisbadwhile driving

A slight press fit will generally help prevent creep, but an excessive press fit will eliminate the bearing internal clearance and cause a rise in operating temperature that can lead to early failure. Press fits will naturally make installation of the bearing more difficult and susceptible to damage, but with proper care, most problems can be avoided.

How totell whichwheel bearingisbadin the front

To check individual wheel hub assemblies, you need to look for “play”. “Play” is any looseness in the wheel’s connection to the axle when it’s fully bolted down. You can check for play by grasping the wheel at its top and bottom, and pushing one side while pulling the other. You shouldn’t be able to wiggle the wheel to any significant degree this way; if you can, then the wheel has a dangerous amount of play.

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That is, a shaft or inner ring rotating application like an electric motor will use a press fit on the shaft and a loose fit on the housing. A housing or outer ring rotating application like a wheel hub will employ the reverse: a loose fit on the shaft and a press fit on the housing. This will greatly reduce the chances of creep or a loosened fit during operation.

When you discover a damaged wheel hub assembly, make sure it’s replaced with either OEM parts from your manufacturer or quality aftermarket replacement parts like WJB’s that meet the same standards. Making sure your vehicle is running on healthy wheel hub assemblies is a vital part of keeping your vehicles – and you – safe on the road.

In the longer term, you need to check your wheel hub assemblies if you notice uneven or abnormal wear on your tires or brake components (rotors, pads, and discs). If you let a professional mechanic handle your tire rotations and brake maintenance, they should perform routine hub assembly checks while they do these tasks. If you like to handle your own maintenance, though, it’s especially important to make sure your bearings are in good working condition.

Wheel bearingreplacement cost

A loose fit allows for easy installation, but too loose of a fit may allow the bearing ring to slip or creep on the shaft or in the housing. Creep can cause excessive wear or vibration and in the worst cases lead to ring fracture or bearing seizure.

Although modern wheel hub assemblies (also known as wheel bearings) are designed to last as long as your car, they’re subjected to such tremendous strain that hub damage is fairly common. Most drivers will have to deal with a damaged hub assembly at some point in their vehicle’s lifetime.

Fortunately, a damaged hub assembly is easy to spot once you have your wheels jacked up off the ground. If at all possible, check your wheels two at a time – either both front wheels or both back ones. You can often spot a broken wheel bearing simply by comparing the behavior of two wheels after you spin them at the same time. If one of them shudders, slows down, or grinds to a stop before the other, it likely has a bad bearing.

Some people said, a car is a collection of thousands of carefully-designed parts that are needed their attention to maintain with. When it comes to your wheel hub assemblies, you definitely need to muster your patience and go the extra mile to make sure they’re in good working condition; these components are vital in keeping your car safe and efficient.