The wheel bearing is a round metal part found in the center of the hub that connects the axles to the wheels and helps them turn smoothly. They usually have greased metal balls encased between two rings called races. Have you ever turned the steering wheel of your car and heard that unmistakable "whirring" noise from a bad wheel bearing? Worn wheel bearings have been making this noise for as long as they have existed. As they wear out, excess play develops in the bearing. This excess play, along with dust, dirt, and debris sneaking its way inside, will end up damaging the internal bearing surfaces. Once the wheel bearing surfaces are damaged, they have zero chance of survival. The wheel bearing's condition will worsen until it finally self destructs in spectacular fashion. As you can imagine, the ideal situation is to replace the wheel bearing long before it reaches the point of destruction.

Hub bearingnoise

Frequently driving through mud or water can speed up the failure of a wheel bearing, while if you have one replaced and the new bearing is not installed in perfect alignment, this can cause premature wear.

If you’ve come online trying to find this piece of information out, probably not. Replacing a wheel bearing requires a good working knowledge of mechanics, and potentially some specialist tools.

Wheel HubAssembly Kit

Once you pull the wheels off of a car, the first thing that you see is the wheel hub staring straight back into your eyes. That's because the hubs are the part that the wheels bolt on to. They are round, have wheel studs sticking out of them, and are designed to spin with heavy loads sitting on them at all times. Guess what else bolts onto the hub? Brake rotors of course! Wheel hubs can be driven by the axles or just freewheeling. Every wheel hub is, in some way, connected to a wheel bearing. They are either pressed or bolted together, and they frequently come as one "wheel hub and bearing" assembly. This makes installation significantly easier and cheaper. Just pull the old hub and bearing assembly off, and throw the new one on. No heavy duty pressing or special tools are needed.

Wheel bearings are replaced in one of two ways: either a press is used to force the bearing out of the wheel hub, and force a new one in, or the entire hub assembly is replaced. Whichever method is used, you’ll need to know what you’re doing.

Wheel Bearing HubAssembly Front

This will depend on the car and how much parts are, and what your garage’s hourly labour rate is, but wheel bearings are not hugely time consuming to replace, and £200-£250 should get the job done.

Wheel hubs have very close relationships with anti-lock braking system (ABS) sensors. That's because ABS sensors measure wheel speed. To do this accurately, they need to be close to the wheels without being in the way of all of the moving parts.

Wheel hub bearingreplacement cost

Wheel hub bearingsymptoms

As a driver, the most common way of telling a failing bearing is a grinding noise that tends to get worse the faster you go, or the noise may only present itself when you are turning.

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The other common method of measuring wheel speed is by adding the whole entire ABS sensor to the inside of the wheel hub itself. This can be a blessing and a curse. It simplifies the ABS system so that when an ABS sensor fails, the entire hub needs to be replaced with it. Pretty wasteful if you have a perfectly good working hub. Another ABS system design that skips the hub connection altogether and places the tone ring on the axle instead of the wheel hub. All these methods work great, you just need to make sure that you use the proper parts that are designed to work with ABS. Without that tone ring attached to the wheel hub or axle, the ABS light will turn on, and your vehicle won't stop as it was designed to.

Wheel hubassembly parts

Friction can never be truly eliminated, only reduced, and over time wheel bearings themselves wear out, though the most common reason for wheel bearings to fail is that their seals let the grease out, and water and grit in, damaging the balls and tapers.

Frontwheel bearing hubAssembly replacement cost

Each wheel on your car has a wheel bearing, and this component connects the wheel to the axle of the car. A wheel bearing comprises a set of ball bearings (small, smooth metal balls) or metal tapers (small, smooth metal cylinders) held together inside two rings of metal, surrounded with grease.

Wheel hubassembly diagram

And while cars are complex machines that can emit strange noises from all manner of places and for a number of reasons, wheel bearings are components that tend to make a noise when they are defective.

Wheel hubs themselves rarely have issues because they are simple blocks of steel. The most common reason to replace a wheel hub is because the wheel bearing that is attached to it has failed. Wheel bearings can fail because of age, dirt and water contamination, or improper installation. Most hubs that are driven by axles require a very specific torque when installing. If that torque is too tight or too loose, the life of the wheel bearing can become shortened. That said, most wheel hub and bearing assemblies are very DIY friendly. If you can replace brakes yourself, you probably won't have any trouble replacing a wheel hub yourself either.

Car manufacturers have several ways of handling this task. The first is with a "tone ring." A tone ring attaches to the back of the wheel hub and it looks like a gear. With the ABS hub attached to a vehicle, there is an ABS sensor that sits next to the tone ring and measures wheel speed by watching how many teeth pass by the sensor within a certain length of time.

You may also detect that the car pulls to one side, or the tyres may wear unevenly – though this can also be a sign that the wheels need realignment.

When the wheel turns it does not rotate directly on the axle; rather, it rotates around the wheel bearing, which allows it to turn smoothly. Wheel bearings exist to reduce friction.

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Regular servicing and the annual MOT test should pick up a failing bearing, which will often reveal itself by the wheel not spinning as smoothly as it should when the car is in the air.

* Please contact the dealer for a personalised quote, including terms and conditions. Quote is subject to dealer requirements, including status and availability. Illustrations are based on personal contract hire, 9 month upfront fee, 48 month term, 8000 miles annually, inc VAT, excluding fees. Vehicle returned at term end.

Unfortunately you can’t: the only solution to a worn, noisy wheel bearing is to have it replaced by a garage; bearings are not repairable.