Sealed front wheel bearings?

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Garys 68

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My 05 Nissan frontier developed what sounded like a warped front rotor a few weeks ago. Over the past few days the steering got really twitchy and it would pull hard when braking.
I go to change the wheel bearings and find it's a sealed unit with anti-lock brake sensors and hub in one piece. Local prices were $200-380 each! Thank goodness for Rock auto, I got a pair for around $200.
Now that I'm done ranting, are most cars using the sealed bearings these days?
 
I know my wife's '91 Miata took a front hub assy....and it was a strange symptom that led me to think it was the rear diffy....until a guys rode with me and hears it out the RF wheel, loud and clear.....when in a still corner, if I turned the wheel violently doing down the street here, it would act up LOUD in a left turn, but not right...:shocking::amused:
 
I guess I'm old school. First car I've ever run into those. Or maybe first one I kept so long it went bad.
BTW, I used to think of the whine in the turns as an indication of it going bad. Didn't hear that at all with the sealed bearing.
 
The sealed bearing hub assemblys are on most cars these days and they are plain crap in my opinion...
Just take a look at the design, smal weak bearings with a small quantity of grease. The distance between the bearings is very short and this increases the bending forces acting on the bearings.
On my Volvo, the assemblys last around 7 years then they are done:shocking:
On the older Volvos I've had the bearings lasted the lifetime of the car without even touching them.
 
427Swede said:
The sealed bearing hub assemblys are on most cars these days and they are plain crap in my opinion...
Just take a look at the design, smal weak bearings with a small quantity of grease. The distance between the bearings is very short and this increases the bending forces acting on the bearings.
On my Volvo, the assemblys last around 7 years then they are done:shocking:
On the older Volvos I've had the bearings lasted the lifetime of the car without even touching them.
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still have the originals on my 97 camaro at 153k miles and no issues.
 
Even my 1-ton dually 4x4 has sealed front bearings. Only problem so far (145k miles) is the ABS sensors on the front developed rust between the sensor and the bracket and changed the pickup distance. Made the ABS nuts. I finally found the GM service bulletin to fix it. Of course that was AFTER a new master cylinder, bleeding nearly 2 gallons of brake fluid thru the system, and almost spending $500 on a new ABS module.
 
TimAT said:
Even my 1-ton dually 4x4 has sealed front bearings. Only problem so far (145k miles) is the ABS sensors on the front developed rust between the sensor and the bracket and changed the pickup distance. Made the ABS nuts. I finally found the GM service bulletin to fix it. Of course that was AFTER a new master cylinder, bleeding nearly 2 gallons of brake fluid thru the system, and almost spending $500 on a new ABS module.
Click to expand...

Tim, Does your truck have the Kelsey Hayes ABS?
 
It's sad to say but this is all planned obsolescence bullshit. No longer can you buy a bearing for under $20 and replace the defective part. Now you have to buy an "assembly" costing many dollars more.
It is the same way with the home repair business, especially faucets. No longer can you simply replace a rubber washer to fix a leak, now you have to buy a "cartridge" for a lot more $$$.
 
DeeVeeEight said:
It's sad to say but this is all planned obsolescence bullshit. No longer can you buy a bearing for under $20 and replace the defective part. Now you have to buy an "assembly" costing many dollars more.
It is the same way with the home repair business, especially faucets. No longer can you simply replace a rubber washer to fix a leak, now you have to buy a "cartridge" for a lot more $$$.
Click to expand...




Got THAT right, the daze of a simple Delta with the ball/stem faucet design are long gone, it was a great design, but NO, even Delta is forced into all these other 'designs'.....in a bathroom it hardly matters that the silver lever or the plastic ball are used, but in kitchens, instead of moving the damn tall spouts off to the side of the ball/lever, they dump the entire damn design, and went for shit.....:hissyfit:
 
BBShark said:
Tim, Does your truck have the Kelsey Hayes ABS?
Click to expand...

No idea. One of the dealer guys I used to work with said the module has 2 plugs in it that you can stick welding rods into and have someone apply the brake- if the rods don't move together, the module is bad. The module is mounted on the frame under the cab.
 
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