BlueIS88

Long story short have a bad front wheel bearing is300 02 . You can feel and hear it spinning it by hand. Removed the spindle and had a shop press the new bearing in . This one went bad within 500miles figured maybe a bad new bearing . Had a machine shop(different shop) press in a second bearing and its even louder then before. Anyone else had issues with the front wheel bearings? I wonder if they are over tightening the nut. Machine shop claims to have torqued it to 110ft lbs .Hate to buy a spindle if not nec..Car was never hit etc.. Is there anything special about pressing in these style bearings

BlueIS88

Forgot to mention both times the hub&bearing were replaced . With parts coming straight from the lexus dealer .

Ek9B18

It is possible to screw up the install. Say they press the hub in or hammer it in without supporting the inner race. If they do that all the force will be on the bearing race. You're supposed to support the inner race while pressing in the hub. This keeps the bearings from smashing into the race.

You can't tell they did that without watching the install.

You can pick up fully populate front knuckles off Ebay for $80.

kmy

Mine lasted 2 weeks before I start hearing the humming sound again. It last 3/4 a year now and for the last 2 weeks it has gotten really bad. Sounds like I'm riding on rims. I'm sure the shop installed mine wrong. I"m desperately trying to figure if I should by a shop press now since I"m not paying $400 again.

Ek9B18

I have a press. Cheap harbor freight 20 ton. I've had to replace the jack that does the pressing twice now. It's great for doing bushings as well as hubs/bearings. There's also a tool called a "hub shark" that lets you do the bearings without removing the knuckle.

I'm kind of surprised people are having this problem. There's not much to installing wheel bearings. I guess the question is whether the shop is doing it right. I think it's unlikely they'll pull the whole knuckle to do this job.

vman932

I assume you mean used? I didn't see any new ones.

Ek9B18

Yeah used.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/01-02-03-04-...d864b7&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/01-05-02-03-...2acd9f&vxp=mtr

From lexus, the knuckle all by itself is $422 new. You'd still need a bearing and hub which is another $400. You could buy 6 used ones for that price.

BlueIS88

I am surprised as well with the failures. Had a machine shop do the second bearing install .I wonder if they are also overtorquing the hub nut. Look like ill be trying out an ebay spindle.

Ek9B18

Not torquing them enough will also ruin the bearing. Shop manual notes that putting weight in the bearing without a fully torqued axle or special tool will damage the bearing. Manual I'm looking at says 108 ft/lbs. I'd bet you money they didn't actually put a torque wrench on it when they did the install.

BlueIS88

Update fellas . Installed a new spindle assy w/ a new bearing . Growling is gone then another noise appeared . Sounded like a window was slightly cracked. Come to find out one of the front body plugs was missing as well. It was amplifying the bearing noise .