Boy am I frustrated, I was proud of my rear bearing install - for about 3 days!

The install seemed to go well, I guess it should since I've done it twice before. This time I purchased the bearing from my mechanic, he'd given me some really good deals on parts in the past. I figured, I'd get a better brand (hopefully Timken), but most importantly, I'd get it next day during this statewide shutdown.

Well I picked up the bearing, was surprised it cost $160! Not Timken, but a new brand to me.

Everything went well enough, though two or three things were different than usual.
1) the inner and outer bearings just slipped on to the hub. I always had to press them on before as I recall. Not like they were loose, but I needed no more than my hand pressure to install them.
2) the inner and outer weather seal was quite difficult to insert. Especially the inner one. It seemed to be a bit too big (diameter), and kept trying to pop out.
3) this was the 1st "bearing kit" I've purchased that didn't come with bearing grease. with the mechanic's blessing, I used the Valvoline grease on my shelf that stated it was for bearings, among half dozen other uses.

Well at least I got the axle nut torque correct this time. I've been watching it, no additional tightening needed.

Besides finding that my brake pad hold down spring was distorted from the bearing failure, all looked good.

She was working perfectly until yesterday. Within 200 feet of leaving my driveway, I started to hear a distinctive howl from this wheel!

Took her for a 20 mile ride. Axle nut tight, not hot. No play in the wheel.

could it be anything other than the bearing failing?
Can a spec or two of basement floor dust while packing the bearings cause this?
Do I have any chance of a save here, or am I looking at new bearing?
have you ever heard of getting a defective bearing? IOW, should I plead for a warranty replacement?

Guys thank you for looking. I'm disappointed, dont know who or what to blame. As always I appreciate your thoughts and guidance.

John

guess I'm hoping its something obvious

 

And you are certain you are properly installing the bearing spacer and shim between the bearing halves, and the relucttor ring is properly placed? It's hard to imagine wheel bearings failing this quickly short of some install error.

 

Yes certain. I figured the same thing.

Hub resting vertical on wheel bolts. Insert this order:
1) outer seal.
2) outer bearing.
3) spacer taper side up.
4) shim
5) inner bearing
6) inner seal

I know the brake pad retainer spring needs to be replaced, but that creates a light rattle noise on some bumps. This howl persists brakes on or off. Howl doesn't change while turning, all other rear bearing issues always seemed to.

 

Heat shield is not contacting the rotor at any point?

 

I'm going in tomorrow. Will let you know. Thanks.

 

Just a wild guess. Check the parking brake components inside the rotor. Something in there may have come lose and is rubbing when the wheel turns.

 

Solved!! Woo hoo...
the noise was produced by a misaligned brake assembly and a loose retaining spring.

The failure of the replaced bearing went real bad. It happened real fast. It caused the retaining spring to dislodge, get bent. God knows how I found it - it was balanced inside the wheel, found when I removed the wheel. (When i saw it missing i assumed i had to replace it. Not exactly stocked ANYWHERE near here!)

Thinking I'd have to wait 1 week for a replacement and before I found the spring, I asked a mechanic about how critical it was. He advised me, you might hear a rattle, but not critical. Good news, I proceeded. Upon reassembly with the luckily found slightly bent clip, I noticed it didn't hold the pad that well. Figured it was the bend, will fix later if noisy (wrong! More in a minute on that)

Now when I disassembled the caliper, I was happy to see that I didn't have to retract the piston. Fixed the bearing, and began to reattach the caliper bracket. I was concerned, there was not much room between its bottom and the disc up front. Well it didn't rub, so I continued. I remembered that I didn't have to retract the piston in the caliper, sure enough it fit right back on. (New lesson learned here). Put the caliper back on, ensured all was tight. Why was there small space under bracket? Axle nut not fully torqued yet.

This is how the horrible noise started.

Today I went in to figure it out. Took wheel off. Caliper bolts tight, caliper holder tight (dam). I did notice some caliper movement with pressure. I took a quick look at other side, way more space under the caliper and disc. This tells me the disk isn't seated properly on the hub? Better check the ebrake. Took caliper off. Caliper holder off. E brake = all ok. Thought about that space issue. Is the hub on all the way? Yep, same number of axle threads showing both sides. Put the caliper bracket back on. Put caliper on. Something is not right. I could see space between the caliper and the caliper bracket, in fact I could see a couple of caliper bolt threads in that space! (Huh?)

I took the caliper off to evaluate. Then it hit me. The piston protruding blocked me from properly seating the caliper on the holder. I pushed the piston in. Reattach the caliper. - tons of room! As it should be. Reattached the hold down spring, it now holds the pad properly. Blead the brake, took her for a ride. Perfect.

I think the fact that I didn't retract the caliper piston before reassembly was the root cause. It threw so much of the brake assembly just a bit out of alignment ,and allowed the caliper to flex. Believe me it can make a horrible noise!

Johns55, mhminnich, thanks for your ideas and help. Glad I could clear this without needing a new bearing.

I guess its important to ALWAYS retract the caliper piston before reassembly.

John

 

Congrats on finding the zero $ fix!

 

Well done Johnken,

Glad it was a simple case of bad Caliper alignment.

Sometimes it’s the jobs you think you know, they come back to bite you in the ****!

And the worst thing is that it’s always at the bottom of your list of possible causes as you try to find out why something’s wrong.

 

And the good news is that you will never make that mistake again....

 

It happens to the best of us. Doing the timing chain tensioner overhaul, I never thought the lower coolant hose was going to frustrate me the most at midnight haha. Real life work.

some of these highly edited car shows make me laugh.