Think wheel bearings are starting to fail

29twonine said:

Our front left wheel bearing had been going out since this summer. At first I thought it was just tire noise, but it didn't go away when we swapped the snow tires on. Got it into the dealer after Christmas and they're replacing the bearing Tuesday.

Over Christmas we did a 600mile roadtrip, I was kind of nervous, but we made it. The noise at 80mph is barely noticeable, it was the noisiest around 40mph.

We have an extended warranty and 42k miles, but advisor said it will be covered under powertrain warranty.

I was tempted to just swap it out myself, but since it will still be covered and save me a few hundred bucks I guess we'll just waste yet another day going back and forth to the dealer.

good luck!

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TheDoug said:

99.9 percent sure I am hearing the beginnings of a front or both wheel bearings going out. My expedition is still under warranty but I am not sure I want to screw with going to dealership. Thinking of just doing it myself for less downtime since it is a really easy thing to swap out. Any idea on where to get best price?

Another question, I know once they start to go you should don't sooner than later but I have an 3 hour road trip next weekend... should I get it done before or wait til they get bad?

Thanks in advance

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2020ExpyPlatinum said:

Why would you replace it yourself when it is under warranty?
FYI I will tell you one thing that will cause wheel bearings to fail prematurely which is over torquing the wheel lug nuts.

I've seen a car go through 4 sets of wheel bearings with 3 years, when I got the vehicle and serviced it prior to removing the wheel I checked what the torque was on the lug nuts. All the lug nuts were torqued to over 200 ft. Lbs.

If they get snugged evenly and torqued evenly using a torque wrench NOT a torque stick like most technicians use, you will not have issues.

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TheDoug said:

I don't like waiting at the dealership...

Funny you mention over tightening lugs... just rotated the tires after discount put on new ones and I almost didn't get 4 of the lugs off multiple wheels because of how overtightened they were. And that was with an impact gun.

After rotating the noise was still there but not sure it's bad enough for the dealer not to give me the typical BS about not being able to reproduce the problem. Wait for them to get a little noisier.

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dwmarks said:

Mine is a 2018 limited and it’s been very good to me. 65k miles by the way.

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2020ExpyPlatinum said:

If it is a wheel bearing on an open road with no traffic or a parking lot go the speed where the noise is noticeable and you can turn the wheel hard enough to transfer the weight to the failing wheel bearing and it should get louder. You done need to turn the wheel hard, but enough to get the body to transfer weight to the side the bearing is failing on.

It was a test I always performed when a customer stated they heard a whinning noise, but it wasn't present all the time.

If I didn't make sense let me know and I can post a Short video of what I am talking about

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