has anybody else had this problem? i put a new bearing/hub assembly on the passenger side in february. in august i took it down to have new tires put on. shop calls me and says they wont put the tires on because the passenger side bearing is shot. i think they trying to rip me off, i storm down there and sure enough there is quite a bit of play. i have hem mount the tires anyways, and i stop by autozone to order a new assembly. i put the new one on and it is better, but still a little play (up-down, and side-side). i duble checked everything and all looks good. could i just be getting bad parts from autozone? it wouldnt suprise me. i cant get it aligned untill i figure out what is going. does anybody know or has anybody heard of this problem and how to correct it?

 

hi
did you get the timkin brand bearing ?

i have no problem with mine < timkin> !

 

yeah they are timkin. i never had a problem with them before, but i have gotten a lot of other bad parts from autozone, so it makes me suspicsous

 

Did you put the correct torque on the hub nut? It makes that little vain in my neck stick out when I torque mine.

Floyd

 

Should have a 1 year warranty. Bring back the old bearing with your new receipt and they should give you your money back. I've had great luck with Timken and AutoZone in general. You're not adding any kind of extra grease are you? That might tear up the bearing quickly if they are incompatible grease types....

 

So...you're the one running prices up by abusing the warranty agreement. They shouldn't give anything back for a crappy old abused bearing.

The bearing will fail prematurely if it isn't properly packed. Operator incompetence shouldn't be a warranty item either but it is.

 

cant pack the bearing its a sealed unit. i didnt use a torque wrench (dont have one but need to invest in one). i just counted the threads sticking out on the drivers side and put the nut on about the same amount of threads. it was good and tight, could i have possibly over-torqued it?

 

I bought Timken bearings from Autozone, and they are as tight as the day I installed them. Timken makes quality stuff, but they can make a lemon like everybody else. I would replace them under warranty, and see how the news ones do.
Although you really need to properly torque the axle nut, that shouldn't directly affect the bearing unit itself. Unless the nut is really loose, then the movement in the bearing itself must be from another cause.
I know that you have to be careful with parts from Autozone, but they aren't ALL bad, and I for one was tickled to see that they carried Timken bearings.

 

Some of the auto parts stores are selling the unit bearing for about $125 and they are cheap Chinese junk that rarely make it to 10k miles.
You have to buy the bearing that go for around $200 if you want it last.
Not sure what the cheapo bearings are labeled as but wouldn't doubt if it's a brand name.

You need a torque wrench. What's most important is the lug nuts are torqued the same otherwise you'll warp the rotor.
Counting threads will get you nowhere.

The big nut can be as tight as you can get it as it doesn't pre-load the bearing, just holds it on.

 

it is timkin and it was a hair over $200.00 i believe. i have done this this job quite a few times on different trucks and never had a problem. i guess i will warranty it out and get a torque wrench

 

Well, for starters, I've NEVER brought a Timken back to Autozone for warranty. The bearing on my truck failed after 230,000 miles after I had injected some grease into it while replacing my failed ABS sensor. Nowhere in the OPs writeup did I see that he may have abused or even put it in improperly and it is IMPOSSIBLE to repack these bearings. You know the old saying, when you ASSUME.... And yes, operator incompetence of reading the forum posts creates the same hazards....