Premature wheel bearing failures.

-
dartfreak75

dartfreak75

Restore it, Dont part it!
Joined
Aug 10, 2011
Messages
11,574
Reaction score
9,488
Location
Virginia
I have a 2001 dodge ram 1500 that is eating passenger side wheel bearings like skittles.
It started in may of 2017 when I got my state inspection the inspector told me I had a bad pass wheel bearing so I let him fix it. The next may (last year 2018) I had the same guy inspect it again. He came in and said you need a passenger side wheel bearing. I said no way you just put one on it last year and pulled out my recipe and showed him. He said im sorry but its bad. So this time around I decided to do it myself. Thinking he used cheap parts and or didnt torque the spindle nut correctly or something like that. So this go around I completely rebuilt the entire front end new ball joints upper and lower new brakes (rotors pads hoses) new wheel bearings on both sides. New u joints both sides. All parts where moog parts. Well this morning I go to back out of the driveway and here a huge clunk and metal to metal. I thought i ran over one of the kids bikes. Nope passengers side wheel bearing again. Its only been nine months. There is no way a moog wheel bearing wears out in 9 months. There has to be some underlining conditions causing this to happen. Any ideas? Bent axle? Bad spindle? I have no idea please help.

20190219_194605.jpg


20190219_194609.jpg


20190219_194619.jpg


20190219_194613.jpg


20190219_194820.jpg


20190219_194619.jpg


20190219_194859.jpg


20190219_194853.jpg


20190219_194609.jpg


20190219_194948.jpg
 
All I can tell you is Moog is not what moog used to be. Most is made in china just like everything else.
 
Moog does not make wheel bearings to my knowledge. Are these wheel bearings or hub assemblies?
 
dartfreak75 said:
Hub assembly
Click to expand...

Moog does not make those. We stock two brands. Masterpro, the house brand with a one year warranty and Precision, the national brand with a 3 year warranty. I haven't seen anything unusual about the Dodge hubs wearing prematurely.......not that that means a dang thing.

Check the brand. If it's in a Moog box, someone else made it.
 
That's not Moog. That's Precision/Masterpro. I'm tellin you Moog does not make bearings or hubs.
 
That is the exact one I bought.
But the brand really doesn't matter there had to be something off causing them to wear out. The question is what?
 
Depending on your roads...............(when I was young I navigated LOTS of narrow county roads, and would often have the right side off the pavement on the shoulder)

Severe wheel offset?
Tire balance problem?
Bent wheel/ out of round, etc?

I've never liked those types of bearings, and Mopar was the first to use a similar type, back WAY back when "full time" 4x4 came out. The problem with them is there is no way to properly lube/ service them, you cannot replace the seals, but worse, there is no adjustment and the bearing "halves" are WAY too close together, increasing the leverage against them from the wheel/ tire
 
I got new tires in February right before this all started (feb 2017) but i have rotated them a couple time so that wouldn't make much sense to why its only the passenger side.
 
I drive mostly interstate. Rarely do I go off road. But last week I did go down a really rough dirt road looking at a piece of land. And i had to lock it into 4x4 at one point but surely that wouldnt break a new a new hub.
 
dartfreak75 said:
Ok I believe you. That isn't the issue. The issue is what is causing them to wear out?
Click to expand...

It could be. It depends on who makes them. Our MasterPro hubs are garbage. Precision is ok. SKF and Timken are made in the US and some of the BCA units are too. The problem you're going to run into is everybody reboxes and relabels parts. Everybody. So it's going to be almost impossible to know what part is made by whom.
 
67Dart273 said:
Depending on your roads...............(when I was young I navigated LOTS of narrow county roads, and would often have the right side off the pavement on the shoulder)

Severe wheel offset?
Tire balance problem?
Bent wheel/ out of round, etc?

I've never liked those types of bearings, and Mopar was the first to use a similar type, back WAY back when "full time" 4x4 came out. The problem with them is there is no way to properly lube/ service them, you cannot replace the seals, but worse, there is no adjustment and the bearing "halves" are WAY too close together, increasing the leverage against them from the wheel/ tire
Click to expand...
That happened in 1975 thru 1979. I replaced a ton of them. They suffered poor *** quality metal in the hub that the dual bearings pressed on to. Finally changed back to normal in 1980.
 
I paid 160 for the moog (or whatever was in the moog box)
I thought I was getting a good one. So this time I will get a timken or top shelf if it lasts 8 months I will start getting 35 dollar rock auto ones lol
 
I know those tend to go bad around here with all the dummies running oversize tires (pointless on a truck IMO), my Jeep has unit hub bearings on the front axle too; buddy of mine with a similar XJ Cherokee said he was going through hubs every 6 months after putting on big tires (either 33" or 35" I can't remember) until he finally swapped in a Wagoneer Dana 44 front axle with locking hubs and whatnot.

Get Timken or SKF, I replaced the hubs on my Jeep with one of those two brands about 6 years ago and they're still cherry even with plenty of off-roading trips. I only have 29" tires though which helps a lot.
 
I just checked RockAuto.com, the Timken and SKF hubs are actually $10-20 cheaper than the MOOG ones. Still curious who the heck makes those for them to be the most expensive ones available (!!)
 
I replaced both in my 95 ram, similar setup to yours. The local napa only had one on hand so I drove 30 miles to oriellys to get the other one. The oriellys one only lasted about 3 months, replaced it with another Napa one and it is still in there after 8 years or so.
 
he Moog picture shows a 2x bearing and your truck is a 4x4. Just saying the picture is wrong. You haven't told us any details about your truck/wheel/tire set-up, only that the bearings are no good. The factory bearing also went bad. What about that. Same side keeps wearing out. More to this story than we are being told.
 
MoparLeo said:
he Moog picture shows a 2x bearing and your truck is a 4x4. Just saying the picture is wrong. You haven't told us any details about your truck/wheel/tire set-up, only that the bearings are no good. The factory bearing also went bad. What about that. Same side keeps wearing out. More to this story than we are being told.
Click to expand...

No, the bearing number in the ad he posted is for the 4x4 application. It does say for 2 wheel ABS. Maybe that's what you saw.
 
Buddy of mine has 2006 Ram 4x4, his truck is addicted to wheel bearings and brakes. Since new and he is original owner.
Dealer does most of work on his truck.
He heard a bearing going on way home from work. Thought "I'll get that checked out". Well truck put him in the ditch next day. That's about 2 hours of driving from "warning" to "holy ****!"
Brakes are just as bad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top