Front Wheel Axle Bearing and Hub Assembly Vendor Choice

[RBridenbaugh]

After 140k miles my right front wheel bearing is making noise when I load it up going around a left turn. The left is squeaking sometimes as well. Since I'm changing out my ball joints and axle drive u-joints, I'm changing out the hub assembly on each side as well.



The axle bearing hub assembly is Dodge part # 05103507AA



From reading this forum the Dodge part is made by



SKF (part # BR930502)



Looking on the internet I've also found



Timken (part #HA 590032)



National Wheel Corp. - Federal Mogul (Part # 515061)



Any one source better than the other from a quality stand point or should I just make the choice on lowest cost?

 

[rscurtis]

As long as you're going to this much trouble support a California company and install the Dynatrac kit. Do the alxe U-joints while you're at it too.

 

[monkeyman]

But for my 2002 on E-bay, $379. 00 for both!
Rick

 

[OldCrank]

Front hub bearings

The Timken, SKF and/or other bearing part#s are usually the info that you would find on the bearing assembly itself (clean the bearing and check the races for the info). Vehicle manufacturers don't make their own bearings, they purchase from suppliers. The point is that you can buy from the factory or from an outside supplier of factory bearings and you will get the same product. The key is that you should avoid the aftermarket suppliers (discount part stores mainly, or Internet discounters) that sell private brands. These can be uh... substandard to say the least. Pay the right dough for the right part-works every time.



Probably smart to upgrade some things there since your tearing it all down.

 

[BDaugherty]

I would use whichever bearing is made in the USA. If there is more than one choice, then buy the cheapest.

 

[jelag]

I'm sure that some of you aren't going to be happy with the following, but its reality 101...

Most of these bearings are offered by US companies... but 80% of what they sell comes from off shore... Federal Mogul is one of those companies... we used to use them as a vendor... but if you wanted something out of a warehouse on short notice, 1 - they can't ship the same day... 2 - they have a $25 upcharge for orders outside of your normal stock order... . 3 - they often lost the order...

A great example is a release bearing I used to buy from Federal Mogul for an ag tractor... our price from Federal Mogul was close to $28 and our cost from the other vendor (mind you the exact bearing) was under $6 FOB Seattle... . so you see that the American companies are really stepping on the product hard (markup/profit). . of course this gives us great advantage... we still make the same but sell it for a lot less...

A few years ago(10) at AAPEX/SEMA I found a great bearing vendor, who offered to sell me bearings at great prices... We've had a great relationship... what does surprise me is often with a shipment they (bearings) might show up in any number of different boxes... its like well, we've got these boxed and they didn't go on the last order so you get them instead of re-boxing in a neutral box. .

So in the last shipment I asked for the front hub samples for my 05 dodge an a friends 07 GMC... both came with the ABS sensor attached and they (bearing mfg) makes close to 1 million sets a year... they are an OEM tier 2 supplier... which means that they supply the vendor who supplies axles, and suspension parts with the hubs installed. .

So now we plan farther ahead and have more money invested in inventory... this summer the Federal Mogul sales guy was in the office wondering where our business had gone... . but he still couldn't solve 1,2,3 listed above... so we just don't use them...

BTW - they were in great financial trouble. . but I no longer follow their stock. .

 

[OldCrank]

Jelag has a good point; even the U. S. suppliers often source their parts from offshore outfits, so it's a bit of a crapshoot. Being a positive sort of person, I like to believe that the U. S. suppliers require a factory-level spec (or better) from the bearing (or other part) manufacturers regardless of where they are located. Reality bites sometimes.

 

[BHanna]

I just checked out ebay after monkeyman's post. Check this out! $122 per side? Are these any good?

 

[EricBu12]

Question for the newbie 3rd gen guy. . (Me)

What is the deal with the hubs or bearings on the 3rd gens?... I have a new 09 . . Am I going to have problems down the road with these?... How soon?

 

[BHanna]

It doesn't really seem that they've been a huge weak point but they're not serviceable and they're expensive when they need to be replaced. I have 65K on mine and they're still fine.

 

[HBarlow]

Question for the newbie 3rd gen guy. . (Me)

What is the deal with the hubs or bearings on the 3rd gens?... I have a new 09 . . Am I going to have problems down the road with these?... How soon?

I replaced the sealed bearing front hubs on my '01 and '06 at around 220k miles. My approach for maintenance items is always to replace them before failure occurs so each would have lasted awhile longer but were showing signs of wear and looseness.

I have only owned 2wd Rams and my trucks are not driven offroad so if yours is 4wd your results may vary.

 

[jelag]

Actually with the right tools these can be taken apart, cleaned and re-greased...

The same style of cartridge is used on an air compressor on some Mack Truck Engines.

We've been successful using an arbor press, pushing them apart, cleaning, greasing and pressing them back together. . 45 min tops...

And if you have the rotor off, you can remove the ABS sensor and add some additional grease...

The guys in the dealers, and other repair places have never done this, so they have no experience doing it... so they don't attempt it. . besides they'd rather sell you one and make $100 each side on the parts sale than mess with the time...

 

[mini14]

Sell wheel hub 515061 - Chinese exporters - Zhejiang Zhengda Bearing Co. , Ltd.







I wouldn't trust it. .

 

[OldCrank]

My right side went at about 110K, but it was soon after the hub had been pressed out for installation onto a new rotor (pads had gone metal-to-metal, my bad). Unfortunately not soon enough to show up at the shops' doorway for a redo; coincidence, or...



Another lesson learned is that the inner axle seals on those Dana front diffs are a monster job to replace, so be careful when disturbing the front drive axles.