Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) Buyer Beware! Replacement front wheel bearing hub: serious quality problems.

[Coalsmoke]

Hi everyone, I want to pass along a bit of info about our wheel bearing hub assemblies. A couple years ago I replaced one of my wheel bearing hubs, it wasn't bad but it was a little noisy and was the OEM hub, and since I'm big on preventative maintenance I decided to do it while I had the front end apart doing some seals. Anyways, I went down to my local parts jobber and bought a new one, it wasn't cheap but life goes on. Today, roughly 50,000miles later I could hear it failing when I had the window's down. There wasn't much lateral play in it but was very "ratty' sounding. When I pulled the hub you could tell that it had maybe 250 miles left in it before it might leave me on the side of the road. This hub should not be burnt out at only 50K. Luckily I had a spare OEM hub here at home and put that one in. I noticed it said Made in USA and was a Timken bearing. The cheap short-lived hub I pulled out said Made in Japan and was a Koyo 387A-N bearing! Why am I so surprised and upset, because this hub came in a box that says "SKF Bearing HUBG3 BR930405 Made in USA" when the stamping on the hub clearly says Japan #@$%! I never saw the small Japan marking on the bearing itself when I initially installed it, it wasn't until I was wondering today why it burned out so fast that I compared numbers and found that. Anyways, they got my money, but at least I can pass this along to my fellow TDR members.

 

[hdm48]

Thanks for the heads-up. I will watch for that one.

 

[Signal73]

overseas garbage! this is what this country loves because its cheap! I have been through 4 water pumps on my moms ford because they are cheap autozone junk. It has a lifetime warranty, next time it goes out Im going to buy a quality one because im tired of replacing them!#@$%!

 

[biggy238]

My guys at NAPA told me that the cheap bearing (overseas) comes in the same box to them. (with your SKF Number)

There is a high dollar ($250ish) and a cheap

($150) unit that they can get. Maybe something has happened with this?

I don't even know if that's who sole to you. This is just what we discussed the last time I did a wheel bearing, about a month ago.



It's worrisome that you could get trash in a high dollar box.

 

[cfarrar]

I try to buy US bearings, but consider Japanese ones to be good.

 

[litespeed]

Thanks for posting this. Funny about the Japan/USA thing. Just proves we need to actually check what is in the box regardless of what it says "on" the box. Something I rarely do.



Something else to consider. Especially if you tow a lot and if you have drum brakes on the rear. If your rear brakes are worn, or are not self adjusting properly this puts a lot more stress on the front brakes. The extra heat generated by this thins out the grease in the bearings and the bearing can go bad quickly. Ask me how I know... . Also pulling heavy loads with out proper trailer braking can do the same. Almost to the point where all the grease is gone/cooked.

 

[bmoeller]

I bought a fuel supply pump for my 6. 9L several years ago. The p/n on the box was right, the number on the pump, and the pump its self was wrong.

 

[Coalsmoke]

Thanks guys for reading.

Litespeed, I never thought about that, but it makes sense. I know I ask a lot of my truck, its always loaded, but when the OEM one outlasts the 'new replacement' by a factor of 8, I got to get my griping boots on I got the part from Lordco.

 

[DieselDoghouse]

Course it says made in Japan—but was probably made in China using all the crap that can't go into petfood anymore!! Or maybe the melamine was just the packing materials!!!