Bye Bye wheel bearings

[turbomangt]

I have been hearing a kind of grinding noise latley and my mechanic told me my front wheel bearings are gone, on both sides, I have 63,000 miles, its an 03. never heard of this happening before, repair is like $400 [xx(][xx(][xx(]gary

[Mean Green]

That sucks. That's a little early, but not unheard of.

[CREWZIN]

Hey Gary, one good overall detail on one of those high price foreign jobs ought to take care of that bill for ya. Sorry to hear about your bearings.

[onedivinehammer]

$400 is not bad for both wheels including labor; as the parts cost about $150 each wheel (2 parts for each - hub and wheel bearing). It's a rather easy fix if you know what you're doing. You'll need a special hub tool but other than that it's not difficult.

One question: does the noise change at all while turning turns? For instance, I had a bad front left wheel bearing (had to replace both hub and wheel bearing as they should be replaced at the same time) which meant when I turned right the noise was awful but when I turned left the noise went away. When turning the pressure/weight of the car is applied to the opposite wheel of the turn. (Turn left you have noise your bad wheel is right; turn right you have noise your bad wheel is left.)

[bobs turbo pt]

that stinks !!

[rszappa1]

A good price.....At 63,000 Miles stuff like that are not suppose to happen....That still is a problem with American Cars...Parts failure way to early....and yes I own a 04 pt...but not sure if i will keep it for the long haul....it has 53,000 miles on it...

[AA PT]

142,500 miles and not a peep. 2003 GT Auto Stage 1.

[rszappa1]

You are one of the very lucky ones...[8D]

[StevenAndEva]

Hey turbo...
Same thing happened to my Wife.. around 40k miles. It turned out to NOT actually be the bearings, well let me elaborate...

The factory didn't torque the axle nuts to spec, and that worked a bit loose. That caused the OD bearing race to slightly wobble inside the Steering Knuckle and eventually get loose enough to spin the OD race inside the Steering Knuckle. The actual bearings (inside the races) were still good. The Steering Knuckle & Hub was all torn up, and of course the bearings were in need of replacement.

I have lots of photos, videos etc from dealing with my local Chrysler dealer on the one side, I did the R&R on the other side myself. Cost me the price of one new Hub, one new Steering knuckle, and one Bearing on my side. The dealer side was done for free.

Oh, BTW, The grinding in my case was the Brake Rotor rubbing on the Brake Caliper.. have a look at the edges of your rotors, they may need to be replaced as well.

PS: You may have a case with the dealer if you choose to go that route, I did it once then decided it wasn't worth the aggravation the second time. They'll try to tell you that the bearings went bad, when in reality IF the axle nuts were torqued to spec. the Hub or Steering Knuckle wouldn't be damaged in the least. Then they might try to tell you your brake pads were bad too.. better do your own inspection first.

Get all your parts back if you go there... let 'em know the factory was at fault and they need to pay for it. You may have to get a bit angry when they try to convince you they know more than you do.

Small video of the loose hub @ the knuckle.

[MyPTGT]

Just had to have mine replaced at 54,000 on an 03.