Bad wheel bearing.....which brand to get?

Joined
Oct 11, 2020
Messages
180
Location
Alberta, Canada
With nice weather, I drove slowly with the windows open the other day. I heard some grinding noise and decided to check out if they are caused by bad wheel bearings. Put the car on the jack stands and rotated each wheels. No play when shaking them side to side and top and bottom. I think both rear wheel bearings needs replacing as they sound the same.
Front ones are not as bad and won't need replacing anytime soon. They require little effort to turn and once you let go after spinning, they keep spinning for a couple of turns.

Car is 2012 Acura TL SH-AWD with 100K miles.

Rockauto has Timken, SKF, and other "economy" brands. Should I try Ultra-power for fun of it for half price of SKF? Probably will get Dorman re-boxed with Ultra-power ones, but I have had some good long term usage out of Ultra-power brands in the past. Rear wheel bearing DIY seem pretty straight forward vs. front ones. I see different opinions on quality of wheel bearings as some of big name brands have gone down in quality.
 
SKF, the last Timken's I bought for my 2002 Acura TL-S were made in South Korea, but they are still good quality. My OE's lasted over 200K.

My Subaru came OE with SKF's. I have no need to replace them yet.

Your Acura should not need new rear wheel bearings unless it was towed with the rear tires on the ground, like a tow dolly. Have you checked your backing plates to make sure they are not touching anywhere?

P.S. Regarding your reboxed comment, SKF stamps their logo on their wheel bearings.
 
It appears most SKF wheel bearings are made in Korea; you shouldn't have any issues with them. FAG is another good option, if it's available for your application. But even when it comes to parts, the brand you choose tends to be application specific so I would not just blindly go on brand alone.
 
WOW, so many brands that I've never heard of. Most likely because not all brands are made for my vehicles when I look up bearings.
What is WJB?

I was always a TIMKEN brand bearing guy because this is what worked and my circle of car guys(used them) however they seem NOT to last the test of time any longer. You know? The bearing that you replace and never have to replace it ever again during your tenure with a vehicle(10-15 years).
 
Last edited:
WOW, so many brands that I've never heard of. What is WJB?
I was always a TIMKEN brand bearing guy however they seem NOT to last the test of time any longer. You know? The bearing that you replace and never have to replace it ever again during your tenure with a vehicle(10-15 years).
Sad to hear. So many manufacturers have cheapened everything. We've seen this with the premium oils and filters too.
 
Same story over and over. Sad. My latest bearing replacement in some greenhouse fans were China made Timkens (all I could find). Time will tell. My vote is for SKF.
 
SKF, the last Timken's I bought for my 2002 Acura TL-S were made in South Korea, but they are still good quality. My OE's lasted over 200K.

My Subaru came OE with SKF's. I have no need to replace them yet.

Your Acura should not need new rear wheel bearings unless it was towed with the rear tires on the ground, like a tow dolly. Have you checked your backing plates to make sure they are not touching anywhere?

P.S. Regarding your reboxed comment, SKF stamps their logo on their wheel bearings.
I had a 2007 Honda Accord SE with 386000 on it with the original wheel bearings and they were still quiet... 100k seems low for them to go bad...IMO
 
I had a 2007 Honda Accord SE with 386000 on it with the original wheel bearings and they were still quiet... 100k seems low for them to go bad...IMO
My fathers wheel bearings in his 07 Chevy car failed three different times in 60k miles. When it went bad again at 75k, he just dumped the car.

I use NSK or Moog without issue.
 
hrv,
My situation is similar. We owned an ‘88 Accord purchased new and put on 340K miles and still the same OE wheel bearings.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hrv
I am the second owner of the vehicle since it was 2 years old/15K miles and it hasn't been towed or anything like that during my ownership. Just wondering what I am hearing is brake pads touching the rotors as it's spinning. I serviced the slider pins 6 months ago before changing to the winters and none were seized then. No handling or vibration issues during the highway travels. I can't hear the grinding/roaring noise everyone is talking about when driving at higher speed because all I hear are road and tire noises. Maybe I am deaf.

I had to drive on fairly broken and rough pavement for 6 years when I drove kids to their schools and I read that bad road conditions/pot holes can lead to premature wheel bearing failure.

Thank you for everyone's feedback on what brand to use and avoid. Local Napa, Partsource, Canadian Tire, and Canadian online parts distributors that I normally use all have rear wheel bearings for my TL out of stock. Weird.

I bit the bullet and ordered Ultra-power ones from Rockauto because I was curious about what brand I will get. I shall post it when I get them delivered in a couple of days. I had some Paypal credit left so it only cost $55/side out of pocket with shipping and import duties. If they fail, I shall go with SKF as next brand to try out. Amazon.ca had Moog for about same price as SKF, but they are made in Japan. I didn't know they had such a thing as all Moog were made in China.
 
I have 30k miles on a NSK wheel bearing in a 2005 Accord. No problems so far. If the OEM bearing is less than twice the cost of aftermarket that's what I would do. That said I would do a little more investigation before replacing bearings.
 
I have almost always felt slop in the steering when a front bearing was bad, then I would jack up the front end and verify its the bearing loose and not the suspension. Bad rear bearings I've had I can only tell from the noise they make at highway speeds. Rumbling sound louder on one side than the other. That noise has occurred with every bad rear bearing I've observed in cars.

Only one time could I hear a raspy rubbing sound like the metal on the calipers were contacting the rotors. Checked the brakes over and it was bad bearings, both upfront had the same noise. Neither wheels had slop in them, just 23 year old original bearings.
 
Back
Top