Ford Ranger Wheel Bearings

[doitmyself]

This regards my son's 2002 2WD Ford Ranger's front wheel bearings. He had it towed home tonight because the left front wheel bearing went bad. He had the brake rotors/pads replaced about 2 years ago, at 70,000 miles (112k on it now).

My question: When replacing the rotors on this (or any Ford truck)vehicle, is it o.k. to reuse the old bearings with the new rotors? I think this is what was done during the brake job. For those not familiar, the hub/bearing races are part of the rotor assembly.

Or, is it customary to replace bearings every time you replace the rotor?

They were AZ rotors. Maybe bad Chinese bearing races?

I will have questions about new rotors/bearings next! Thank you.

 

[fsskier]

The last rotor/hub assembly that I purchased for a Ford product had a new "outer race" already installed in the hub, and I just reused the old bearing which was perfect.

If a hub came without the outer race and a mechanic "beat it out" of the old hub and reinstalled it in the new one, I suspect it would be damaged and have a short life.

Still, if the bearing is cheap.... probably a good time to change it.

I have never had a bearing actually fail.... they growl for a long time before failing, and an astute owner (or anyone not deaf) should hear it and change it well before failure..... although a noisy, cuppy tire can sound the same way.

 

[bdcardinal]

Its normal to do rotors and not bearings, Ive seen it done and done it myself many times. Now best practice would be to replace bearings yes, and when I was turning wrenches I always threw them in there because there was actually less labor to put in new bearings, as opposed to cleaning and repacking the old ones.

 

[doitmyself]

Thanks for the quick replies.

fsskier, Aren't both the inner and outer races installed on a new rotor?

There is lots of slop in the assembly. I pulled the cap for a quick look and found metal filings and what looks to be a sliver of the bearing "frame" metal visible and broken.

The grease looks slightly dry, maybe. What's the chance that the axle is bad?

I will find out tomorrow for sure tomorrow when disassembled.

 

[fsskier]

Its a matter of nomenclature...but both the inner and the outer wheel bearings have inner and outer races.....

It sounds like your bearing carrier assembly has come apart, this usually happens at the end of bearing failure. Cleaning all will tell the story and hopefully the inner races did not spin and cut into the spindle. If so, the spindle needs to be repaired/replaced.
Heck I only do cars, not trucks!!
When its apart, you will know what was damaged!!

 

[190E26FTW]

You rarely have to replace bearings but you should check and repack your wheel bearings yearly and with the same type of grease. Do not mix various brands as it may cause problems.

 

[mechanicx]

Like you said those rotors with the intergral hub come with the races installed. You are suppose to use new bearings with the new races (some say you should use new bearings with its matched new races, but since new rotors come with races pressed in switching the races seems overkill), but if the original bearings are in good shape it is usually not a problem to reuse them on a new rotor if they are properly cleaned, packed with grease and adjusted.

There's too many variables here to say if reusing the old bearing caused the failure, eg, did they use high-temperature wheel bearing lithium grease, was the bearing cleaned and repacked good, and did they adjust it correctly? Plus it could be that the replacement rotor was low quality with low quality races.