Sealed car & truck wheel bearings

It's like many trends in the automotive industry, "made to outlast the warranty and then some", but not made to be serviced for those who want a lot longer than that.

What typically happens on these sealed bearing is eventually the seal fails. My crystal ball can't tell you when your specific vehicle's seals will fail, but eventually, the grease will harden and if the seals are shot, depends on the hub design whether you can just pump more grease in and fix that. Inner seals maybe if you can flood the cavity in the hub and there's no ABS sensor issue, but outer seal, it'll just leak out again so a short term stop-gap measure.

I realize *certain* OEM parts including hubs are outrageously priced for what they are, but there is plenty of aftermarket, major brand support for american pickup trucks so in this case, I don't think it is worth the bother to think about, let alone do anything until the day comes that it fails and then you slap a new ~$120 hub on. If you're keeping a vehicle that long, it's a small price to pay relative to a newer vehicle monthly payment or even depreciation.

I'd feel differently if this was a $1000+ repair, but it's not if you DIY and you really have to DIY to make the most economical sense out of keeping a vehicle past the point where the factory hubs fail. Unless you have a shed-ton of potholes and then all bets are off, road condition means a lot about how your suspension and bearings hold up. I Happen to have a lot of potholes and badly repaired roads, so it's just par for the course that truck/suv hubs get replaced every 15 years or 200K mi, give or take 25%. It's a small price to pay over that use.

Drill holes? Umm no. I'd sooner pull the hub off and use a grease injection needle if I couldn't pull the seal out, before I went that route.
 
I got 160,000km off the factory unit bearings on my Trailblazer. I'm running GM, assuming OE replacements currently. Made in USA and ordered in from the dealer. Not cheap at all and ensuring I can get non commy made parts in the future is tough and expensive up here. If I pop out the ABS sensor I can use a needle to inject some grease down there. Thats the plan when I can get around to it.
What year is trailblazer & is sensor removable?
 
It's like many trends in the automotive industry, "made to outlast the warranty and then some", but not made to be serviced for those who want a lot longer than that.

What typically happens on these sealed bearing is eventually the seal fails. My crystal ball can't tell you when your specific vehicle's seals will fail, but eventually, the grease will harden and if the seals are shot, depends on the hub design whether you can just pump more grease in and fix that. Inner seals maybe if you can flood the cavity in the hub and there's no ABS sensor issue, but outer seal, it'll just leak out again so a short term stop-gap measure.

I realize *certain* OEM parts including hubs are outrageously priced for what they are, but there is plenty of aftermarket, major brand support for american pickup trucks so in this case, I don't think it is worth the bother to think about, let alone do anything until the day comes that it fails and then you slap a new ~$120 hub on. If you're keeping a vehicle that long, it's a small price to pay relative to a newer vehicle monthly payment or even depreciation.

I'd feel differently if this was a $1000+ repair, but it's not if you DIY and you really have to DIY to make the most economical sense out of keeping a vehicle past the point where the factory hubs fail. Unless you have a shed-ton of potholes and then all bets are off, road condition means a lot about how your suspension and bearings hold up. I Happen to have a lot of potholes and badly repaired roads, so it's just par for the course that truck/suv hubs get replaced every 15 years or 200K mi, give or take 25%. It's a small price to pay over that use.

Drill holes? Umm no. I'd sooner pull the hub off and use a grease injection needle if I couldn't pull the seal out, before I went that route.
Thats part of the problem, the seals are not accessable. A small hole 1/8in'' is not going to get any chips in the will hurt the bearings. there is already wear metal in there from normal or abnormal wear. With the cost of vehicles today & related parts, it just makes good sense to make what you have last. That is you might have a rich uncle
 
Mine is 2006 and the sensor is removable. Its a hall effect sensor so apparently a little grease won't affect it.
You are off to a good start. When you have the sensor hole opened up, Look to see if you can see the color of the grease. If it is blue or red then it should be compatible with yours. The best method is having it analyzed through an oil rep. If there is some way to remove some grease on a Q tip or other way, then having it analyzed that would leave nothing to chance. Do you have it off of the vehicle? If so you should be able to see inside & get a sample. After pumping a small amount in spin the hub to spread the grease around being careful not to over fill. I am going to buy a used hub & find a way to totally wash out all the grease. After it is cleaned to my satisfaction I will add Schaeffer #293 75-90 gear oil to a safe level. I will bench mount it hooking it to an electric drill & let it run for several hours to see if there is any oil leaking out. The bearings should out perform the grease method because more lubrication is available to the bearings with gear oil. Many mechanics that I have talked to agree. The gear lube methoh is a lot easier to service because it is not necessary to remove the wheel. There is a plug in the cap at the end of the hub for emptying & refilling. The same as is on big trucks. How do I know this, I owned a trucking co. for many years. With the right lube I have seen over 700,000 miles on my bearings & yes there is moly in the gear oil.
 
Whatever the cause the GM trucks, especially the HD's have a tendency for early failure. My 2005 had both replaced at 85k and then one of those SKF replacements at 105K. Strictly anecdotal but I helped quite a few friends replace units on their GM trucks also.
My 2012 2500 gmc lasted 120k and my son’s 2013 1500 is on its third set of front wheel bearings at 170k miles.
 
One of the Timkens I replaced my originals with only lasted about 30k, I replaced it with an SKF and then sold the truck a couple years later
 
I'm not sure sealed hubs are a conspiracy to get people to buy more bearings.... I keep my vehicles to around 300k miles and have only ever replaced one that was just starting to get a little noisy.

I work at a shop serving hundreds a month and its honestly been months since I've replaced one on a customers vehicle 🤷

I for one do not miss packing the bearings all the time on my vintage Ranger.
 
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I'm not sure sealed hubs are a conspiracy to get people to buy more bearings.... I keep my vehicles to around 300k miles and have only ever replaced one that was just starting to get a little noisy.

I work at a shop serving hundreds a month and its honestly been months since I've replaced one on a customers vehicle 🤷
Yeah but you're just a lube tech not Lube Man :)
 
The old style bearings the could be serviced were cheaper to make & lasted a very long time when properly maintained. The manufacturers are smiling at their new found endless stream of customers. I myself will be one of them some day but, that day is a long way off. I knew that my head was good for something other than a hat rack.
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Yes, years ago oil, filter and repack, were common shop work. It was probably overdone in many cases, but I never lost a bearing. I was lucky in early Ebay years as part store owners were listing dusty boxes that they might have tossed out. I was able to add many old stock parts, including bearings for my older GM cars.
 
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