Front Hub Bearing

[borgward]

2013 Ford Fiesta

I am getting a low frequency hum from the left front left when going around a right hand bend in the highway at highway speeds. I suspect the left hub bearing. I took it to the Ford dealer for warranty work. They called me yesterday and said the technician could not hear anything. I asked if the tech had driven on the highway until it was warmed completely and driven around a bend in the road - no! The tech had driven it on the parking lot! Waiting on a return call. I hate having to spoon feed people that are supposed to be more qualified than me. Anyway, wondering where to find specs for axial run out for that car. In other words how much should the hub should travel in and out on the axle as measure with a dial indicator. Any advice for troubleshooting this component?

 

[Chris142]

Should have no play if the bearing is good.

 

[bdcardinal]

We have sold a few of those cartridge bearings. Mostly to body shops.

 

[quint]

Having the same battle with Mazda right now for my wife's 3. Lots of noise, but the bearing has no play so they wont replace it. Blaming it on the tires. This is the 2nd set of tires with this noise there. Told them how to duplicate it, which speeds, turning left or right makes the moaning louder then go away, etc. Three different phone calls with two different tech's plus the service writer. I've replaced more than one set of tight bearings that have been plenty noisy.

 

[Kestas]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Should have no play if the bearing is good.

A bearing can be bad and make noise long before it develops play.

When doing bearing warranty, most of the customer narrative I've read indicates a bad bearing is noisiest at 30-50 mph, and has a growling or moaning sound.

I also want to mention I've personally been fooled a couple times with noise I thought was coming from the bearings. It turns out it was coming from corrosion on the rotor/pad assembly.

 

[SHOZ]

I had bad front bearings on my Accent this winter and into spring. I was blaming it on new tires. But it got so loose it started popping.....

The one side I fixed and then you could tell how quiet it should be so I did the other side too. The other side had no play though.

 

[mclasser]

Take the tech on a ride with you and duplicate the conditions in which the noise occurs. Dealers will always try to shoo you away.

 

[borgward]

Originally Posted By: quint
tech's


They need a real mechanic!!! I hate to come off to those guy's like I'm a know it all (I'm sure they get a lot of people that really don't know what they are talking about) I used to be a mechanic before I found a better paying line of work and I have a pretty good knowledge of mechanical stuff. It probably never occurred to them to use a dial indicator to see if there is any play in and out on the axle. That's what separates a tech from a mechanic.

 

[borgward]

Yeah, I'm going to do that. I'm going to have them take a ride in a new one on the lot so they can see what "no noise" sounds like. My car has only 22,000 miles on it, so there should not be much difference between it and a new one.

 

[bdcardinal]

If the car makes noise when doing something like that it is best to tell the service advisor and make them type that into their description on the repair order. We have had techs call customers directly and ask exactly what was going on so they knew what to look for.

 

[Trav]

End play greater than 0.004 inch (0.100mm) is sign something isn't right, this is not specific to your car but a general measurement.
Toyota had this exact noise issue some years ago, the bearing was not defective but they issued a TSB with an updated part # to address the issue, maybe Ford has something in a TSB about itor updated part #, member bdcardinal might be able to look that up for you.

 

[edwardh1]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
If the car makes noise when doing something like that it is best to tell the service advisor and make them type that into their description on the repair order. We have had techs call customers directly and ask exactly what was going on so they knew what to look for.



gee maybe techs should always talk to customers, no service writers in between

 

[SatinSilver]

Originally Posted By: Trav
Toyota had this exact noise issue some years ago, the bearing was not defective but they issued a TSB with an updated part # to address the issue


Hi there Trav,

Do you know what TSB number this was or what models were involved? Thank you!

 

[Trav]

03-05 Corolla rear hub bearings for one, there were a couple of others but I don't remember what they were. The bearings were not defective just some noise complaints.
What year and model do you have, I only have the TSB's for Toyota through 2008.

 

[SatinSilver]

Thanks Trav. 2005 Toyota Matrix XR front wheel drive automatic. It sounds like it it's coming from the front. The dealer confirmed what I thought, front passenger side and quoted a huge estimate to fix it, $600. Which included an alignment and a new hub. They said the hub might be able to be salvaged. I haven't tried to shake the wheel myself with the tire off the ground.

Tires are four year old Hankooks which have 45k on them. I just don't want the wheel coming off while on the highway. The steering wheel started shaking on the hwy but that went away when I rotated the tires.