- Joined
- Jul 18, 2011
- Messages
- 18,285
My 2004 Ford Explorer has gone through a major round of brake, tire and suspension work recently. I have a local repair shop that does a pretty good job at a decent price. I usually bring the car to him for the stuff that I'd rather not do, or just don't have the proper equipment/tools to do . .
The rear differential was starting to go, and so I had him replace it with a used one (still $1,000)
and when I picked up the car he said, "the front wheel bearings are starting to go too . . ." I said "yea, I know . . ."
Well, I can replace the front wheel bearings, as I did the ones on my previous Explorer. So that has been my project for the past few nights, after work of course . . .
Here they are: 2 defunct wheel bearings . . .
![URL]](http://[URL="http://s1259.photobucket.com/user/tedpenfield/media/IMG_2369.jpg.html"][ATTACH]219668._xfImport[/ATTACH][/URL])
I got the Timken OEM style replacements, as my experience with some of the off-price parts have been not so good, particularly when bearings are involved. Even though these bolt into the suspension knuckle, Ford does not make it easy to replace them . . . It took quite a bit of work to get the 3 retaining bolts out and then a bit of sledge hammering to actually 'pop' the bearing assembly out of the knuckle. (of course most of my tools are at the summer house dedicated to the boat preparations, so I had to scrounge a few things)
The only good thing about the bearings is that they seem to hold on for a while even as they are starting to wear out. It seems that the bearings of yesterday would go rather quickly once they started to make noise, etc. These have been making noise for quite some time, but it was difficult to tell with the noise coming from the rear-end that just got replaced.
The car has 135K miles, and we just sunk $4K into these repairs (brakes, tires, rear axles, rear tie rods, differential, 1 stabilizer bar connecter, and me doing the front wheel bearings). I told the Admiral that the thing will have to go another 10 years to make good on the repair costs Maybe it will :noidea:
The rear differential was starting to go, and so I had him replace it with a used one (still $1,000)
and when I picked up the car he said, "the front wheel bearings are starting to go too . . ." I said "yea, I know . . ."Well, I can replace the front wheel bearings, as I did the ones on my previous Explorer. So that has been my project for the past few nights, after work of course . . .
Here they are: 2 defunct wheel bearings . . .
I got the Timken OEM style replacements, as my experience with some of the off-price parts have been not so good, particularly when bearings are involved. Even though these bolt into the suspension knuckle, Ford does not make it easy to replace them
. . . It took quite a bit of work to get the 3 retaining bolts out and then a bit of sledge hammering to actually 'pop' the bearing assembly out of the knuckle. (of course most of my tools are at the summer house dedicated to the boat preparations, so I had to scrounge a few things)The only good thing about the bearings is that they seem to hold on for a while even as they are starting to wear out. It seems that the bearings of yesterday would go rather quickly once they started to make noise, etc. These have been making noise for quite some time, but it was difficult to tell with the noise coming from the rear-end that just got replaced.
The car has 135K miles, and we just sunk $4K into these repairs (brakes, tires, rear axles, rear tie rods, differential, 1 stabilizer bar connecter, and me doing the front wheel bearings). I told the Admiral that the thing will have to go another 10 years to make good on the repair costs
Maybe it will :noidea:
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