Does a bearing poop in the woods?

[Sludgy]

My wife's Corolla is an execrable vehicle. It has a "pothole finder" headlight; no hubcaps, lots of dents, and my six foot frame gets achy if I sit in it more than 30 minutes. She loves it, though.

Yesterday it ate its FOURTH wheel bearing, installed just a few months ago. Anybody else have problems with Corolla wheel bearings?

[Jay2TheRescue]

When the bearing was replaced, did you replace the race as well?

[bowtieguy]

what about missing dust caps?

[Project84]

Ran into this problem on a friend's Kia Sephia.

Autozone wheel bearings went in it each time and after about 5-6k miles it would be bad... solution was to get an entire hub from the junkyard for $20 and call it good. It rolled another 40k like that until she sold it.

[imzjustplayin]

sounds like to me you guys didn't grease the bearings properly or something.. There really is no reason for a bearing to go so quickly unless it's not lubed up at all.

[ben98gs]

I have had the same problem... But it was not a grease problem (most newer wheel bearings are a sealed bearing, so no way for you to grease them). The problem is the Autozone cheap bearings are made in China and just crap.

Try and find a place that carries Timken or Chicago Rawhide bearings. Those are two that I have had luck with in the past. That said, I think both USED to be made in the US, but it has been a few years (over 5) since I had to do that research so it could have changed by now.

[Sludgy]

The bearings are sealed units. We had one replaced at a toyota dealer, but it crapped out too. The later bearings have been aftermarket units.

[imzjustplayin]

Originally Posted by Sludgy

The bearings are sealed units. We had one replaced at a toyota dealer, but it crapped out too. The later bearings have been aftermarket units.

are you sure? the only bearings I've seen that are sealed units are the ones used for the throwout bearing or whatnot.. These ARE tapered bearings, right?

[Sludgy]

Originally Posted by *************

are you sure? the only bearings I've seen that are sealed units are the ones used for the throwout bearing or whatnot.. These ARE tapered bearings, right?

I have no idea whether these bearings have roller, ball or tapered roller elements. They're shielded and sealed, so you can't look inside.

[imzjustplayin]

It turns out, the bearings are usually double ball bearing which totally sucks imo.. I'm going to try to find a way to see if I can get some tapered roller bearings for my civic in place of these ball bearings.. Totally disgraceful that they'd use ball bearings.