[blacksquirrel]

Took me about 3 hours to change the passenger side rear hub, from starting to jack up my car to cleaning all my tools and a quick test drive.

Strangely my biggest trouble was with the axle nut where the little tab was chiseled in. It was hammered in all the way, and I broke 2 screw driver tips trying to pry it out.

2) To take brake rotor off, I borrowed the bolt holding the brake line in place since it's right there, then I put it into the screw hole of the brake rotor and it comes off like butter, no banging necessary.

3) I put the axel nut back on slightly to make it flush with the axel spindle and grabbed a 1x2 piece of wood about 1ft long I had lying around and knocked the other end of the 1x2 into the axel/spindle with a hammer to push back the axel/spindle maybe .5 inch to 1 inch and loosen it up for easier removal.

I would've hated to remove axel nut with a breaker bar.

Big thanks to dukdude, those tips probably saved me a good 20-30 minutes of messing about. I was able to get the axle nut off using a breaker bar fairly easily, I just pulled the e-brake all the way.

Even though my car has only seen 1 or 2 days of snow in the past 5 years, somehow the back side of hub was still rusted together with backing plate. After I removed both together off the knuckle, it took a good bit of hammering to get the hub off backing plate. So do expect a rusty hub even if you live in southern regions.

 

[cargostud]

2015 Forester at 41000 bad wheel bearing

My 2015 Forester at 41000 has a bad wheel bearing F/R

 

[8lackie]

Wheel bearing and failure

I may have missed it in this thread. I'm wondering how many people with failed wheel bearings are running oversized wheels and tires? Either with offsets greater than minus/plus 5mm? Especially wide wheels/tires or off road wheels/tire? I'm curious as I'm about to do coilovers and wider wheels and tires.
I understand this is one of the side-effects, if you will, of mods. Any observations and opinions welcome. Thanks

 

[2.5x_sleeper]

@8lackie the wheel bearing are known to fail, even with the stock wheels. :frown:

If you go with a smaller offset (smaller number) from the stock +48, it will stress the wheel bearing.

I'm running 235/45-18x7.5, +42 offset. My son is running 235/50-17x7", +40 offset.

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]

 

[8lackie]

A person on the FB subaru forum 2014-2018 is running Ray’s Gram Lights 57DR 18x8.5 +37. The tires are Yokohama Advan Sport 245/50 R18. It looks good.
I think I may just have to factor in wheel bearing replacements in my future.

 

[blacksquirrel]

I am on stock wheels and stock size tires, and I only do city/hwy driving on paved roads. My wheel bearing still last only half of the mileages of what I would expect of older generation cars.
As mentioned by others in the thread, expect a PITA replacement process if your car is used in colder climates...

 

[2.5x_sleeper]

A person on the FB subaru forum 2014-2018 is running Ray’s Gram Lights 57DR 18x8.5 +37. The tires are Yokohama Advan Sport 245/50 R18. It looks good.
I think I may just have to factor in wheel bearing replacements in my future.

That's how we look at it! If you want a specific look, sometimes it will cost you! :icon_eek:

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]

 

[kayj]

Yes, I have a 2015 Premium and the left wheel bearing is shot at 51,000 miles. Quite a disappointment. No way I can replace it myself. Will cost about $450.

 

[Ruby14]

Curious to know how the MOOGS are holding up.
I only got 30K mi from my Timkens too, now facing another replacement.
TWO SETS OF REAR BEARINGS BEFORE 81K, Subaru, really???

UPDATE: TIMKEN wheel hub assembly bearings failed after less than 30k miles (not sure if it had anythign to do with buying off eBay). Anyway, I replaced, again, with MOOG hub assemblies and hoping they'll last much longer... and they have a 3 year warranty from advanced auto parts. I've since put on about 4k miles, everything ok for now.

So...I am curious as to how the MOOGs are holding up.
I, too, got only 30K mi out of my rear TIMKENs, replaces at 50K
At 80K miles, I am needing to replace the rears again :frown2::frown2:

what's my best choice, MOOG, TIMKEN or OEM? Other?

 

[linuxgurugamer]

I love my subaru, but I've been very disappointed with the wheel bearings.
First on a 1999, I had one or two bearings go every year, I had the car for 14 years and 256k miles.

Now on my 2014, 91k and already about to replace the third. This is ridiculous, they should last longer.

Spoke to the service dept at my dealer, gave me a song and dance about all wheel drive cars put more wear on the bearings. If that was true, then I would expect a rear-wheel drive or front-wheel drive to have issues in their wheel bearings for the rear/front wheels.

Dealer price was about $450 to replace, my local mechanic was $300

 

[wallin2]

Where's the cheapest place to get an oem front wheel bearing? Has anybody had any success with aftermarket front wheel bearings working with the speed sensor?

My front right is starting to go out on my '14 with 122k. Oem wheels

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[ForesterTQ]

91 posts but not a single 2016 model. Wonder why?

 

[JaysOnTheEDGE]

2017 Forester, i had my right rear wheel bearing replaced at 33,300 miles under warranty. Dealer told me they are covered up till 5 yr/ 60K warranty

 

[ThorsHammer]

2015 Bad Bearings

I have a 2015 2.5i.

I had to replace my first bad bearing, drivers rear, at 18k. The next time I needed new bearings was at 90k service. I am lucky enough to have purchased the Subaru extended warranty and yes I got my money out of it over the last few years. They replaced my front shocks and AC issues. Back on topic. I had to replace both rear bearings at 90k. The mechanic at Modesto Subaru caught them before I did which impressed me since I usually hear things long before most mechanics can. Again at 97K i had to replace the drivers side front bearing.

I hope that we can find a good bearing before my other front goes out and the rears go out.

 

[ThorsHammer]

Oh for people asking about wheels, first bearing was on stock wheels and tires. All the rest were replacement wheels but in the stock size and offset.

 

[elquien]

Well, the Moog's worked just fine on the REAR. Nothing like taking 8 hours to do 2 hubs - man! Lots of PB Blaster and heat ended up finally working, but I had to beat the crap out of them. BUT, the sound of off road tires is gone now!

How did the Moog bearings hold up?

 

[elquien]

I think a lot of us would appreciate an update on how the aftermarket wheel bearings are holding up. Thanks All!

 

[blacksquirrel]

4 months 5000 miles on the Moog and it's fine, but that's not enough usage to mean anything.

The Moog replaced my factory rear right, and now the factory rear left is bad at 77k miles. I just bought a Raybestos this morning, $35 cheaper than Moog and lifetime warranty instead of 3 year. Will see how this one hold up.

You can try OEM bearings, but expect them to go bad again. The question is not "if," it's "when," and keep in mind OEM bearings only carry 1 year warranty. Yet the worst part about OEM bearings is the inconsistency in quality, they would last from 15k to 90k miles. So I would say that's not any different from aftermarket, just trying your luck on which batch you end up with.

The way I see it, if only one factory bearing went bad that could be my luck, but in my case to have both factory bearing gone bad 4 months apart at similar mileage, that's a sign of Subaru's bad engineering, design, or manufacturing or all the above.

 

[Makingforestergreatagain]

As mentioned by others in the thread, expect a PITA replacement process if your car is used in colder climates...

A coating of heavy duty metal protector(a heavy wax) or copper anti-seize on the parting surfaces should mitigate most difficulty in subsequent removal.

 

[Subi Newbie]

My 2014 Forester had the "all terrain tire hum" in the right rear that got louder over the course of a few thousand miles until I replaced wheel bearing at 81,000 miles with the MOOG 512518. Silence. Problem solved. MOOG seemed to have the most positive reviews and I wanted to do this just once. Removing the original hub was challenging. It was seized in place from 4 winters in New England (it lives in Texas now.) But less than a year later, at 98,000 miles, this new hub started whining. I had purchased it through PartsGeek and they were very helpful in getting a warranty refund. I got a second MOOG from them and installed it thinking the first one going bad was a fluke. So now at 115,000 miles, this one is whining. I have it aligned and I put new tires on at 105,000. Now 3 wheel bearings going out on the same wheel while the other 3 wheels are fine with the originals makes me wonder if there is something besides the wheel bearing at the heart of the problem.