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2014 - Bad wheel bearings? - SOLVED!

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#101 ·
Do you rotate your tires? Had an alignment?
Even wear or does that corner look scrubbed from the TOE setting being off?
If the above answers are no and the tire is scrubbed from bad toe, maybe that could cause more load on that bearing and lead to premature failure... or not and MOOG is not the best source,,, or is counterfeit.
 
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#102 · (Edited)
I found this interesting:

Does banging on the hub like that do anything to the axle? I can see how some people end up destroying the backing plate.
It seems that the backing plate and hub bearing ID are where the rust welding happens.
My 2015 Forester with 72k miles has not had any bearing issues up to now.
After hearing and reading all of the bearing failures, I did some research just in case.

I'd rather invest in tools than pay Subaru dealer to do a wheel bearing on my Foresters.
Our 2003 with over 130k miles still has original WB's. Wish I knew which manufacturer
Subaru was using for it's current MY wheel bearings. Does anyone know?
 
#104 ·
or a good heavy Bronze tip hammer. Hub grapplers/Tamers probably wouldn't work for these hub assemblies since you need to get the backing plate apart somehow first. The rear backing plates cost $63 each. I would start with some heat followed by a good soaking in penetrating oil over night. I use Dow Corning Molykote brand penetrating Oil. I've had good luck with this oil. It has worked every single time.
 
#106 ·
Penetrating fluid works best if you add time and patience, which most of us don't have. Backing plate is tethered to parking brake cable, if you can remove that cable and set the whole thing on wood blocks and soak penetrating fluid overnight, it should come off with light banging.

But to be honest if your car has been seeing snow and salt for years, probably should play safe and spend the money for a new backing plate. Because you don't know how much material would have rusted and come off as you bang the old hub out, and you don't want to find out there is now a gap after you install the new hub back on old rusted backing plate. And yes a small gap should not matter because the hub is secured by those 4 bolts and should self-center, but just like some people would put on aftermarket wheels without proper hub rings, that is not something I would personally do.

As for why the factory bearing would fail so relatively early, I am of the opinion that it's because of the decision to use ball bearing instead of roller bearing. For a ball bearing design to spread the load evenly, the manufacturing tolerance has to be extremely fine, which is apparently not being achieved.

As for the Moog hub, honestly they are no better than other brands. Many of us ended up with Moog simply because it offered the longest warranty back then - 3 years versus 1 year. Now Mevotech, Raybestos, and SKF all offer better warranty without charging a premium, and that's why I didn't buy a Moog for this other bearing. Mentally I am prepared to replace my Moog before warranty expires, even a few times over.
 
#107 ·
Just replace rear left factory bearing with Raybestos, took me longer this time because for whatever reason the axle spline was really stuck in the old hub and I had to go rent a puller. So keep that in mind for folks who plan to DIY.

So now it's Moog on the rear right vs. Raybestos on the rear left, will see which one gets replace again first!
 
#109 ·
Makingforestergreatagain said:
Was there any trace of antiseize on the spline?
Click to expand...
It was dry, just like the right side, and that's straight from factory as I bought this car new and I'm the only owner. But I didn't have any problem with the right side, a few hammer taps through a small block of wood was all it took to get the spline loose. So this time I make sure to apply anti-seize when I put the new hub on.
 
#110 ·
If the parking brake is disassembled, is there enough room to get a strap wrench on the stationary part of the hub? From pictures it seems like the hub-to-knuckle mount is a nice round hole and a good sized plumber's strap wrench could twist the hub. Might not get it off but it should break the rust loose. Or, is there something in the way that would keep that idea from working?
 
#111 ·
dougdeep said:
If the parking brake is disassembled, is there enough room to get a strap wrench on the stationary part of the hub? From pictures it seems like the hub-to-knuckle mount is a nice round hole and a good sized plumber's strap wrench could twist the hub. Might not get it off but it should break the rust loose. Or, is there something in the way that would keep that idea from working?
Click to expand...
Yes you can do that, but not sure why you wouldn't just hammer it out. The hub sticks out only about half inch above backing plate, so you can't get much leverage off the strap. The backing plate is a weird shape to grab and feels easily bendable. Try simply hammering it first, if it doesn't work then feel free to be creative.

I didn't remove any bit of the parking brake components. I just remove the hub/backing plate combo off the knuckle and set it on a box, spray some WD40 and start hammering. Definitely feel free to go after the old hub and just let out your anger, since it's just a greasy paper weight now.

I didn't plan to do a write up so I only took a few pictures. I didn't take one with the hub attached, but here is what the back end looks like with the hub taken out and cleaned up.

Image
 
#112 ·
I had to replace both rear bearings now @ 115k km's (70k miles). One was really shot and the other had started to howl as well. Tried to have a go at it myself, but there was no way I was going to be able to get them out without risk of damaging things. I had a go with a big sliding hammer and also tried chiseling at the hub to get it to rotate in the housing but it didn't budge. Had the dealer do them both instead. I live in a wet/salty area as well.
 
#113 ·
I had to replace all 4 hub bearings on 2014 Forester (First and last Subi) shortly after 60k miles
I cut a 2 foot long iron bar, drilled out one end about 1/4 inch deep, and roughly the same width as the hub bolts. Unbolted the 4 bolts holding the hub bearing in about half an inch out each.
Placed the end of the bar over the heads of the bolts and used a 5 pound sledge to slowly move out the hub.
525373
 
#114 ·
i hesitate to write in this post because it's so long and because im hoping someone sees this :)
i brought my new to me subie in for wheel bearing replacement because it was making the loud sitting next to airplane engine sound and 2 mechanics confirmed wheel bearings...one which specified both rear ones. when i brought it to subaru still under the 30day warranty they fixed the driver side rear wheel bearing only.
it is much quieter on the road now but im noticing a muffler like sound still when driving upon acceleration at around 60mph. i noticed the loud wheel bearing noise at 40mph and sometimes less... could it be the passenger side is just less worn so its only noisy at 60mph? or that it's something else?
i hear it when pressing the gas so it seems like could be engine related but its hard to say where its coming from now.
im having some trust concerns that only the driver side was fixed and i dont know what noises are normal yet esp after driving 2 weeks like i was flying a jet plane.
thanks!
 
#115 ·
Sometimes, wheel bearings that get replaced more than once can be attributed to a bad knuckle. I would use a dial indicator to check the run out. Iirc, the upper limit is .020”

The knuckle can get scored and rust pitted and become severely out of round. Something to consider.
 
#116 ·
I heard the same thing, a droning noise on my forester 2014 2.5i after i just got new tires. I would only hear it from 50-60mph or along that range and some days it would get worse. It was driving me nuts. Brought it took mechanic today and getting the entire left rear wheel hub assembly replaced (moog) along with my rear brake pads replaced/rotors resurfaced/brake fluid flushed for $650 total. Mine is about 52k miles. Dont know if that's a good deal or not considering in bay area...mechanic says the bearing was rusted and hard to get off. Will see it later today.
 
#118 ·
My '14 Forester is getting the hum noise. My mechanic said ALL four wheel bearings are bad especially the rear two. Need over $2000 to replace them. Dealer parts are $237 for front and $324 for rear. Car has 230k km. Had a Forester before this and had replaced wheel bearing twice. Getting sick of this. And I haven't need to replace any of these with my Honda/Acura before. I think this is my last Subaru for sure. Cheap quality but expensive part.
 
#119 ·
Avatar said:
My '14 Forester is getting the hum noise. My mechanic said ALL four wheel bearings are bad especially the rear two. Need over $2000 to replace them. Dealer parts are $237 for front and $324 for rear. Car has 230k km. Had a Forester before this and had replaced wheel bearing twice. Getting sick of this. And I haven't need to replace any of these with my Honda/Acura before. I think this is my last Subaru for sure. Cheap quality but expensive part.
Click to expand...
Timken Hub Bearings cost me about $90 each from Rock Auto.
 
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Bez
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