Rear Wheel Bearings Suddenly Bad...

I recently took my 2002 Explorer in to the dealer for a rear brake job. At
71,000 miles, not surprisingly, it needed both pads and rotors. The day
after picking it up, there's now suddenly a vibration / drone-sound
emanating from the rear that's proportional to the speed of the vehicle.

A trip back to the dealer tells me that both rear wheel bearings need to be
replaced. Sounds like the right diagnosis, but seems awfully suspicious
since there wasn't a hint of this issue prior to the brake job.

My question: in replacing the rotors, how likely is it that the bearings
were damaged by the dealer?

Thanks for your help

Pete in Cleveland

Depends how bad the rotors were to remove and how a large the hammer
used to knock them free ) Just kidding... I'm sure it was done the
proper way with a lot of catalyst and/or a little heat. Mine were a
bear at 3x,000 miles, but PB-Blaster, patience, and some heat in the
right areas was the answer. It was more likely a coincidence.

Steven

Pete D wrote:
> I recently took my 2002 Explorer in to the dealer for a rear brake job. At
> 71,000 miles, not surprisingly, it needed both pads and rotors. The day
> after picking it up, there's now suddenly a vibration / drone-sound
> emanating from the rear that's proportional to the speed of the vehicle.
>
> A trip back to the dealer tells me that both rear wheel bearings need to be
> replaced. Sounds like the right diagnosis, but seems awfully suspicious
> since there wasn't a hint of this issue prior to the brake job.
>
> My question: in replacing the rotors, how likely is it that the bearings
> were damaged by the dealer?
>
> Thanks for your help
>
> Pete in Cleveland
>
>

The best and non-destructive way to remove stuck brake rotors is rent a
three jaw puller from your local auto parts store. (Oreilly's, Autozone,
etc) They'll come right off. If they're really seized, you'll get a loud
popping noise when they release. Whatever you do, DON'T use a hammer.
That's almost guaranteed to damage your wheel bearings and/or rotors.


"Steven Hilgendorf" > wrote in message
...
> Depends how bad the rotors were to remove and how a large the hammer used
> to knock them free ) Just kidding... I'm sure it was done the proper
> way with a lot of catalyst and/or a little heat. Mine were a bear at
> 3x,000 miles, but PB-Blaster, patience, and some heat in the right areas
> was the answer. It was more likely a coincidence.
>
> Steven
>
> Pete D wrote:
>> I recently took my 2002 Explorer in to the dealer for a rear brake job.
>> At 71,000 miles, not surprisingly, it needed both pads and rotors. The
>> day after picking it up, there's now suddenly a vibration / drone-sound
>> emanating from the rear that's proportional to the speed of the vehicle.
>>
>> A trip back to the dealer tells me that both rear wheel bearings need to
>> be replaced. Sounds like the right diagnosis, but seems awfully
>> suspicious since there wasn't a hint of this issue prior to the brake
>> job.
>>
>> My question: in replacing the rotors, how likely is it that the bearings
>> were damaged by the dealer?
>>
>> Thanks for your help
>>
>> Pete in Cleveland



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Sun, 19 Nov 2006 10:08:23 -0500, "Pete D" >
wrote:

>I recently took my 2002 Explorer in to the dealer for a rear brake job. At
>71,000 miles, not surprisingly, it needed both pads and rotors. The day
>after picking it up, there's now suddenly a vibration / drone-sound
>emanating from the rear that's proportional to the speed of the vehicle.
>
>A trip back to the dealer tells me that both rear wheel bearings need to be
>replaced. Sounds like the right diagnosis, but seems awfully suspicious
>since there wasn't a hint of this issue prior to the brake job.
>
>My question: in replacing the rotors, how likely is it that the bearings
>were damaged by the dealer?
>
>Thanks for your help
>
>Pete in Cleveland
>


If it was just one rear wheel bearing I might call it coincidence. But
BOTH of them just happen to go bad immediately after the rear brakes
are worked on??? I don't think so. The brake repair clearly resulted
in damage to the bearings.

Interesting... we just got one in on friday with a horrendous noise from the
rear.... Both rear wheel bearings are toast.... strangely enough, this thing
is almost overdue for rear brake work....

Sorry.. you were saying?????

A little early to tell, but I smell the chance of a pattern failure....

We cannot always visit todays failure on the last person to work on the
car...


>
> If it was just one rear wheel bearing I might call it coincidence. But
> BOTH of them just happen to go bad immediately after the rear brakes
> are worked on??? I don't think so. The brake repair clearly resulted
> in damage to the bearings.

Jim Warman wrote:

>> If it was just one rear wheel bearing I might call it coincidence. But
>> BOTH of them just happen to go bad immediately after the rear brakes
>> are worked on??? I don't think so. The brake repair clearly
>> resulted in damage to the bearings.

> Interesting... we just got one in on friday with a horrendous noise from
> the rear.... Both rear wheel bearings are toast.... strangely enough,
> this thing is almost overdue for rear brake work....
>
> Sorry.. you were saying?????
>
> A little early to tell, but I smell the chance of a pattern failure....
>
>
> We cannot always visit todays failure on the last person to work on the
> car...

But c'mon! The last person to work on the car was just yesterday, and
*both* sides are now shot the day after picking it up.

You may or may not be right, but it makes no difference now. No way
to prove that bearings were damaged during the brake job, so time to
bite the bullet and fix them.

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 08:09:24 GMT, Space-time foam >
wrote:

>Jim Warman wrote:
>
>>> If it was just one rear wheel bearing I might call it coincidence. But
>>> BOTH of them just happen to go bad immediately after the rear brakes
>>> are worked on??? I don't think so. The brake repair clearly
>>> resulted in damage to the bearings.
>
>> Interesting... we just got one in on friday with a horrendous noise from
>> the rear.... Both rear wheel bearings are toast.... strangely enough,
>> this thing is almost overdue for rear brake work....
>>
>> Sorry.. you were saying?????
>>
>> A little early to tell, but I smell the chance of a pattern failure....
>>
>>
>> We cannot always visit todays failure on the last person to work on the
>> car...
>
>But c'mon! The last person to work on the car was just yesterday, and
>*both* sides are now shot the day after picking it up.

Question for you Jim. How do you remove stuck brake rotors in your shop?

"Jim Warman" > wrote in message
news:GXa8h.6375$rB6.6314@clgrps13...
> Interesting... we just got one in on friday with a horrendous noise from
> the rear.... Both rear wheel bearings are toast.... strangely enough, this
> thing is almost overdue for rear brake work....
>
> Sorry.. you were saying?????
>
> A little early to tell, but I smell the chance of a pattern failure....
>
> We cannot always visit todays failure on the last person to work on the
> car...
>
>
>>
>> If it was just one rear wheel bearing I might call it coincidence. But
>> BOTH of them just happen to go bad immediately after the rear brakes
>> are worked on??? I don't think so. The brake repair clearly resulted
>> in damage to the bearings.
>
>



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

I will have to admit that, all too often, a great deal of rust and scale
will build up on the inner surface where the hub goes in.... In these cases,
all one can use is an extremely heavy hand..... Thus far, we have seen no
bearing failures as a result. It is, at the same time, important to back the
E-brake shoes off as much as humanly possible - I did have one where I,
personally broke the the brake "spider". The spider was replaced at our
cost....

Now, I am not saying that it can't happen.... I AM saying that it hasn't
happened to us.... in spite of some pretty heavy handed tactics.... adn we
see most of these "victims" regularly at 5000 km intervals.

I AM saying that I drove an Ex on Friday that had a horrendous noise coming
from the rear.... While the unit was about ready for rear brake maintenance
(approx. 80,000 kms, IIRC), the Tinnerman nuts were still in place on the
wheel studs.... this indicates that it is very, very unlikely that the
rotors had ever been removed from the hubs. The "good" side had about
3/16ths of an inch pay in the bearing measured at the outer edge of the
rotor.... the bad side was "hollleeeee Sheeeit!".

That Ford stepped up to the plate for the original poster shows the power of
remaining calm and reasonable....

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006 05:21:42 GMT, "Jim Warman"
> wrote:

>Interesting... we just got one in on friday with a horrendous noise from the
>rear.... Both rear wheel bearings are toast.... strangely enough, this thing
>is almost overdue for rear brake work....
>
>Sorry.. you were saying?????
>
>A little early to tell, but I smell the chance of a pattern failure....
>
>We cannot always visit todays failure on the last person to work on the
>car...
>
>

Yeah and how long were those bearings toast and did they BOTH go out
on the same DAY and at exactly to the 0.0000023 of a mile the same
mileage? I rather doubt it. You don't seem to understand the
difference between correlation and causation.

Two wheel bearings going bad within one day of the brake job and
one mile from the shop is not a coincidence nor a pattern failure. It
suggest causation, not correlation.


>>
>> If it was just one rear wheel bearing I might call it coincidence. But
>> BOTH of them just happen to go bad immediately after the rear brakes
>> are worked on??? I don't think so. The brake repair clearly resulted
>> in damage to the bearings.
>