whats up guys. took my truck to the shop and they stated my front drivers side wheel bearings are bad. I am new to this stuff, so I want to know what type of wheel bearings I should buy. I have searched a few online sites and I have narrowed it down to buying them from Autoanything.com. The front inner one is about $22 and the front outer one is about $10. However, they dont state if the races come with them. I am a little confused of what the races are also. They sell the seal at that website too, for about $6 and the shipping will be free.

Autozone is the other option, and they have the inner bearings for about $17 and the outer bearing for about $15. also dont know if these come with the races either?

Which ones should I buy? does it matter? I would want the ones with better quality.

I have a 2003 edge, 3.0, 2 wheel drive.


also, the sound that my truck makes out of the drivers side wheel is a, uugh, uugh, uugh. kind of low pitched. it makes the sound slow at low speeds and faster with higher speeds.

I will be doing this myself. I have never done any type of work on my truck before besides change the oil, so this will be a challenge. I have read a few threads and i have the hanes manual. I dont want to screw anything up. that would suck! ha.



FYI-autozone is more expensive that walmart with stuff like wd40, shop paper towels, locktite... wish i knew that before i bought stuff there. ha.

 

You need to get the races with the new bearings. You also need wheel bearing specific grease. Take your time and torque the bearings properly and you shouldn't have any problems.

 

i bought the grease already. am i supposed to buy the races seperately or do they come with the wheel bearings?

 

so I guess it doesnt matter where I get the wheel bearings from. they are all the same???

 

I've never had problems with Napa's bearing. Just did my truck. Chances are that all the autoparts stores sell the same bearing anyways. I've always gotten them with races...you could probably special order them without for a few dollars less i'm sure.

 

thanks for the help. I am not too sure what races look like?

 

The races of a bearing are what the "bearings" ride on. The large race that goes into a bore is called the outer race, and the small race that the shaft rides in is called the inner race.

In this picture, the races are the two that are on either end of the bearing. This is where the rollers ride.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-qj_180-ex.png

 

I've always had good luck with Timkin bearings, Autozone should carry them.
Mine have always come with the races and I think you'll be hard pressed to find bearings that don't come with races. You don't want to use new bearings with old races because if they are nicked or galled they will damage your new bearings.

 

x2 on the timkins theyre good bearings.

 

i put 2 timken wheel bearings on my truck back in january and the cost me 266 dollars. after shopping around and price matching by autozone. but i got the wheel hub assembly.

 

O.k, now's a good time to get things cleared up. It may be different on a 4wd rotor, but when I replaced my rotors and installed new bearings in my 2wd, the rotors only allowed enough room for the bearings WITHOUT the races. I greased the bearings up and slid them in. Maybe it's a manufacturer thing as well, but the rotors I got had the grooves build into them, no room for races.

Answers?

 

Rotors nowadays come with the races already installed in them. Some people like to only use the races that came with the bearings, so they press the ones in the rotors out and install the races that came with the bearing.

 

Ahhhh, gottcha.

 

wow. good info guys. I am gonna change my wheel bearings myself for the first time.

 

When you pack the bearings.Get a box of rubber gloves, and put a glob of bearing grease in your hand. With the flat end of the bearing scrape the grease and turn the bearing.You'll know that the bearing is fully packed because it will ooze out of the top part of the bearings while you do this.

It's a dirty job, but it's not to bad with gloves.

Tony