Just had a bad experience tonight and I got stranded in the cold for 3 hrs. Intermittent light grinding sound from the front wheels started earlier today. I thought it was the brakes that were getting finished but it's more than that. I did a left turn and I heard a clunk and what sounded like pieces falling off. Then suddenly the truck steered to the right on it's own and became very jerky, but I pulled over safely. Passenger front wheel is angled slightly. I think the wheel bearing/hub is toast. Nothing else appears to be damaged. Any thoughts? I'm going back to the scene with a cam in a few hours, will post pics.

 

YEAH SOUNDS LIKE YOU LOST A FRONT WHEEL BEARING .THAT SUCKS,GOOD THING YOU DIDN'T LOSE CONTROLL OF IT.

 

The bearing failure did some other damage to the brakes and knuckle. It's in the garage right now. Looks expensive![:'(]



Edit: Uploaded pics of the damage. Had to change the right outer axle because it couldn't hold a new u-joint. Lots of new parts and it drives alot better. The mpgs have gone up.

These pics are from the passenger front wheel bearing:

 

pics added

 

you did all that work in the same night? your fast...

glad to hear you were able to control the truck and stear away from danger....something must of caused that to fail like it did

 

sorry to hear of your troubles! Had one on a chevy I rented go out at 70mph. Locked the front right tire. Lots of smoke and some pretty nervous passengers!

 

I paid a garage to do it and they were fast. The mechanics exact words were "That's pretty severe! ". He'd never seen a bearing fail like that. Work will be guaranteed for 1year/20000km.

It was kinda scary when it happened. I was going about 50km/h on a country road so it could have been worse. I think the causes would be that it was dry (no grease!), it had alot of miles on it and maybe a small rock got in there and caused the ball bearings to pour out. There was gear oil everywhere because of the axle damage. The gash in the second pic is from a ball being forced out of it's race! [&:]

 

Nasty, I had mine go out fortunitialy in my neighborhod going about 20mph.

Not to shortly later I heard a very very slight noise coming the driver side. Only heard it when turing right at a fair ammount of speed (because that wheel was under load when turning right) So if you hear it get it fixed asap!

 

 

I should have stopped driving it right away when I heard the light grinding. I thought maybe I could get a few clicks out before I went to the garage, but with trucks you gotta fix it fast. Learned the hard way.

You don't want to know what I paid, even if it is Canadian dollars. [:'(] Let's just say the new tires/headers/cat will have to wait a few months. With all parts, labour and misc other repairs the bill grew to about $2000.

- Pads & Rotors
- 2 front u-joints
- gear oil changed front & back
- Axle shaft seals front
- Both front wheel bearings
- Outer RH axle shaft
- Misc service on the front axle
- Rear brakes adjustment

It cost me alot but now the truck feels smooth like a Cadillac, mileage is awesome and the work is guaranteed.