What ever happened to inexpensive and easily maintained front wheel bearings?

I put new rotors on the 07 Ram 1500ST today hoping to solve two front end issue, low speed roughness and brake pulsing when stopping. The rotors fixed the second issue.

The low speed roughness I traced to the "lifetime" sealed hubs and bearings. No play, just a little rough. Replacements seem to be about $150/side.

A couple of questions:

1) Does slight roughness, without play, indicate time to replace?

2) Is this a common problem? Is there a TSB or Service Bulliten on the issue?

3) Should I contact the local dodge dealership about a possible warrenty issue?

4) Is there a way to get grease into these and avoid replacement?

Oh yea, I live in a place with rough winter weather, the rims were rusted to hubs and I had to beat the left rotor off with a hammer...

Howard

 

I would see if you can get them covere under warranty.

Did you spin them without the rotors on? What's rough about them?

If they don't have excess play and aren't making noise, the dealer won't replace them.

 

Not real noisy yet, but you can feel the roughness as you spin them with the rotors pulled, but no play and no loud hum YET...

Howard

 

roughness. Are you sure you aren't feeling the abs splines when your spinning them? Also, make sure the backside is clean and not gunked up with grime.

No way of going inside those sealed cases. They are replaced as a whole unit.

 

Well, I am felling the ABS splines on the left front, but both sides are just a little draggy, but not worse that freshly repacked timkins.

Perhaps I am reading more into this than I should...

Howard

 

I noticed mine had a high piutched squeak when I was driving slow through a campground with my windows down one day. I checked thebrakes, and everything was fine as best as I could tell. I couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from. About two months later I started to notice the drag, and then needed to replace the front wheel hub. It went before I hit 36,000 so it was covered under warranty. Maybe that was just how mine went, but if you have the squeak they might be going.

 

Putting in a sealed unit that requires no maintenance...

aka: A way to sell you all new front end components at a crazy high price and let dealers make crazy high prices to change them out. Also called "marketing"...

 

Question 1. Yes.
2. Yes it is common. 06 had recalls. I think all years needed recalls.
3. Yes try warranty. I got one paid out of warranty.
4. They are not greaseable.
On my 03 I have changed front hubs 4 times. In my experience a rough bearing as you describe will come with slight vibration. The vibration will get progressively worse as the bearing continues to degrade. On my truck the right bearing split apart at 29,826 miles. Had to get towed. Then the left one I had a vibration problem. Mileage was at 31,177. Dealer did both repairs on them. I changed the third and fourth one myself. Pulled the rotor and the hub was rough when turning. The right side was replaced for a second time at 46,611 and left one a second time at 56,544. Three of the four bearing failures came with slight vibrations while driving at cruising speeds. Now I pull my rotors every year in the spring and spin them to feel for any roughness. Sounds to me like you have bearings going out. I now have 60,000 miles on my truck and hubs are still good. I am so confident with these things, I have two spare hubs sitting on my shelf in the shop and always carry one with me on long trips out of town. Especially winter snowmobile trips!
The bulk of my driving is in winter towing snowmobiles. I really think salt and sand grit is getting in them.
But that is just my opinion.
Good Luck.

 

I almost never had to replace any of the "old style" greasable bearings. On the other hand, I've replaced the newer "sealed" bearings in everything from Hondas to Fords to BMWs. They are more expensive to buy and typically harder to change. In the end, I concur with Hammer's assessment.

Good luck.

 

almost 90k, nothing wrong with them.