Wheel Bearings

Wheel bearings are some of the most important suspension parts in a car. Normally these are located in the hub (which is the part of the car where the brakes and wheels are attached) and are sometimes inside the brake drum or in the rotor itself. These wheel bearings are designed to allow the wheel to turn freely when the car travels along the road. Most cars will have both an inner and an outer wheel bearing for each wheel.

Wheel bearings are made from two separate components and are very simple to understand. These are the bearing and the race. The bearing here is a meal 'housing' which is pressed over a set of ball bearings which circle the housing. The ball bearings ride on the race, which is a smooth metal surface. When the wheel is rolling then, the ball bearings rolling smoothly across the surface of the hub allows the wheel to turn easily.

Some problems can occur with your wheel bearings due to wear, just as they do with other car parts and particularly suspension parts. Fortunately they are protected from the dirt and mess that is kicked up on the road by oil seals, but sometimes these can still allow some dirt to pass through and damage the bearing and the race. At the same time, simple repeated use is also enough to see your bearings deteriorating over time. In worst case scenarios your bearings can completely fall apart and this can then make the car very dangerous to drive as the respective wheel might not remain in the correct orientation.

As such then it is very important to look out for damage and to replace wheel bearings when possible. The symptoms to look out for is a noisy rubbing sound which you hear as you drive the car and which increases as you speed up. If your bearings are particularly worn, then you might also notice it affects your steering and this might be less responsive and more sluggish than before. In this scenario you know that you need to replace them. This will likely need doing around once every 40,000 to 50,000 miles.

To replace your wheel bearings you should first look for auto parts online that are relatively inexpensive. Once you've found these changing them yourself is an easy – if not quite time consuming – task. The first thing you'll have to do is to remove the wheel, the brakes and the hub. Once you've managed to remove the hub, the bearing races can be easily pressed in in place of the old ones. Of course cars will vary depending on the specific model so it is important to refer to the workshop manual for the specifics.

In the meantime it is possible to maintain your wheel bearings so that they last you longer. Roughly every 25,000 miles you should check the bearings for wear and the races for scratches. Clean them thoroughly and use a large amount of bearing grease on them. This will help you to spot issues early on, and to keep your bearings from wearing out too quickly.

It is highly important to make sure you pay attention to your wheel bearings and keep them in good working order. For a replacement wheel bearing, follow the links.