# Front wheel bearings



## Hazlitt777 (Nov 2, 2013)

Well my second front wheel bearing went out, he first around 45,000 miles, this one around 83,000.

I've heard GM has a bad reputation for wheel bearings holding up. Is that true? And are there aftermarket brands that are more durable? They sure are expensive. 180 dollars! That's without labor.


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## plano-doug (Jul 1, 2015)

Hazlitt777 said:


> Well my second front wheel bearing went out, he first around 45,000 miles, this one around 83,000.
> 
> I've heard GM has a bad reputation for wheel bearings holding up. Is that true? And are there aftermarket brands that are more durable? They sure are expensive. 180 dollars! That's without labor.


You don't list your car's details, but for my 2013 LS, I see front hubs at Rockauto in the range 55-141 dollars. Original Equipment AC-Delcos for ~92 (plus shipping).

They're much higher at brick and mortar parts stores, much closer to the 180 you mentioned. But if you get them online (ie,mail-order) and do it yourself, you can save a lot of money.

That said, I'm curious why your car is eating wheel bearings. How is your tire wear? How does the front camber look? Do you drive a lot on a worn out roads with lots of bumps?

Doug







2013 CHEVROLET CRUZE 1.8L L4 Wheel Bearing & Hub | RockAuto


RockAuto ships auto parts and body parts from over 300 manufacturers to customers' doors worldwide, all at warehouse prices. Easy to use parts catalog.



www.rockauto.com





.


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## Hazlitt777 (Nov 2, 2013)

plano-doug said:


> You don't list your car's details, but for my 2013 LS, I see front hubs at Rockauto in the range 55-141 dollars. Original Equipment AC-Delcos for ~92 (plus shipping).
> 
> They're much higher at brick and mortar parts stores, much closer to the 180 you mentioned. But if you get them online (ie,mail-order) and do it yourself, you can save a lot of money.
> 
> ...


My cruze is a 2014 eco. The roads up here in Wisconsin are rough. That may be a part of the problem. My tire wear is fine. It may be the 17 rims and the corresponding tires that don't give much cushion.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

And to answer your question. 

NO. It's not true.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

snowwy66 said:


> And to answer your question.
> 
> NO. It's not true.


It's pretty much a crapshoot with_ any_ brand these days, but that is due to most wheel hub/bearings being an assembly, using double ball bearing, instead of taper bearings like wheel bearings had practically forever. Ball bearings work great until they don't. Sometimes you'll get 100k out of them, sometimes 20k. But as for it being GM-specific? As mentioned above, no, their wheel bearings hold up just as well as, or just as bad as, the rest of the industry - it's just the nature of the beast.

Keep an old taper style bearing greased, and keep the debris out of it, and it'll last forever. Double-ball-bearing hub/bearing? Whoops, there it goes.

I had one go out on my Cobalt, replaced it around 96,000 miles, ended up replacing that same one at 115k miles (and used the OEM wheel bearing from the other side, which I had already replaced in an attempt to solve a thumping noise that actually was coming from this one). That same wheel bearing, which spent nearly its entirely life spinning the opposite direction has been fine in the nearly 3.5 years and 7k miles since then. 

It really is just luck.


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## snowwy66 (Nov 5, 2017)

Yepper


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## Hazlitt777 (Nov 2, 2013)

Thanks for the insights.


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