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Wheel bearing assistance

16K views 20 replies 10 participants last post by  CerealKiller 
#1 ·
I blew a tire on a pothole and I'm feeling confident that it got my wheel bearing too as I'm getting the humm sound afterwards. I'm looking at the pics of the wheel bearings for this car and it doesn't look like the hub/bearing is pressed in. I was hoping that someone could enlighten me on the subject for the 2014+ years. I just basically want to know if I can do it myself and not require pulling the whole knuckle off to get it out of there.
 
#17 ·
I have a 2015 Mexican built Mazda3. Getting Mexican bearings seems like a huge pain in the butt. I read somewhere that the 2014 and 2015 cars had wheel bearing problems. My car is making weird noises (low speed wheel speed dependent squealing also present when turning right), and I suspect its bearings, mainly because I can't think what else it could be. Does anyone know a good place to get bearings and/or if the 2015 bearings were prone to failure and the new ones aren't?
 
#18 ·
That sounds like a wheel bearing to me. I have not heard anything about these bearings being failure prone. Quite the opposite actually.

Define what you want by saying 'good' place to get parts. To some of us, that means spending more on the top notch parts. To others, it means getting it cheap. Rock auto comes to mind, but I see another member was sent wrong parts here.

Since I live north of the border, I can't comment on a store since ours are completely different. I often envy your stores as you just have much more tools and parts readily available. Things that you can pick up at most stores I am forced to order from Amazon.

I would take care of that bearing as soon as you reasonably can. While under load and turning, a bearing can have ultimate failure or 'grenading' as some call it. The kinetic energy causes the bearing to pretty well explode. Although this isn't something that is likely anytime soon, it's still a possibility. If that happens while you're on the highway, the chances of having a major accident are very high. Risk vs reward.

I once helped an old friend pull a motor out of an old jetta. The trans was trashed, and he knew it but didn't want it. Well turns out the taper roller bearing on the engine side shaft decided to go boom. It looked to be only about 1.5" diameter, but it punched a hole through the trans housing the size of my fist and left its remains in the bell housing. Impressive to say the least.
 
#21 ·
I've done some digging around on wheel bearings lately as I'm getting a cyclical hum from my front driver wheel well at higher speeds.

Testing if the wheel rocks when pulling up and down and left and right may not always be enough.

Sometimes jacking up the corner in question and spinning the wheel (use a lug nut wrench on a lug nut to turn it fast with one hand) and placing your hand on the coil spring will reveal vibrations. This is the cause of the humming and a sign of a bad wheel bearing that needs replacing.
CK
 
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