Honda Odyssey Forum banner

Bad wheel Bearing

20K views 15 replies 8 participants last post by  sega626 
#1 ·
I had the front driver's wheel bearing go bad on me. It was a gradual degradation that I thought was simply our noisy Michelin LX's. Near the end, it sounded like a Mack truck coming down the road. I have a 2006 EX with 39,000 miles.

I replaced the tires with Mastercraft touring LSR's(rebadged Cooper CS4's). Same noise. Off to the dealer. They identified the problem and said 397 to fix.

I called Honda and opened up a case. I am happy to report that Honda picked up half the cost. I was happy with that. I wish I would have brought it in before 36K. I'm sure it was there, but I blamed it on the tires.

In the end, I'm glad that Honda agreed that a wheel bearing should not be shot at 39k.
 
#2 ·
NewVan said:
I had the front driver's wheel bearing go bad on me. It was a gradual degradation that I thought was simply our noisy Michelin LX's. Near the end, it sounded like a Mack truck coming down the road. I have a 2006 EX with 39,000 miles.

I replaced the tires with Mastercraft touring LSR's(rebadged Cooper CS4's). Same noise. Off to the dealer. They identified the problem and said 397 to fix.

I called Honda and opened up a case. I am happy to report that Honda picked up half the cost. I was happy with that. I wish I would have brought it in before 36K. I'm sure it was there, but I blamed it on the tires.

In the end, I'm glad that Honda agreed that a wheel bearing should not be shot at 39k.
Glad to hear Honda stepped in somewhat. Wheel bearing life is affected by how hard you corner, condition of roads driven and the most pertinent, damage via hitting curbs hard diagonally, etc.

During my younger years (70's), I drove a RWD coupe and fried sets of rear wheel bearings every 15K-20K miles. Worst of it was they had to pressed onto the axles but it was cheap then at about $5-$10 a pop.
 
#3 ·
bad wheel bearings

Am I alone out here, having driven well over a million miles, owned several cars of different manufacturers, and I've only had to replace bearings at the 150,000 mile mark? (That would include several of my dad's American Motor "Ramblers" in the 60s).

I would have pushed harder for Honda to pay the entire tab. 39,000 miles for a wheel bearing failure is unacceptable.
 
#4 ·
The noise/symptoms can come on very slowly. I know on our 2001 Windstar, I *thought* I was hearing a rumble/hum at certain speeds for months (around 80Kmi). Lifted with the jack, both front wheels rolled freely w/ no wobble. I figured it was the tires since they were well worn. New tires didn't fix it. A good way to troubleshoot which front bearing/hub is bad; When making a turn at speed, if it's noisy during a right hand turn, it's likely the left front. Left turn? Right front. It's due to the weight and lateral force shift during turns. On my Winny it was the front left. My local shop swapped it out for $250.

Joel
 
#5 ·
MTPockets08 said:
The noise/symptoms can come on very slowly. I know on our 2001 Windstar, I *thought* I was hearing a rumble/hum at certain speeds for months (around 80Kmi). Lifted with the jack, both front wheels rolled freely w/ no wobble. I figured it was the tires since they were well worn. New tires didn't fix it. A good way to troubleshoot which front bearing/hub is bad; When making a turn at speed, if it's noisy during a right hand turn, it's likely the left front. Left turn? Right front. It's due to the weight and lateral force shift during turns. On my Winny it was the front left. My local shop swapped it out for $250.

Joel
If the noise levels diminishes during turning then it is a real indicator of bearing problems. Isolation of the drivetrain can be tested by shifting to neutral to see if it affects the situation.
 
#7 ·
chiody said:
If the noise levels diminishes during turning then it is a real indicator of bearing problems. Isolation of the drivetrain can be tested by shifting to neutral to see if it affects the situation.
Sort of, the bearing noise will become more pronounced when you turn and put more weight on the bad bearing, it will howl even louder.
 
#10 ·
mjody said:
Sort of, the bearing noise will become more pronounced when you turn and put more weight on the bad bearing, it will howl even louder.
Maybe it depends on the vehicle or how bad the bearing/hub actually is. The 2 or 3 (fronts) I've been through were louder with lateral loading (turning) like yours.

Joel
 
#12 ·
My right rear bearing seems to be going bad as well. Thought it was tires, too, but had it on a lift today and you can still hear a slight hum when spinning the wheel. Called the dealer, and he said it should be covered under powertrain warranty, so I will try and get it replaced soon. BTW, only @ 42K miles.
 
#13 ·
MTPockets08 said:
Maybe it depends on the vehicle or how bad the bearing/hub actually is. The 2 or 3 (fronts) I've been through were louder with lateral loading (turning) like yours.

Joel
Joel,

Looks like Monday morning the right front is going to be installed by our Independent Honda shop. I looked at the job today and figured the 1.5 hours at $80 per would be better spent instead of me trying to wrench it apart with manual tools and long breaker bars (plus a lot of scraped knuckles).

Bearing failure symptoms are a noticeable hum at 25 mph and at highway speeds. On a right turn unloading the bearing, it goes absolutely quiet. But on a left turn, it hums louder.

Bought the Timken bearing (USA origin) for $40 shipped from Parts Plus.
 
#14 ·
A friend had two bad wheel bearings on a new car and had them replaced under warranty (a Ford). The dealer told him that premature wheel bearing failure is often due to flat spotting on the rollers caused from transport... the car is chained down too tightly. He was told it was more common on cars transported by rail. Is there any truth to this? Beats me. Maybe others have heard this as well.
 
#15 ·
3M+J said:
....premature wheel bearing failure is often due to flat spotting on the rollers caused from transport... the car is chained down too tightly. He was told it was more common on cars transported by rail. Is there any truth to this? Beats me. Maybe others have heard this as well.
Never thought of that. Honestly though, I think the majority of FWD sealed hub failures are due to OEM's buying from the cheapest vendor.

Joel
 
#16 ·
Update:
I thought I had left an update previously, but I guess the forum going down wiped it out. Anyhow, I took the van to the dealer and they said it was a bad bearing, and covered under powertrain warranty. They ended up replacing both rear bearings when all was said and done, so I was very happy. The service advisor seemed to be very doubtful of the bearing being bad at first....said he had never seen it on an Ody before.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top