This is about the 2001 Dakota pickup in my signature, just turned over 173,000 miles this morning. It is a two wheel drive. This past Friday on the way to work I heard a rubbing/scraping/clacking sound when turning left, it was the classic bad wheel bearing noise. I just recently replaced both front wheel bearing/hub assemblies back in May with Moog bearings I got at AAP. The bearings only had about 6,000 miles on them.
AAP did a warranty exchange and I replaced the right front bearing yesterday, it had a good amount of play in the tire/wheel when rocking it with my hands at the 12 and 6:00 positions. The noise is now gone and the truck is back to normal but my logic dictates there has to be some other cause for a Moog bearing to fail in that short of a time. Can the axle spindle wear down and cause bearing failure like that? The only thing I can think of is that there must be some problem with the axle. Even cheap bearings from ebay last longer than 6,000 miles.
If the axle can fail or get out of tolerance I will replace the steering knuckle next. Thanks for any info on this.
AAP did a warranty exchange and I replaced the right front bearing yesterday, it had a good amount of play in the tire/wheel when rocking it with my hands at the 12 and 6:00 positions. The noise is now gone and the truck is back to normal but my logic dictates there has to be some other cause for a Moog bearing to fail in that short of a time. Can the axle spindle wear down and cause bearing failure like that? The only thing I can think of is that there must be some problem with the axle. Even cheap bearings from ebay last longer than 6,000 miles.
If the axle can fail or get out of tolerance I will replace the steering knuckle next. Thanks for any info on this.