FORD Replacement Wheel Bearing Garbage Right Out the Box

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The wheel bearings on my Marquis were factory originals, and were bound to fail sooner rather than later after 19 years with 210,000 miles. The driver's side bearing failed because of a seal problem, and I decided to do both sides to save any future hassle.

Usually go with SKF, but I didn't want to wait a week for it to arrive from the U.S., so I went through the local Ford dealer. The part wasn't readily available, but since it was available in Dubai, I could have it in two days and that's what I opted for. Can't go wrong with OE parts, right?

[Linked Image from i.ibb.co]


The unit is made in Korea, not that it's a problem, but the assumption is it is made by Timken. Kind of felt uncomfortable at this point, recalling a number of posts on Timken quality in recent years. Also noticed the manufacture date was 09-30-2014, again not an issue, so I went ahead and installed them.

Took the car out on a test drive, and to my surprise, the noise was still there. Only this time, you could only hear it over 25 MPH and I could feel a vibration in the steering wheel. Did the usual test of turning the steering wheel from the side to side, only this time there was no change.

Overly confused and doubting myself at this point, thinking I may have misdiagnosed a tire issue as a wheel bearing, I rotated the tires. It was last done 2,300 miles ago and I usually do them every 3,000 miles anyway with road force balancing. The noise was still there, as was the vibration in the steering wheel. Lifted both front wheels off the ground and spun them by hand, no noise.

Finally took it to a friend's alignment shop. The guy is old school, been in the business for over 40 years, and still balances wheels on the car with a Hunter on-car balancer. Sat in the car as he spun the left front, no problem. As soon as he spun the right front wheel, we heard the bearing noise and I could immediately feel the vibration in the steering wheel. Turning the wheel over by hand didn't do any good, since the bearing could only be heard over 25 MPH.

So much for that shiny, new-in-the-box part. The fact that this is in a Ford labelled box with a premium price tag ($118.38 a piece) just infuriates me, because I wasn't trying to cut corners.

I did both front bearings on my Explorer back in December, and went with SKF. Those were much heavier than the ones I put on the Marquis. I'm going to wait this time, and order new SKF units as replacements.
 
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This is what I like about owning a Japanese car. I can buy OEM parts, made in Japan, to OEM spec, that are quality and reliable. American cars have crap from 3rd world countries all strewn through them, even from the factory, and forget buying American replacement parts.
 
Originally Posted by Ws6
This is what I like about owning a Japanese car. I can buy OEM parts, made in Japan, to OEM spec, that are quality and reliable. American cars have crap from 3rd world countries all strewn through them, even from the factory, and forget buying American replacement parts.


Most Japanese cars sold in the US are assembled in Mexico with a crap shoot of junk parts sourced from around the world....
 
Originally Posted by dishdude
Most Japanese cars sold in the US are assembled in Mexico with a crap shoot of junk parts sourced from around the world....

I only know about mine. That is not the case. 100% Japanese designed, manufactured, and assembled, although maybe the headlight LED dies themselves may have come from Hong Kong?

I buy an oil filter at the dealer? "Made in Japan" I buy windshield wiper? "Made in Japan" I buy a fastener little plastic push-in piece? You guessed it...Japan.

I don't do "Hecho en Mexico".
 
Originally Posted by Ws6
I only know about mine. That is not the case. 100% Japanese designed, manufactured, and assembled, although maybe the headlight LED dies themselves may have come from Hong Kong?

I buy an oil filter at the dealer? "Made in Japan" I buy windshield wiper? "Made in Japan" I buy a fastener little plastic push-in piece? You guessed it...Japan.

I don't do "Hecho en Mexico".

You're buying a lot more replacement parts than I am...
 
Originally Posted by dishdude
You're buying a lot more replacement parts than I am...

You don't buy oil filters or wipers?
 
It happens...all too often unfortunately with new parts - even OEM. I recently had to replace the front wheel hubs on our 99 Buick Century and I went with Moogs. Unfortunately, one of them had a bad wheel speed sensor/ABS coil. Fortunately, the parts house swapped the bad one for a new one and allowed me to test the new one with a DVM before I left the store. Now all is well.

Can you get the dealer you bought them from warrant it?

So much for the statistical quality control programs that these parts manufacturers allegedly have in order to get their ISO certifications!
 
Originally Posted by chemman
It happens...all too often unfortunately with new parts - even OEM.


Sad but true! Good luck Ab!!
 
Originally Posted by Ws6
This is what I like about owning a Japanese car. I can buy OEM parts, made in Japan, to OEM spec, that are quality and reliable. American cars have crap from 3rd world countries all strewn through them, even from the factory, and forget buying American replacement parts.


Despite FORD being put in capital letters in the title for some reason, this isn't meant to be an American car bashing thread, but rather sharing my experience with a part I purchased.

The part I purchased was made in Korea - NOT a third would country - I assume by Timken. Ford does not manufacture wheel bearings, and neither does any other auto manufacturer - they are outsourced to different suppliers based on whoever provides to lowest cost for the desired level of quality to cover the warranty period.

The Koreans have come a long way, much like the Japanese compared to the 60s and 70s. In fact, if I was buying a brand spanking new car right now, I would pick a Hyundai/Kia over a Toyota or Honda the way their cars are built. YMMV.

What I bought was either produced to a price point for Ford, or representative of a drop in overall quality of Timken products, as discussed on the board previously.

That being said, perhaps what you describe could be the case with most Mazda parts, but good luck finding that with Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi.

Sometimes you got a choice, most times you don't. You want to buy a Mitsubishi oil filter. you got two options if you're lucky - the value range filter (MZ690116) at $7.50, made in China, or the factory filter (MD352626) at $15.00, made in Japan by Toyo-Roki. Most dealers do not carry the Japanese-made unit, because people are just overall price conscious and are not willing to pay a penny more. Toyota sources almost all its oil filters through their Denso operations in Thailand, I haven't seen a Japanese made Toyota filter in over a decade. The same applies to brake pads, suspension components, other filters you name it. It isn't just Ford or GM that carries value range products aimed at competing with the aftermarket. If most people were willing to pay the difference to get a quality product, I reckon that would be reflected across the industry. Gone are the good old days where you bought a brand new part and expected it to perform better than your old one did.
 
Originally Posted by chemman
It happens...all too often unfortunately with new parts - even OEM. I recently had to replace the front wheel hubs on our 99 Buick Century and I went with Moogs. Unfortunately, one of them had a bad wheel speed sensor/ABS coil. Fortunately, the parts house swapped the bad one for a new one and allowed me to test the new one with a DVM before I left the store. Now all is well.

Can you get the dealer you bought them from warrant it?

So much for the statistical quality control programs that these parts manufacturers allegedly have in order to get their ISO certifications!


They have a dealership policy of no returns on special order items, which, believe it or not, this was. But it doesn't hurt to give it a try. The replacement is definitely going to be an SKF though. Regardless of where their parts are made, they seem to have perfected their quality consistency. Have yet to have an SKF part go bad out the box.
 
Originally Posted by chemman
It happens...all too often unfortunately with new parts - even OEM. I recently had to replace the front wheel hubs on our 99 Buick Century and I went with Moogs. Unfortunately, one of them had a bad wheel speed sensor/ABS coil. Fortunately, the parts house swapped the bad one for a new one and allowed me to test the new one with a DVM before I left the store. Now all is well.

Can you get the dealer you bought them from warrant it?

So much for the statistical quality control programs that these parts manufacturers allegedly have in order to get their ISO certifications!


When Federal-Mogul bought National bearing they reboxed them and labeled them MOOG, they were good bearings and hubs, once the NOS National was depleted they started having them made in China, absolute total crap. Honestly Moog should change their name to crapco.
 
Originally Posted by Falcon_LS
They have a dealership policy of no returns on special order items, which, believe it or not, this was.


That wouldn't apply to defective items which they should replace. As beat up and taped up as that box looks, and from 2014, I wouldn't be surprised if that itself was a returned part.
 
Why blame where it is made, ask Timken how much they saved by making such a cheaper quality product. It is not Koreans' or Mexicans' fault, maybe Timken (if its the manufacturer) doesn't want to pay as much and the manufacturer is fitting quality in the cost Timken wants to pay. My cousin makes trips to many countries scouring for manufacturers for their clients and this is a common theme, most produce stuff at any price point but then the quality goes down. It costs to make good quality stuff that these corporations do not want to pay..

I had to change one of the bearings of my Forester. The mechanic went with SKF (I was pushing for OEM) but he has good experience with SKF so I didn't argue.
 
There is a huge difference between "made by" and made by someone and "labeled and sold by". SKF, F.A.G. and others have their own factories in China and other parts of the world but they are making the bearings. Timken on the other hand may make some but they rebox a lot also.
With China being the worlds largest car market it makes sense to manufacture the parts there.
 
They aren't made by Timken or SKF. Moog used to repackage bearings from a big Korean OEM supplier. They are probably the same. http://www.iljin.com/English/index.asp

I have them on my Explorer, they are ok. I also replaced an out of round original one for the MGM. There were two in the store, same Moog box - one made in China, one Korea. Guess they switched suppliers.
 
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Keep in mind that a few years ago, Ford announced they would be 'streamlining' all parts for 05 and earlier vehicles. What this has unsurprisingly translated to is the discontinuance of most parts for pre-05 vehicles and reduction in quality of much of what's left. This actually screwed me on a 89 Bronco project I'd just gotten into, to the point where I eventually gave up for lack of parts meeting my quality requirements. I ended up slapping it back together, firesaling it and got a 4Runner to replace it. Ford doesn't care about their pre-05 vehicles any more.
 
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Originally Posted by Spktyr
Keep in mind that a few years ago, Ford announced they would be 'streamlining' all parts for 05 and earlier vehicles. What this has unsurprisingly translated to is the discontinuance of most parts for pre-05 vehicles and reduction in quality of much of what's left. This actually screwed me on a 89 Bronco project I'd just gotten into, to the point where I eventually gave up for lack of parts meeting my quality requirements. I ended up slapping it back together, firesaling it and got a 4Runner to replace it. Ford doesn't care about their pre-05 vehicles any more.


From what I read, manufacturers are only required to produce parts for cars up to 12 years old so can you blame Ford for that? They're in the business of selling NEW cars, not keeping 15 year old ones chugging along.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
From what I read, manufacturers are only required to produce parts for cars up to 12 years old so can you blame Ford for that? They're in the business of selling NEW cars, not keeping 15 year old ones chugging along.


This is true, but the fact remains that many other manufacturers *don't* play that game because it actually hurts sales. I can still get Honda parts dating back to 1954 from Honda, I can get 1960s parts from Toyota, 70s parts from Nissan, Mercedes will *literally* make any part you need for your Mercedes of any era back to the Patent Motorwagen if they don't have it in stock... the list goes on from there.

These manufacturers have noticed that old parts can be a profit center in and of themselves and continuing to offer commonly needed parts for older vehicles leverages into more sales of newer ones - both by people who intend to keep their car a long time buying a vehicle that they know will be supported long, long after the warranty runs out and by people looking around and seeing just how many older -insert brand name here- vehicles they still see soldiering on in traffic clearly being used as daily drivers.

Just because Ford, GM and Fiatsler haven't figured out how to make older/heritage parts a profit center doesn't mean nobody else has. I've heard that excuse from official reps before, and it sounds just like the noise the giant media conglomerates were making when the topic of obtaining music on the internet first became a thing. They all tried ignoring it, then they tried hideously restrictive and terrible schemes, then they declared that nobody would ever make money selling music on the internet 'bEcAuSe PiRaCy' and gave up. And then Apple's iTunes Store appeared and ended up being a license to print money, and more followed - but not from the old media conglomerates, who had already decided it didn't make sense.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Spktyr said:
From what I read, manufacturers are only required to produce parts for cars up to 12 years old so can you blame Ford for that?


From what I've read, a manufacturer doesn't have to make a part at all after the warranty runs out. Anybody who knows for SURE want to comment on that?
 
Originally Posted by Kruse
Originally Posted by atikovi
Spktyr said:
From what I read, manufacturers are only required to produce parts for cars up to 12 years old so can you blame Ford for that?


From what I've read, a manufacturer doesn't have to make a part at all after the warranty runs out. Anybody who knows for SURE want to comment on that?


They must at a minimum make emissions parts for at least 7 years if the vehicle is sold in California (per their law) or 8 years per Federal law. There used to be a Federal reg in the 1960s that they had to carry all spare parts for a specified amount of time but IIRC that law got torpedoed in the 1990s. Aside from the emissions equipment regs, there is no current Federal law governing how long a manufacturer must stock parts. They don't even have to stock them during the warranty period if they give you a new car to replace your broken one.

I'm not saying that Ford discontinuing common parts while cheapening the remaining ones was illegal. I'm saying it was stupid on many levels when other makers have figured out how to make it a profit center and Ford... hasn't. Cheaping out on the remaining parts is going to drive people *away* from the brand, not make them want to buy a new car from Ford.
 
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