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Axle bearing warning

Turbine Doc

Turbine Doc

Just Another Diesel Guy
Messages
6,278
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Location
Gautier, Ms./Anywhere Southern USA
Just before Thanksgiving I had my right front stub axle snap and wheel fell off wanted to give rest of you a heads up, as apparently according to shop I took my truck to it is a somewhat common occurance.

Happened on the truck 161K miles, I came to a stop the week before and my ABS lite came on, I had just replaced tie rod ends and lower ball joint the previous evening so my thought was I damaged the ABS connector or it came loose, checked with scan tool showed pass side front ABS sensor fault.

Looked briefly didn't see anything obvious, drove for a week with ABS lite on, Wed before Thanksgiving backed out of my apt, driveway here in Ga., and felt like I had a locked rotor, drove another 20 yds and truck came to all stop, I pointed truck to side of road and limped it to shoulder, shut off truck and found pass side tire/wheel tucked into wheel well. What was supposed to be front of tire was pointing 120 degrees backwards, in HARD right turn direction.

Called tow truck, and sent to shop; I was away from home and really not in position to repair myself so opted to have shop repair it. Tow driver says he had seen at least 6 previous that had done it, guy at Enterprise car rental said it had happened to his at 78K, tech at shop said it happened to his at 40K.

As it turns out the axle/wheel bearings for this truck are a cartridge assembly, no maintenance like a std spindle/taper roller bearing, CV axle stub shaft shaft passes thru cartridge, thru wheel hub, and axle stub shaft lock nut holds it all together, when my bearing failed, it stressed the stub shaft and threaded end/nut sheared off and wheel came off the axle, CV shaft was okay, but entire threaded end was snapped off with nut still on broken piece.

1 new CV axle, 2 new bearing cartridges (figured if pass side went-mite as well do drivers side to bet sure), new brake caliper pins that also sheared off, a tow, 6hrs labor total bill was $970 not too terrible, considering tow was $75 & labor was $270.

According to shop no rhyme or reason, just happens, but word of caution, if ABS just faults out of the blue, check for this, ABS sensor is integral with the bearing cartridge, when it "makes metal" from bearings failing, it "fuzzes up" the ABS sensor so it doesn't read wheel speed and codes.

Alas no pics, I didn't have a camera with me, & I wasn't one doing the work.

Praise The Lord HE was watching over me, had this happened at highway speed, I may not have been here 2 weeks later to tell the story
 
Glad to hear all is well Tim, the Lord must have more for you to do.:smile5: Leo
 
Seems to me that you've recently been testing a fancy turbo at 100 mph +. You have an angel on your shoulder my friend.
 
That thought did occur to me when I saw that wheel tucked into the fender well, was scary enough at 25 mph, I had some serious retrospections of failure at hiway speed, I have had many a close call, Lord has always managed to pull me through it, I don't know what HIS plan for me here is, but HE ain't ready for me up there yet.
 
Hey Tim thanks for the heads up. I am about to do new rotors so am considering bearings whilst I am in there. Is it possible to replace just the bearing or did you have to replace the bearing and hub assembly as a whole?

cheers
Nobby
 
Turbine Doc said:
That thought did occur to me when I saw that wheel tucked into the fender well, was scary enough at 25 mph, I had some serious retrospections of failure at hiway speed, I have had many a close call, Lord has always managed to pull me through it, I don't know what HIS plan for me here is, but HE ain't ready for me up there yet.
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Thanks Tim! I'm glad your okay. I know what God's plan is for you. It is to help us here and do all that R & D for us before we make the jump. :D
 
Rodd said:
Thanks Tim! I'm glad your okay. I know what God's plan is for you. It is to help us here and do all that R & D for us before we make the jump. :D
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X2.. That hasn`t sunk into me before now, asking previously about my ABS problems & my self driving the Auto Bane in Germany from Norway at very high speed to Italy, were some parts there's no speed limit restriction..

Know i now what the itching was on my shoulder blades where,, the wings..

Thanks Tim..
 
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Ive had a ball joint case the same thing on a company truck, not fun. Glad your alright Tim!
 
I am glad that you are OK, Tim. I can't imagine what would have happened had that occured at highway speed.


I had a similar blessing a couple of years ago while driving my son's K20. He had been in an accident a couple of months before, and we had just picked the truck up out of the shop.

He had rearended another vehicle, and it turns out that the impact had damaged the front leaf spring pack on the driver's side. It was unnoticed by the crummy body shop that attempted the repairs (Midwest Collision in Louisburg, KS), and the leaf pack came apart while I was driving in town. The entire front axle pivoted out from under the truck. I had heard a clank and felt the steering let go, but was able to get it to the side of the road. I don't want to think about what would have happened had it occured while my boy was driving it on the highway.
 
My pickup had the ABS light come on 2 months ago with a code for the Pass Front wheel Speed Sensor. Pickup has 171K. Consider that thing parked till I replace the bearings. Was going to install a new wheel speed sensor, but the new bearings come with the sensor pre installed. Thanks for the Heads Up Tim. I have never heard of this happening.
 
BudTX said:
I am glad that you are OK, Tim. I can't imagine what would have happened had that occured at highway speed.


I had a similar blessing a couple of years ago while driving my son's K20. He had been in an accident a couple of months before, and we had just picked the truck up out of the shop.

He had rearended another vehicle, and it turns out that the impact had damaged the front leaf spring pack on the driver's side. It was unnoticed by the crummy body shop that attempted the repairs (Midwest Collision in Louisburg, KS), and the leaf pack came apart while I was driving in town. The entire front axle pivoted out from under the truck. I had heard a clank and felt the steering let go, but was able to get it to the side of the road. I don't want to think about what would have happened had it occured while my boy was driving it on the highway.
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Awfully kind of you Bud to give them free advertising after all that.:D Leo
 
NVW said:
Awfully kind of you Bud to give them free advertising after all that.:D Leo
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LOL! (to above post)

Glad you are allright Tim.

Reasons like this is why i put up with the low ground clearance, get-stuck-in-wet-grass 2wd!:thumbsup:
 
I too am glad it wasnt worse.

What brand of bearing did you replace it with?

I work at Timken Research and they are constantly testing GM Wheel bearing assemblies, I will ask the techs if/what they are finding is causing this problem and maybe how we can prevent it.
 
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