Wheel bearing time? HMMMMMMMMM

[cn90]

- Wheel bearing is a "wear" item. Under normal driving with no water submersion or
huge pot holes etc etc, in my experience, it goes bad around ~ 160K-200K miles.

- The key thing with check wheel bearing is the brake caliper must be off and suspended.
If you are lazy and leave the brake caliper in situ, then it is almost impossible to tell the
difference between brake pad noise vs actual wheel bearing noise.

[X5chemist]

Mine has 171,2XX miles on it. Almost 30k by me in terrible Austin, Tx traffic. I have not inspected the rear bearings. Most parts for my X5 are paid by someone else. Friends or neighbors always need brakes, tune ups, diagnostics, or even sun roofs closed! I'll test the rear ones soon enough. I see more videos on YouTube from later model X5s than ours! Especially rear bearings. The rear bearings are so much smaller than front ones. I'll keep updating this post as I make progress to ID the bad one. I'm looking at the chassis ears option. A good tune up on a vehicle will pay for it.

[andrewwynn]

Some have gone a million though. I think eventually most bearings will have hit enough hard bumps you'll have failure by 200k. Depending where you live the MTBF might be under 100k miles.

That said my 01 never needed a new rear bearing through 205k. I don't remember if I ever changed left front but did right front twice about 2 years apart.

There's a TSB from bmw basically indicated that impact will damage the bearing. Specifically that if a wheel it's impacted in an accident you must change the bearing presumptive damage.

Wife's e53 i think in 180,000 3/4 of hers were changed.

My point is you don't have to replace any that aren't showing signs of damage. When my right front went out after less than two years many would have assumed it must be the other side rather than diagnose the same side failed quickly. (surely from pot hole during a turn).


–awr–

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[cn90]

No wheel bearing lasts 1 million miles.

When I replaced the wheel bearing on my 1998 Volvo S70 years ago (at 180K miles)...
I could tell both front bearings were bad.
Replaced both front bearings using F-A-G brand.

The point is: if you are at 180K-200K range and if 1 front bearing is bad, the other will
follow soon. And since you already set up the tools/toys to do the job you may as well
replace both. My 2 cents...

[andrewwynn]

Odds are definitely in your favor and it's logical for sure. I would not veto the plan; if I was local i would help.

That said in my experience its just as likely a different bearing will need it first. I'm def not against having the other bearing on deck in the garage.

There's very little time savings to do two at once, basically the time to Jack up the car.

You will likely reset the time clock of bearing end of life, there's a solid chance the bearing is beginning to fail.

I bought two bearings thinking the same thing but i only installed the side that failed. 18 months later ending up putting the second bearing on the same side before the left side failed. (Which never did).

140k right front, 170k right front again 205k left still going strong. Just one data point of course. Same FAG brand they are not too expensive to get the OE brand.

¢¢


–awr–

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[X5chemist]

BMW Wheel Hub - Meyle 3147520002 is my favorite option so far. New bolts and axle nut are included. For a complete rear single kit, I like it.

My best guess so far it's a rear bearing. I'm driving with my Bluetooth XM radio module at low volume or off. It may be a bit before I can raise the rear and check. Plus, I need to get the 235 spare out to mount on each corner.

[80stech]

If the new bolts come with Loctite hardened on them then will be a total PITA. You'll end up wire wheeling the Loctite off or cleaning up the old bolts and reusing them with liquid Loctite.

[andrewwynn]

I would use a thread chaser to clean off the 1st cm of the preinstalled Loctite so that you could get the bolt started cause I agree that might make a real bitch. that is a solid heads up.

The bolts are steel, I don’t have a problem reusing them.


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[X5chemist]

If bolts are steel, I'll use a die to clean them up. A tap on the bearing side. Loctite them on installation.
What's the torque spec? I have an electric ratchet to run them in after starting them up. Or brute strength without stripping.

[80stech]

You want to be able to turn them in with your fingers as much as possible because it's fairly tight to get in there. It'll make more sense when you are doing it.