Good front bearing?

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myfirstls

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Aloha guys. Been a while since my last post. Like anything else, no news(post) is good news, right?

Anyway, I'm trying to find what is a good front bearing (hub). Here is my story.

I can't remember for sure, but I think I got the car back in 2016. Shortly after I got the car, replaced the front wheel bearing with many other stuff. The bearing I got was Raybestos, mileage on the car was somewhere in 61,000. Back in 2018, my car had really bad, like grinding sound and replaced rear wheel bearing. Noise went away somewhat but still there, only not as loud. Mileage at that time was somewhere in 74,000 or so. Been only two years and 13,000 miles on the bearing, I scratched the front bearing out and was looking for the cause of this noise. Long story short, I narrow it down to front wheel bearing and sure enough, when I changed it noise went away and I got a car that's quite. Second bearing (hub) I got is from Timken from Amazon.

Fast forward it to today, which is two years later and another 10,000 miles, noise is back. Just started like week ago. It's not that loud but it's definitely there. So within 4 years of owning this car, this will be my third bearing (hub).

Car in question is 2004 LS V8 if it matter.

Any recommendation?
 
Out of four OEM (two LSes) front wheel bearings, two made it to over 220K miles so far. I replaced the other two with Motorcraft, and no problems from them yet (over 100K on one, and I can't remember on the other, but at least 50K).
 
I got mine from Detroit axle, probably not as solid as oem but I've put quite a bit of mileage on them that I can't remember how long I've had them. I know it's been at least a few years. I haven't had a thorough inspection lately but it still performs just fine
 
If my LS had under 100k miles and needed a new wheel bearing, a Motorcraft bearing would be the ONLY choice but as that mileage climbs upward, other reputable brands become a reasonable option. I have almost 170k on my 2003 and still have all four original bearings. I feel lucky.
 
Detriot Axle isn't a good choice. SKF or Timken are usually the better made bearings, (even though they are now made in China or Mexico).

Per chance.. do you have rims on the car with a high offset?

That will eat wheel bearings rather quickly due to the leverage the wheel puts on the bearing.
 
04_Sport_LS said:
Detriot Axle isn't a good choice. SKF or Timken are usually the better made bearings, (even though they are now made in China or Mexico).

Per chance.. do you have rims on the car with a high offset?

That will eat wheel bearings rather quickly due to the leverage the wheel puts on the bearing.
Click to expand...

Well, as you can see, I put Timken on it. I had very good results with Timken until now. I have 86' Monte Carlo SS that have Timken, with many other vehicles I had and didn't experience any problem, until now. I have a SKF in rear, and so far so good. I may try it later down the line, but for now, I'll stick to Motorcraft as Joe suggested. Don't wanna go through another hub change. Job itself is easy enough, unlike many other tasks that we have to go through with LS. But spending another $200+ for both bearing change is not my idea of having fun.

As for the rim, all four are stock, with alignment done about 2 years ago as I changed my rear toe-link, along with upper and lower control arms and needed alignment anyway. Tires are about the same, about 2 years old.

But thanks for the info though.
 
SKF is the premier manufacturer of roller bearings.
Timken is the premier manufacturer of tapered bearings.
Timken and SKF tend to cross-label stuff. e.g., a roller bearing from "timken" is actually an SKF and vice versa.
National is my personal backup.
But, any manufacturer will have bad parts and issues........
 
Ok guys. I changed both front wheel bearing hub last weekend and sure enough, small vibration at steering wheel is gone. Bearing noise went away somewhat, but it's still there. It's coming from my rear.

Reason why I'm posting this is because I changed my rear wheel bearing about the same time I changed my front wheel bearing, which was around two years ago. Timken bearing I bought from Rockauto. Guess I won't be buying them any more.
They used to be real good bearing. Not anymore.

For now, planning on SKF bearing. Hope it will outlast the Timken's..................
 
I just recently installed some Beck Arnley, (made in China:rolleyes:), hubs on the front of my LS. I ordered ones for a Jaguar instead of an LS. I have had some shimmy in the front end for the better part of the year. When I grabbed the front tires at 12 and 6... there was about 1/4" of play in the bearing. I think it was caused by the different tolerances of the 320mm front brake install. Time will tell.
 
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