I just completed a round trip of about 800 miles. Before the trip I rotated my tires and checked the front hub bearings by doing a vertical shake on the tires. They showed no play before the trip. As I pulled into town on the way back, I noticed the steering felt funny. When I got home, I checked the front bearings again. Now I have about an inch of play on the driver's side. I got new hubs and I'm putting them in this weekend, but I'm wondering, what if I had say, another 400 miles to drive - would the hub have made it? I think I may buy a spare hub to take with me on any long trip since this one seemed to go so fast. Just wondering if anyone has driven any big distance after they found out they had a bad hub.
How Far Can You Drive on a Bad Hub?
- Thread starter TopHat
- Start date
I am dumb and made several 4 wheel drive 1/4 passes... I changed mine when it started sounding like a thud thud thud sound. I would say you are ok but definitely change it out when you get back
its not worth it to try. some will go that 400, some will completely destroy themselves 10 miles in. I had to drive from Phoenix AZ to denver CO and the day before the trip i found my LF wheel bearing went bad. i did all i could to fix that bearing before i left cause in the end, had i not fixed it and the hub let go, it would have cost me alot more and possibly a life. Not something id mess around with
Here are the opinions I collected when I asked a similar question last fall.
http://www.duramaxdiesels.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25533
http://www.duramaxdiesels.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25533
^^^ Ron White :roflmao:
Anyway, that sounds like its going fast. I had one with maybe 1/2" of slop... noticed when I had the truck in the air. I kept an eye on it for a while before getting another hub and slapping on it. It hadn't got much worse in that time. Sounds like yours is going fast for some reason. May not want to push it too far if you can avoid it?
Anyway, that sounds like its going fast. I had one with maybe 1/2" of slop... noticed when I had the truck in the air. I kept an eye on it for a while before getting another hub and slapping on it. It hadn't got much worse in that time. Sounds like yours is going fast for some reason. May not want to push it too far if you can avoid it?
To the scene of the crash
:roflmao:
that was a perfect answer for that question
But all jokes aside change it as quick as you can driving with a bad wheel hub is like playing with a loaded gun
Thanks for the opinions guys - I said I had the parts but actually I'm expecting them via Fedex tomorrow, then plan to change out both sides over the weekend. The truck has about 65,000 miles on it and has never done quarter-mile runs or sled pulls, and never towed more than 10k lbs trailers either, so I don't necessarily feel like I got great service out of the hubs. Seems like they are kind of a weak spot on a $45k "heavy-duty" truck. It sure gives my brother-in-law something to talk about verses his Ford.
My driver side went about 65000 miles and now my passenger side is loose at 71000 but I have done everything drag raced, sled pulled the works so that must just be there limit
Ford wheel bearings are just as bad, so are dodge's. They are all oem timkens. So don't feel too bad about it. Unit bearings were designed for speeding up production, not reliability.
Unless the cv shaft is pulled out , or broke for some reason, i dont see this happening.