My daughter's 2003 Protege has had 3 LF wheel bearing replacements by 2 different mechanics since summer of 2019 and it appears to have failed again.
First failure was June 2019, second was December 2019 and the last one was October 2020 (no posts here on that one). The first failure (Video), the third and this one had a rumble sound that goes away on RH turns and gets a bit louder on LH turns. The second (video) was a little different than the other three with a low pitched constant groan that didn't change when turning.
The first two were by the same mechanic, but he refused my calls when it failed again, so I chose another shop. Hearing the history, they changed the bearing and also the hub, but it's still failing again now, about 14 months later. Mechanic error seems unlikely given it's been two completely different shops.
Any insight as to why these are repeatedly failing? I do remember something about a debate about if there should be a seal or not, but I'm not finding it now. No seal listed on any of my paper work, but I can't say for certain it wasn't installed.
I'm tempted to buy a complete steering knuckle from a scrap yard and install that, but I would really like to understand the root of the failure to prevent it.
Any suggestions?
First failure was June 2019, second was December 2019 and the last one was October 2020 (no posts here on that one). The first failure (Video), the third and this one had a rumble sound that goes away on RH turns and gets a bit louder on LH turns. The second (video) was a little different than the other three with a low pitched constant groan that didn't change when turning.
The first two were by the same mechanic, but he refused my calls when it failed again, so I chose another shop. Hearing the history, they changed the bearing and also the hub, but it's still failing again now, about 14 months later. Mechanic error seems unlikely given it's been two completely different shops.
Any insight as to why these are repeatedly failing? I do remember something about a debate about if there should be a seal or not, but I'm not finding it now. No seal listed on any of my paper work, but I can't say for certain it wasn't installed.
I'm tempted to buy a complete steering knuckle from a scrap yard and install that, but I would really like to understand the root of the failure to prevent it.
Any suggestions?