Bearing gone bad!

[$chocker]

Made about three runs from Saratoga Springs, NY area to Adirondacks this week. During these runs, a noise developed in my '06 5 (57k miles) that sounded like either a tire noise or wheel bearing noise. I swapped rolling stock, and the noise persisted, leading me to believe I had a bum wheel bearing.

Took the car to the dealership, and they said that the wheel bearings seem fine and that they are 99% certain that the noise is coming from the bearing that provides support to the long axle shaft on the passenger side of the tranny. They say that they just had to replace one of these recently on another 5.

Anyone heard of this type of bearing failure before? My concern is that it turns out to be a wheel bearing as I had thought, and I'm out the $450 or so that this thing is going to cost me.(nervous)

As a side note, I had them replace the manual tranny fluid, and the car shifts like when it was new. I was not aware of how much the shifting feel had degraded.

 

[$chocker]

Still waiting for dealership to get the parts...noise is getting LOUDER. They'd better be right on their diagnosis!

 

[TheMAN]

its bulls*** you have to pay for their misdiagnosis
I'd raise hell if I were you

 

[$chocker]

I should clarify - I don't know yet if they have misdiagnosed it. I won't know until it goes into the dealership on Monday (they got the part in today).

The 5 is now parked until we bring it in because the bearing noise has gotten much worse.

 

[$chocker]

FAIL!

I get the call...."well, we are still hearing some noise after replacing the bearing". In other words, it was the wheel bearing as I thought.

Of course, they didn't have the wheel bearing in stock and I have to wait another day. What friggin' parts department wouldn't carry some wheel bearings in stock?

I'll be having a heart to heart with the service manager tomorrow.

Honestly, I argued my case three different times with the service advisor that I still thought it was a wheel bearing. They were convinced they were right. The thing that pisses me off is that they must have heard that noise throughout the whole axle assy when they made the diagnosis, and they went with the assumption that it must be the carrier bearing which probably fails on a 1 to 50 ratio compared to wheel bearing. (hand)

 

[thaxman]

How common is this? I have been hearing a roaring lately (29K) and my warranty is up sometime near the end of the year.
As for the MT gear oil, how much was the charge to change it $chocker? I have complained about the gates to the local dealer (1st & Rev) & get a blank look & an "unable to duplicate" in the results box.

 

[$chocker]

How common is this? I have been hearing a roaring lately (29K) and my warranty is up sometime near the end of the year.
As for the MT gear oil, how much was the charge to change it $chocker? I have complained about the gates to the local dealer (1st & Rev) & get a blank look & an "unable to duplicate" in the results box.

Hey Thaxman - 29k would be pretty early to have a bearing going, but you never know. If you have another set of wheels/tires to swap on I'd suggest it to rule out the tires as the source of the noise.

I think I paid $69 bucks for the lube change on the tranny. It was shifting fine before the refill, but it feels more precise since they swapped it.

Bearing is all fixed now, by the way.

 

[kudakev615]

they make these things called chassis ears. they are clamps with microphones on them and they transmit the sounds to the headphones wirelessly. this allows you to place multiple clamps on different possible sources of the noise. then the tech can drive the car and switch between different locations (wheel bearing, carrier bearing, ect) and pin point the exact source of the noise. it cuts down on misdiagnosing and parts pitching. i have a set and its saved me many of times. ask the the dealership to use this tool to verify the source of the noise.

 

[mazdadude]

they make these things called chassis ears. they are clamps with microphones on them and they transmit the sounds to the headphones wirelessly. this allows you to place multiple clamps on different possible sources of the noise. then the tech can drive the car and switch between different locations (wheel bearing, carrier bearing, ect) and pin point the exact source of the noise. it cuts down on misdiagnosing and parts pitching. i have a set and its saved me many of times. ask the the dealership to use this tool to verify the source of the noise.

kudakev615: That is a nice looking set. Last time I looked at one of these was 10yrs ago, before they were wireless.(sssh)

$hocker: Sorry you had some trouble with the dealer diagnosis. You would think that the dealer would have a boatload of the common failure parts in stock, but such is not always the case.

So it ended up being a bad hub/wheel bearing assembly? Glad it was done under warranty, as IIRC they are not cheap.(nailbyt)

 

[$chocker]

Warranty? What warranty?(cryhard)

The wheel bearing replacement was about $260.00 parts and labor and the carrier bearing was about $410.00 parts and labor. They then took $75 bucks off the labor for the carrier bearing, and I'm in discussions with the service manager about getting some other compensation for the sketchy diagnosis.

Honestly, it got kind of weird when it came to figuring out what the actual problem was. When I went to get the car, they had expressed some concern that it may still be making some noise. They thought it was tire noise, but they weren't absolutely sure. I drove it, and all was good. What they were hearing was just the normal tire noise from the Contisportcontact 2's that I have on it (not too many 5's with those on 'em, right?).

What I am now wondering is whether or not the bearing noise might have actually been resolved when they replaced the carrier bearing, but then they heard my little bit of tire noise and assumed I needed the wheel bearing...ahhhh, probably not.

Anyway, I'm relieved that it's fixed.

 

[jmcglynn]

This is interesting information...

My friend asked me to take her 5 in for service while she was on vacation. From the first moment I drove it I could tell there was a wheel bearing problem. It's a 2006 like mine, but an AT. She's only got 12k miles compared to my 32K. I was a bit surprised that a bearing would go bad this early in it's life, but it's a pretty unmistakable sound. You can really tell the difference when you compare the two cars one after the other.

Anyway... I brought it into the dealer this morning... I'll be interested to hear what they have to say... but I'm feel a little bit better that someone else has had a bearing problem fairly early in the car's life (all my other cars with bearing problems were always well past 100K). More news to follow...

John McGlynn

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

I just dealt with noise with 58K

This is interesting information...

My friend asked me to take her 5 in for service while she was on vacation. From the first moment I drove it I could tell there was a wheel bearing problem. It's a 2006 like mine, but an AT. She's only got 12k miles compared to my 32K. I was a bit surprised that a bearing would go bad this early in it's life, but it's a pretty unmistakable sound. You can really tell the difference when you compare the two cars one after the other.

Anyway... I brought it into the dealer this morning... I'll be interested to hear what they have to say... but I'm feel a little bit better that someone else has had a bearing problem fairly early in the car's life (all my other cars with bearing problems were always well past 100K). More news to follow...

John McGlynn

Turned out to be the Avon Tech550 tired I put on last year. They wore to about 2/3 and sounded like bearing noise. Replaced them with Good Year GT's which I also have on my MS3 and the car is like new.

 

[wmzda5]

I can't believe that they can screw the diagnosis of your bearing problem. Its easy to check if you have bad bearings. Just lift up the wheel and try shaking it up and down and sideways for slack. Tighten the wheel bearings if loose and turning it a few rev and feel if there is grinding or snagging feel. There shouldn't be any slack or grinding feel.

 

[rweatherford]

I'd have to look in the service manual, but I don't think most FWD vehicles have adjustable wheel bearings like most RWD cars had on the front.

 

[jmcglynn]

Follow-up... I loose my bet

It doesn't happen often, but it turns out I was wrong about my possible bearing problem. Here's the scoop...

The dealer had two different techs check the car. Their conclusion... the sound I heard was being caused by tires. Seems there was some un-even wear and that, they said, was part of the problem. Their solution, rotate the tires. I was pretty convinced about my own diagnosis, so I made them a bet... let me bring in my 5 (which just got new tires), swap the wheels with the problem 5, and let's take it around the block. At this point I'm sure a lot of dealers and techs would think I was crazy, but they were surprisingly cooperative. If it turned out I was wrong, then all I owed them was the cost of their time.

So this morning I brought in my 5... they both went up on the rack side by side, they swapped the tires and I went for a drive. Bottom line... I was stunned... they were right and I was wrong. It was the tires after all.

I've driven a lot of cars a lot of miles, and I dare say that whenever I've come across that sound, more times than not it was a bearing problem... and I've had too many techs try to explain it away as a tire or alignment issue only to have them proven wrong later (after the warranty expired, of course).

So here I am, hat in my hand. This time they were right. Kudos to the team at Long Beach Mazda... Not only for making the right diagnosis, but for going along with my little test.

I still have to wonder, however... had I not offered up my own 5 as a guine pig... would they have gone along with this kind of test?

I guess the real lesson here is to always be on your guard... and get a second opinion if necessary.

 

[jmcglynn]

No adjustment required

I'd have to look in the service manual, but I don't think most FWD vehicles have adjustable wheel bearings like most RWD cars had on the front.

I've never seen a FWD where you could adjust the front bearings. Compared to a regular axil bearing, a FWD wheel bearing is a rather large assembly and is a completely different beast.

They're usually fixed], permanently sealed, and get a lot more stress than an old school axil bearing. With FWD, you have a lot more moving parts, including the CV joint on the other side of the hub, and the strut bearing at the top of the strut housing. The FWD wheel bearing is a no-maintenance part. It works until it fails, which in most cases is pretty rare.