Drove my '98 130k+ miles & my' '94 for 89k miles without a front wheel bearing failure, but got one going on my '04 with 96k !! Pretty sure my '79 Fairmont had this same bearing set up and it went 150k+ miles.

Anyway, first noticed it last night driving home on the interstate. First thought it was road noise or even my Dunlop snows, but I drive on this same stretch of highway 3 times a week and the snows have been on since Thanksgiving, so it had to be the car. A gentle left curve at 75 MPH and it gets louder, right curve it stays about the same. Noise there again this morning so I jacked it up when I got to work and sure enough there is about 1/32~1/16" of visible play looking at the back side of the hub !!

Googled subject and it appears to be pretty common even with under 30k miles, so I guess I've just been lucky !!

Got a hub assembly coming from Carquest as well as the required 36mm socket, I'll get her fixed up tommorow. My torque wrench only goes up to 200 ft-lbs, so I'll have to fudge 258 ft-lbs.

First it was that dreaded fuel tank to fill pipe gasket leak just before Christmas, now this ... why can't things go wrong when it is warmer outside ??

Doug

 

make sure you buy the hub cap too, you can't get them off without distroying them.

 

I actually got the cap off without destroying it ... damaging the rubber seal a bit yes, but the cap is not at distorted at all. I will not have the hub or the correct socket to remove it until tomorrow, so I was not going to start it until then ... but when you made your comment, I had to try and get it off. I always thought these caps were PLASTIC, so I was thinking it would be coming off in pieces !!

Also found moisture inside the cap, so either the cap seal or the rear seal let water in to kill the bearing. I find this more comforting that a "seal" failed rather than bearings failing on their own !!

The auto parts store bearing / hub assembly I've got coming does not come with a replacement nut (Ford states it is for one-use only in Shop Manual), and I can now see why ... nut is encased in a steel cage. If re-using this nut is such a big deal / liabilty, why don't the aftermarket suppliers sell their hubs with a new nut or at least offer / recommend one ??

I ordered 2 nuts & caps from my Ford dealer ($13.83 & $5.80 each) and should have Thursday or Friday. I'll put it back together tomorrow with the old nut & cap so I can at least get it home Wednesday night. One 180 mile interstate trip like this is better than trying to make it home with the bad bearing !!

Doug

 

When i did mine i reused the nut. I borrowed a socket from autozone that would fit the center nut to do the job. Mine that went out could have been the seal too, as tehre was a lot of rust under the cap. I did both front just to make sure and the other side had no corrosion at all in it.