'05 OB Rear Wheel Bearing Humming 3 years. How long will it last?

[Juan]

The rear wheel bearing on my '05 OBWagon is shot.  

Three months ago the Subie shop said, "Mechanic said he grabbed it and could move it around."

Been humming for three years.

How long will it last?

 

I can live with the humm, but is the rear end going to blow up if I don't fix it soon?

 

Thanks.

[tbolt1003]

I had a front hub bearing go on my '95 Impreza recently. Due to the play in the assembly, had I not had it fixed when I did, I probably would have ended up doing an axle shaft, as well, because the hub would have gouged the shaft from wobbling around. I'd be concerned you haven't done that to your axle shaft, too. Get it fixed soon, I'd suggest.

[ShawnW]

Why bother wondering?  They are pretty easy to replace.  And frankly the stress of wondering would drive me crazy.

[zombieforce]

If its noisy and tight its ok. If the tech said it would move then you need to get it do e before it causes some damage to other parts.

[CNY_Dave]

If it has play or binds/gets hot, I consider it a safety hazard.

 

I drove my '03 on a noisy rear wheel bearing long enough for it to have barely detectable play (could feel the rear starting to want to wander before it was detectable shaking the wheel), and I needed ear plugs to drive at highway speeds for weeks before it reached that point.

[idosubaru]

"how" long is arbitrary.  it's not as if every failing wheel bearing reaches 100 decibles at 5 months, 4 days, 11 hours, 34 minutes, and 12 seconds....or every one fails catastrophically by 13 months....etc. 

 

having seen it before, once it gets enough play the tone ring and ABS sensor gets damaged/destroyed and triggers the ABS light, by then I wouldn't consider it having much time left before more ominous things start happening.

[heartless]

if it is wobbling, it needs replacing asap before even more damage occurs and you end up replacing other parts as well - ie: more $$$

 

and that isnt even considering the safety aspect of it...

[Juan]

This makes me mad. The Subaru shop should have let me know about this two years ago when I told them the left rear was humming.

 

......................................................................................................................................................

 

"Subaru. has initiated an Extended Warranty Program
for Rear Wheel Bearings on certain 2005 and early 2006 model year Legacy and
Outback models. Coverage will be extended to 8 years or 100,000 miles.

During a quality review, Subaru discovered that
there is a possibility that one or both of an affected vehicle's Rear Wheel
Bearings may, over time, develop a noise condition that causes the bearing to
produce a whining sound. This sound does not pose a safety issue and does not
adversely affect the normal operation of the bearing. However, if the vehicle
experiences this condition, it should be corrected by replacing the affected
bearing, which will eliminate the sound. As a result of this finding and in the
interest of customer satisfaction, SOA is extending the Rear Wheel Bearing
warranty coverage period for the affected vehicles to 8 years (96 months) or
100,000 miles, whichever occurs first.
Technical Service Bulletin number 03-58-08"

 

 

I have the reciept from the Subie shop for an oil change when I told them the rear wheel was humming. The reciept says they found nothing wrong. The milage and the date on the reciept are well within the extended warranty coverage (90k and 7 years.)

 

My car is out of warranty, now. Can I complain and get the bearing replaced as per the warranty because the Subi shop messed up and basically screwed me over?

[brus brother]

I would bring the receipt and speak with service mgr. If no positive response, call SOA.

[zombieforce]

Dealerships have a goodwill fund that allows them to repair something like this without coming out of their pocket especially considering you complained about it while it was in the warranty period service manager should be able to fix this situation for you and if he wont do it , call subaru and bomb him and his dealership on their service. Customer satisfaction index or csi is a huge deal to these guys and a bad survey will hurt them. At least it did me and my dealer when I was with audi.

[Juan]

All turned out well. Free wheel bearing on S.O.A.'s dime. Comments saved me $377.

 

I printed the service bulletin which I found on line, gathered it together with my1-inch thick stack of reciepts from the past 9 years and took them to the service manager in person (along with his business card which was left in my car after the last oil change asking me to please give him a good review if S.O.A. contacted me..

 

I personally explained the wheel baering/warranty situation to him and told him I would like the bearing repaired under warranty. He explained that my vehicle was 3,000 miles and one year outside of the extended warranty BUT that I should call S.O.A. and tell them about it: he wrote the number down for me.

 

I called S.O.A. They got back to me in a week and authorized the repair under warranty.

 

WOW. Nothing out of pocket except 2 hours of my time.

 

I think going down there in person with the service manager's business card on top of a stack of receipts and simply walkng up and telling him what I wanted, and why, made the difference.  

 

Now I'm going have the timing belt done and I'm going to take the car there. The knows he is going to make money on me.

 

Thanks to all for your comments and suggestions.

[idosubaru]

dealerships do sub-par timing belt jobs - they only replace the belt.  best to replace the tensioner and all the pulleys, that's what many of us do every time.   it's cost prohibitive at a dealer though - very expensive to replace all of those.

 

Gates kits on amazon are $115.

Subaru parts are 20% cheaper through online dealers, you can save $100 or so ordering parts online.