06 Jeep Liberty 4x4, friend's truck, sees a lot of rough roads, 97,000 miles.
Doing front brakes, noticed it growling pretty bad on the drive over, noticeable play in the front right, couldn't feel any play in the front left (didn't have indicator to check). The left side felt smooth turning it but with the CV shaft there it's hard to tell. It's loud enough I'm not sure it's one or both(or it's actually both), but the bad one being the one that's always in the gutter, I have to wonder if the extra $118 for the second FAG from rockauto is necessary at under 100k miles.
If you can hear the bearing making noise then I would replace it, as you stated the owner uses the Jeep on rough roads, no need to have the bearing go out 20 miles up the trail.
Paul
some people say to replace them in pairs: i say they are expensive and only replace the bad one.. and if you replace the wrong one, just swap it to the other side..
Right front seems to be the more common one to change, I think due to the greater likelihood of curbing that wheel, plus there are more potholes on the edge of the street, and you generally turn left faster than right, so the right gets more wear.
I have no problem changing one.
we recommend doing them as a pair but ive been known to do just the bad one on my personal vehicles
It's front end parts on a Jeep. I bet the other one is tired. If you like doing this stuff I'd swap the other side or plan on doing it soon, like when the weather is nice, perhaps this spring.
what pres589 said .. if one is shot, the other is getting tired
I always just replace the bad one, then two weeks later replace the other one because it started making noise.
After sleeping on it, based on the amount of noise I'm hearing, I think the pair is in order.
Seems logical, but it doesn't actually make sense statistically. I work with equipment that has hundreds of bearings of the same size running at the same speed. You only change the bad ones. And guess what? The other #99 bearings don't start to crap out shortly after. Imagine that...
I learned that lesson the hard way. Only Hyundai Excel I had, the driver's side rear wheel bearing went. I replaced it. Two weeks later, the passenger side went and needed a -lot- of coaxing to come off.. like cold chisel and a hammer
We plan to take it to my parent's place, where an air compressor and a CP714 will be available.
Just because one went bad doesn't mean the other one is' or going to.
Had one on my Liberty at around 40K miles, the other one was doing fine at 82K.
My Fiesta had one go bad at 34K, the other one as doing fine at 42K, Car got totaled.
If one went out at 45K I'd only change the one. At 97K I'd change both if I was gonna keep it for the duration.
.02
