Beware!! Faulty timken unit bearing

[ljobbins]

I just did a wj steering and brake swap and got new timken bearings from rockauto and never gave them a thought. I just installed them and ran it and within a couple miles I heard a horrible sound for a couple seconds and then it stopped. When I got back I found that 1 wheel stud fell out and scored my new rotor before falling out and there were two others that were loose.
Obviously you should check every part before installing but for sure check your timken products.

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[Anak]

How on earth does a wheel stud come out the back when it has a lug nut on the front?

I am guessing the torquing of the lug nuts didn't draw the studs in to their bases, but the driving did and that left the lug nuts loose enough to come off. Or was it something else?

 

[lawsoncl]

Little confused here. On the top picture, the marks on the splines look like it was fully seated at one time. The studs and the wheel flange don't look new. Is the top of that stud digging into the bearing housing?

 

[Tim_MN]

Studs are too long, or the at least the unthreaded shoulder is too long. Lug nuts bottomed out on the extra long threads, or the unthreaded shoulder, and then simply worked loose.

 

[lawsoncl]

Maybe. They look just like the picture on the Timken site, and that they'd be fine once you put the rotor on, unless the holes in the rotor were too somehow too small.

 

[RCP Phx]

Never had a problem with any Timken products regardless of where they were ordered from!

 

[lawsoncl]

I understand Timken shifted a lot of their manufacturing to China and India over the past several years. Their quality, while I think it's slipped, is still much better than most of the other cheap chinese crap out there. There are lots of counterfeit bearings out there too. I try to get SKF, ***, or Japanese made bearings when I can get them.

 

[ljobbins]

Hey I can’t tell you exactly why things turned out the way they did but this is not a bashing on timken or anyone. Just a reminder to check everything before installing and after regardless of the brand or whatever. Make sure the part is good and the work you do is complete and good. Losing a wheel on the freeway would have sucked so I think this was a good reminder to myself to not become complacent.


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[lawsoncl]

I'm not really trying to bash a brand name, but rather I'm very curious what happened and whether the bearing on the other side has a similar issue. Bad part or installation error?

Was is a failure to torque the lug nuts, studs bottoming out on the lug or vice versa, the rotor not sitting flat or crooked when you torqued, etc. If this were me, I'd really want to know before I trusted the other bearing. Aside from the stud issue, does that bearing still feel smooth?

 

[ljobbins]

I took everything apart on the other side and everything was good and now everything is good on the bad side too. The bearing itself is good.
I didn’t feel the rotor sitting crooked or feel anything weird in the brakes the first time I installed it and had a problem.


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[xcm]

I understand Timken shifted a lot of their manufacturing to China and India over the past several years. Their quality, while I think it's slipped, is still much better than most of the other cheap chinese crap out there. There are lots of counterfeit bearings out there too. I try to get SKF, ***, or Japanese made bearings when I can get them.

I recently installed a timken land cruiser carrier bearing… made in France! That was a new one!