So after putting new tires on the back 6 moths ago, I ruined a front tire driving over a screw and throwing it out, Had a flat on the freeway. That was 3 months and new tires weren't noisy or anything.


But a few weeks ago I started noticing the sound of what I believe to be the front left bearing going out and it's getting louder. Faster I go, the higher the pitch. I don't think it's the new tire because it was nice and quiet for so long. My question is what happens when a bearing goes out? Does the wheel lock up one day?


I'll be putting it the shop after saving up a little more cash for the job. Hmm, I wonder how much that would cost.

 

I paid $500 for a new bearing at the dealer, but there was some other work done at the same time including a rear brake job (bear was rear passenger). This was on a 2009 XF SC with 60k miles. The bearing started getting loud over about 4 k miles and the car did not suffer any kind of trauma beforehand.

 

Thanks Tim,
I bet it doesn't have long. 4k miles is about 4 months for me. I don't yet know if I need two yet. But it sounds like it's on the left. I'd imagine it would be best to get them both done. One couldn't be too far behind the other.

 

Interesting you mention getting both done at the same time. I asked the service manager about doing both of them and he basically said the dealer very rarely sees them go at all and that one going bad was not indicative that the other would go any time soon.

 

Good info that I can feel confident about if I do get only one replaced! I also wonder if they can just regreasemail them. It hasn't been diagnosed yet but I've never had this problem before so I'm guessing about it and trying to find out what to expect. I appreciate the info!

 

I concur, just do the one. The bearing itself if usually cheap, i think i paid $60 for the one on my lincoln LS, its the labor charge that gets ya, so i would replace instead of re-grease.

 

No reason to get both replaced.
It takes a long time for a wheel bearing to completely fail too. The noise is very annoying, but the likelihood that it will actually fall apart is small.

The easy test is to jack the wheels up and spin them. Any sort of rumbling noise and they are on the way out.

You can replace the bearing itself but you would probably have to take it to a shop to get it pressed in.
Far more common these days is just replace the entire hub. It's a pretty simple bolt off bolt on affair and a new hub is quite reasonable comparing it to what a dealer may try to charge you.


see here
Wheel Bearing and Hub Assembly Front Centric 407 20001 Fits 09 15 Jaguar XF | eBay

 

Thanks Madart! That would seem to be a lot easier and at $145, it's a lot cheaper than i imagined. I'm going to jack it up and check it out.