Wheel bearings - can they 'go' in three weeks?

wolfyne

So I'll cut to the chase, on Friday I had my rear passenger side wheel bearing replaced. It was 'ruined' as I was informed.

No big. It wasn't expensive and that's just the way it is with cars.

However, three weeks ago, right before Christmas, I got another garage (aka Halfords) to do a 15 point check on my car. This includes wheel bearings. This happened when I got two front tyres done.

As it is, I wasn't informed anything was wrong, my oil needed doing by them and my brakes would need doing sometime in the future, but I was quoted a good 6-9 months for that. My bearings would never mentioned.

My problem is, I've been told that wheel bearings don't just become ruined over the course of three weeks unless you do something incredibly stupid and/or have an accident. As neither have occurred, is it most likely this was missed in the check or do I just chalk it up to bad luck?

Any help would be appreciated!

Marktheshark

Yes they can, the collapse internally through over heating and can be fine 30 seconds before, let alone 3 weeks.

kwmlondon

The only way you can tell if bearings are gone is if they grate/crunch and this happens when one or more of the balls inside disintegrates. They basically go from fine to broken in a moment and there's no way of knowing when they will fail so no, nobody's at fault here.

Retrogamer

As above, they can fail quickly and rapidly sometimes, other times they wear gradually and slowly.

If you had it at Halfords and were advised all was ok, then 3 weeks later were having the bearing replaced what happened to make you go back to a garage within 3 weeks for them to determine your wheel bearing had gone?

forgotmyname

Tyres from Halfords...oh dear... I bet that wasnt cheap.

You let them touch your car.. Another oh dear....

I would get a 2nd opinion. A sticking brake caliper can cook the bearing
and cause it to fail very quickly. Sometimes this can happen without any
warning unless you go around check the temperature of the wheels after a
run. Or it gets so hot that you get a squeal or squeak as the grease melts and
you get metal to metal contact.

And dont make that 2nd opinion KwikFit....

colino

While misfitted bearings can be worn out in a day, lummoxes who really shouldn't be in the trade can misinterpret play (some bearings do need it) as wear. Could also have been the bearing housings were butchered when they were replaced and even a new bearing isn't going to work.

gord115

forgotmyname wrote: »

Tyres from Halfords...oh dear... I bet that wasnt cheap.

I got two Dunlop tyres for my sons car from Halfords just before christmas and they were by far the cheapest.
Yet for tyres for my car they would have been expensive,hit & miss I suppose.

problemcashback

read the OP post and re-read it, seems their issue is that Halfords didn't think that the bearings were faulty at the time of the check and 3 weeks later they were. well 3 weeks ago they checked your battery and that could go, they could check your bulbs and they could go. Its a car moving parts, failures happen at any time. Remember you take a car for an MOT today and tomorrow it could fail (unrealistic) but the MOT is only valid at the time of the test.


I suggest you were lucky as if the tester at Halfords had heard or felt anything wrong with the wheel then they would have told you there and then, surprised they didn't find other things wrong with it.

wolfyne

forgotmyname wrote: »

Tyres from Halfords...oh dear... I bet that wasnt cheap.

You let them touch your car.. Another oh dear....

Halfords are pretty much the only people who will supply me with Bridgestones I usually put on my car. They also tend to be the cheapest, last count was £110 for my little car, which for two tyres I didn't think was particularly bad!

Moreover, Halfords don't usually inspect my car for anything other than tyres and potentially for that reason I've never had any issues.

Retrogamer - I didn't go back to a garage, I was driving and heard awful sounds coming from my back end (similar to as kwmlondon described). I had to pull over and get someone to tow my car to a local garage (not Halfords) which is when I was informed it was my wheel bearing.

Well the general opinion seems to be they can go pop at any moment. Thanks everyone - I genuinely don't know much about wheel bearings, so wanted to make sure.

bod1467

If bearings can go in an instant, why bother including them in a 15 point (or other) vehicle check?

Retrogamer

bod1467 wrote: »

If bearings can go in an instant, why bother including them in a 15 point (or other) vehicle check?

To check for wear & damage.
Just because they can fail quickly, doesn't mean they always do.