Wheel Bearing Issue

[clover1680]

Hi this is my first post. I have a 2020 Mirage G4 it has roughly 120k miles. I am wondering if I am the only person who has had wheel bearing issues. Since February (it is now September) I have had 5 wheel bearings changed and now another one is bad. I only have 4 wheels obviously so there is clearly a problem. I have replaced all 4 and the rear driver's side one twice. Now it is the is the rear passenger side again. My mechanic says that he doesn't know why they keep failing. I don't really know a lot about cars but this does not seem remotely normal to me. My last car was a 2012 Mitsubishi Outlander with over 200k miles and I never changed a wheel bearing let alone 6 within 6 months. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this issue. Or maybe someone has a suggestion of what could be causing these wheel bearings to fail so quickly. June 29 and August 16 are when I had the left rear one changed and it's now September 19 and has been making noise for at least 2 weeks. If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

[Fummins]

I'd try a different bearing brand or different mechanic.

I use cheap bearings and I don't think I've had one fail that I recall. It's hard to install one wrong but I've had to un eff a lot of stuff that others tried to fix but shouldn't have.
I thought there was one other person who complained about a similar problem, maybe you with a different username?

[Fummins]

https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...wheel+bearings

[mitsumi]

my mirage is more than 8 years and don't have any issues with the bearings.

did you ask the mechanic on what brand they used? if it is an OEM it should do as it should if it is an aftermarket better get the good brands like here in my country we get the NSK or Koyo if its available there.

[mirthmobile]

If anything we do fewer Mirage bearings than anything else. All of the hub bearings in the rear of the SUVs are way *way* more common.

No repeat failures with Mirages either.

[Top_Fuel]

It's not super common, but it's also not unusual for the front bearings on a Mirage to start crapping out after 100K miles. I had a front wheel bearing go bad around 115K miles. I'm not the only one. How many miles before front wheel bearing replacement?

OK...here comes the flood of "I have 600,000 miles on the original wheel bearings" replies...


I can remember a few people replacing a rear bearing around 100K miles (like CobraJet).

I'd try a different bearing brand or different mechanic

Along those lines...there are ways to screw up a press-fit wheel bearing installation. I'm assuming that most shops by now are using wheel bearing installation tools (like the OTC Hub Grappler). You can still screw up the installation with one of those tools. I've seen DIY videos on YouTube where someone gets a bearing installed...but they really weren't doing it correctly.


Keep in mind that the bearing probably isn't going to fail immediately if it is damaged during the installation. But it may end up failing prematurely. That dude who had half a dozen new front wheel bearings in his Mirage should probably start looking for a new shop.


Here are a few ways you can potentially damage a new wheel bearing when installing it.

1. After installing the bearing, you put the wheel back on the ground before you torque the axle/hub nut.

2. You don't torque the axle nut properly.

3. When pressing the bearing into the knuckle (or brake drum), you push on the inner race of the bearing instead of the outer race.

4. When pressing the hub into the front bearing, you don't support the back side of the inner bearing race properly.

5. You are installing a good bearing into a damaged hub



Most of what I just said isn't going to make a lick of sense to most of you reading this. But I am just about done with my "mother of all wheel bearing replacement threads" that I will be posting soon. I will walk you through the process of using a bearing installation tool to replace a front wheel bearing on a Mirage with nothing but hand tools.

So stay tuned for that and be sure to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Oh...wait...I don't have a YouTube channel. Well...subscribe to Fummins' channel then.

[foama]

I agree with Top Fuel. Also with Fummins, who suggested to change the mechanic! Maybe you know of a different mechanic used to smaller or Japanese cars? Changing a bearing is a very basic task, and if you wanted to do it wrong, you would have to really try to do it the wrong way. That said, I have seen a DIY idiot on U-tube clobbering it out with a sledge hammer and then back in. He did more damage than anything without even knowing.
As Einstein said, the only thing limitless is the universe and human stupidity.

If I had to change a front or rear bearing, I would look to Yeepay for a suitable tool to pull it out and back in, and then do it myself, exactly as the Factory Service Manual (FSM) says. See sections 26-14 and 27-5. Picture of a typical bearing puller below.

[clover1680]

Thank you everyone for the feedback. My husband usually gets the wheel bearing and the mechanic puts it on. He (the mechanic) said he could only get it from Mitsubishi if we got the part through him (no he is not a Mitsubishi dealer). He told us this last time if we got the wheel bearing from Olympus they would at least warranty the work this time but we couldn't find the part anywhere locally and had to order it from Parts Geek and it is being shipped from Canada. I live in Northern Virginia. My husband bought most of the bearings from Rock Auto and got the one before this one from a different place locally. It would have been strange to me but acceptable to have to change each one once but now that we are on round 2 in the back I just thought I should try to see if there is an issue I wasn't aware of or something that anyone could think of that may be causing this because I don't want to get to number 7. We have been going to the same mechanic for 3 years since we got this car and haven't had any other issues with his work. Just wanted to provide more background information on the parts. We are waiting for the part now. I will let you guys know if I get to 7. I honestly hope not and I am still open to suggestions and ideas. Also to be more specific about the part we are ordering and replacing the whole wheel hub with the bearings not just the the bearings. The mechanic charges less to replace the whole hub than to do just the bearing because I guess it is less work/time.

[Fummins]

The rear hub is the drum. The wheel bearing is pressed into the drum. You can buy drums with the wheel bearings already installed but have to shop around to find a good deal. My work was able to source complete drums with bearings and studs installed for pretty cheap. Rockauto had them for sale a while back. There are two different size drums, 2014-2015 are smaller than 2017 and newer, you'd have to look up the sizes if you went that route as lots of drum mfgs don't know there are 2 different sizes and list 2014-2020 as being the same...
Here, $50usd a drum and it looks like the wheel bearing is already installed. Just have to see if the magnetic abs ring is there, if not it has to be re-used from the old drums. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...pt=1744&jsn=12

[Top_Fuel]

...Also to be more specific about the part we are ordering and replacing the whole wheel hub with the bearings not just the bearings.

Are you talking about the front and rear wheel bearings when you mention replacing the whole wheel hub?

Are you replacing the entire front knuckle assembly instead of just replacing the wheel bearing? If so, post the brand and part number if you can. I wasn't aware that anyone (in North America) was selling complete front knuckle assemblies for a Mirage.

The mechanic charges less to replace the whole hub than to do just the bearing because I guess it is less work/time.

It's a lot less grief to just replace the entire front knuckle assembly than to disassemble the old knuckle to replace the wheel bearing.