Wheel Bearings Service Video

Wheel bearings carry the entire weight of your vehicle while letting each wheel spin freely on its spindle. When they wear, the first sign is usually a low hum at highway speed that changes pitch as you steer. This video shows what a wheel bearing does, how a worn one sounds and feels, and why ignoring it leads to a bigger repair.

A wheel bearing is a sealed set of hardened steel balls or rollers running between two races in grease. On most modern vehicles it is pressed into or bolted onto the hub assembly, which also carries the ABS sensor and wheel studs. When the seal fails, the rollers run dry and the hardened surfaces begin to pit.

A humming or growling that grows with speed and shifts when you change lanes is the classic sign. Salted winter roads around Grant County spray brine against the seal, and once it cracks, water washes out the grease. A failing bearing can also set an ABS light, which is why our axle repair service checks the hub and sensor together.

A wheel that feels loose when rocked top to bottom, or uneven tire wear on one corner, points the same way. Once pitting starts, the bearing cannot be rebuilt. Heat from a failing bearing can also damage the hub, the CV axle, and the ABS wiring.

Affordable Automotive Services puts the vehicle on the lift and checks each suspected wheel for play and noise with the tire spinning. Wheel bearing replacement is part of our suspension, steering, and wheel services, where the related parts matter as much as the bearing.

Once the failed bearing is confirmed, the hub assembly comes off and the ABS sensor is transferred or replaced. The new bearing or hub is torqued to specification, with the axle nut set to the manufacturer's figure. The repair is backed by our 5-year / 50,000-mile parts and labor warranty.

Call Affordable Automotive Services at (509) 764-0000 to have a suspected bearing checked. For Moses Lake car care that tracks down a noise instead of guessing, drivers from Warden, Othello, and Ephrata bring their vehicles to us.