My 07 Tacoma has had some fairly decently loud tire noise for some time. Replaced the tires, noise stuck around. Said "hrrrrm." Noticed noise goes away when turning right. Said "hrrrrm." Jacked each front wheel up today while letting oil drip during change. Left front wheel has no play, no abnormal noise. Right front wheel has a few degrees of viscous feeling play, and I can hear faint metal on metal and a light click. Said something worse than "hrrrm."

Pressed in bearings are so much fun, too. Won't be able to get to it for a few days, and still need to drive places. Guess I'll drive as slow as traffic permits, and listen for if the noise changes into something horrible. I've not had the experience of a wheel bearing failing on me before. Hopefully it will give notice before it locks up or chucks the wheel.

Not too pleased, but, first thing the vehicle has needed in 160k miles, so not too awful. Your driving advice, predictions of methods of failure, and good thoughts and prayers appreciated.

 

The only experience I have with wheel bearing failures is on one of my vehicles with an integrated wheel hub/bearing. It started making awful howling noises on turns, but other than that no real issues (such as wheel falling off, locking up, bursting into flames, etc).

 

bout 20 yrs ago or so we bought a 73 toro at a swap meet.i ended up driving it the 120 miles home.about halfway home and starting to get dark i start hearing this growling noise.kindof at the time determined that the right front wheel bearing was heading south.well about 20 miles later it seemed like i was starting to pull a trailer.i pull up to a stop sign and my buddy pulls up beside me and says "hey man that right front wheel has been throwing a nice shower of sparks for about 10 miles"well we were in the middle of nowhere and about 10 at night so said what the hell on we go.
well made it home stopped the car and went to bed.came out the next day and the car would not move the bearing was welded up tight.took it apart and torched the bearing off.put a new one in and everything was good to go.i figured we were gonna be replacing everything in there but just the bearing.

 

For a short time, I'm sure you will be fine. I'd put a junk tire on there so you don't ruin one of the new ones. That would be the worst outcome in the short run I would think. Don't wait too long. I'm sure it puts an extra load on the wheel hub, axle, and other joints.

 

Just don't drive it until the wheels fall off!

 

If your Tacoma is a 4WD or PreRunner, go to Tacomaworld.com and look at a guy that calls himself - nj636
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd...ever-save.html


You can buy a built up hub and bearing assy using quality parts. A little pricey at first glance, but the hub is usually grooved badly and has to be replaced, so figure all the parts and downtime along with press out/in and you can see the ease of plug and play. Hope this helps

 

New parts on the way, running a different vehicle. Thanks for all advice. I will try to get pictures of toasted bearing for entertainment.