Took my 2wd Axiom in for it's 30,000 service and the tech said that the front wheel bearings were loose due to my lift and large tires. Ahhh the old mod causes damage speil. Is this possible? I'm only running the torsion bars cranked and 32.6 inch tires. The original tires were 29.5 inches. Could a measly 2 inches cause abnormal wheel bearing wear? I also have had the alignment completed twice.

Its entirely possibly. I've always felt that the front ends on 4x4s is stronger than a 2 wheel drive, but there are always exceptions to the rules. Depends on the types of bearings used, the materials they chose for the bearings. Anytime you upgrade to larger tires, you are putting more weight on something designed to support a certain amount of weight and to absorb certain impacts. Going from 29" to almost 33" tires is a big jump, but not too severe. This extra mass from the bigger tires also puts extra stress on the steering and suspension components. THis will cause bushings, bearings, balljoints seals etc to wear out faster. But thats they downside to larger tires. I know a guy who put 22" wheels on an 02 Chevy silverado with tires that he said came out to be 31" tall. He was replacing his second hub assembly. Yes, it was 4 wheel drive and lowered. His reasoning was the size of the wheel, my reasoning is bad driver. If you keep on the maintenance and check everything every so often, you will keep things from breaking and save money down the road, even if you are replacing parts. Personally, i would gladly pay the extra price to have larger tires, as long as it makes the vehicle look good. Personally I dont pay much attention to dealers. They do what it takes to make a buck, most of the time atleast. Replace and repack the bearings and be set for another 20-30K, but inspect them a little more often. Goodluck

Dan

Doubt the lift had anything to do with the wheel bearings being loose. The wife's van brand new from the dealer wore out a set of tires in 12,000 miles, had the tires replaced and the front end aligned under warranty. The tires on the front started wearing pretty good after about 2,000 miles so thought I would go ahead an rotate them myself. The wheels felt loose when I had the front end off the ground. I found the nut that holds the front rotors on the spindle could be tightened by fingers a half a turn on each side! Do not think that was normal. From the factory.

As far as going to larger wheels, the guys out at work have all bought the new Dodge pickups with the 20ö wheel option, both two and four wheel drive versions. They all have to have their rotors turned every 10k miles. Turns out the larger wheels causes the rotors to warp for some reason, these are factory wheels and tires causing this problem.

Your lift and larger tires did not loosen your wheel bearings. They were loose from the factory. This exact thing happened to my fathers stock Rodeo. He took it in for its first PA safety inspection (~2500mi) and the tech told him the bearings were loose. I tightened them up for him and its been fine ever since. Snug um' up and forget about them, they'll be fine.
Rich - Ashburn, VA

Well... This is one exception to the usual rule... Yes, the tires (not the lift) *could* cause the wheel bearings to act differently than usual. That being said, I highly, highly doubt it, but, no big deal, it takes like two seconds to fix, and you shouldn't pay them to do it, you should do it yourself. Make sure they don't try to pull the same crap when it comes to warranty issues, tho. That's the rule -- I guarantee you they'll try to say the lift and tires cause anything and everything to happen -- from suspension/wheel issues to trouble with your radio. Make sure you fight them when it comes to things that you KNOW couldn't *possibly* be caused from the lift and tires. Take it to the regional manager and beyond, whatever you have to do. The bottom line is, the wheels, tires and lift don't have a lot to do with ANY problems you might run into... Although wheel bearing issues *could* doubtfully be blamed on them... So fight it where it's NECESSARY and take care of your wheel bearings yourself...

HTH,
Chris

Actually wear on the wheel bearings can be caused by larger tires. Going around a corner you are putting lateral torque on the bearing. As you corner, the wheel will want to do this \ and the larger the tire, the more it will want to do that. That bearing is what keeps the wheels from doing that. At 30K, its about time for them to be check and repacked. Its not really torque, its moment about the center of that bearing, its similar to torque. The longer lever (taller the tire, the radius of it will be the lever arm) the more moment (torque) can be applied. Yes, these bearings are hardened steel, but theres just that possibility. Im probably totally off here, but I can see in my head how this works. Enough cornering force and you could stretch the threads that hold the bearing plate in place. On my rodeo this plate was no more than a 1/4" and were fine threads, but it could happen. When manufacturers design components they do so based on tire sizes, optional and standard. They design for the bigger tire size and when they put the smaller tire on, the design will actually have a higher factor of saftey. This factor of safety is what determines when a piece should fail. It takes into account for wear, sudden impacts and some things you might not expect. When I designed my control arms, i designed them with a factor of saftey of 3, meaning they would fail at approximately 3 times their rated load. My experiences have always been that 2wd bearings are smaller in diameter than 4wd bearings. That doesnt always make them weak, but it increases the lever arm, allowing more torque to be applied to that bearing. Imagine a lever from the bottom of the tire, to outer edge of the bearing. Its not very hard to get a few hundred ft lbs of torque on there by hand, imagine a vehicle with about 1000 pounds on that tire. Now imagine say 750 pounds pushing on the bottom of the tire towards the inside, and multiply that by say 15" and you have 937.5 ft-lbs of torque on that bearing. Now with a 29" tire you will have about 850ft-lbs. With that tire that is 3" taller you added almost 100 ft-lbs of torque. That will most definitely causes extra wear on a bearing. Again, I may be totally wrong here, but this is what I've been tought in classes and it makes sense to me.

Dan

Thanks everyone! I'll get the wrenches out and look at the bearings myself. I told the dealer that the repack should be part of the 30,000 but they said they only "lubricate" the wheel bearings at 30,000. I see... I'll take care of my own bears for now. Thanks again!
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No, Dan, you're totally on target, that's why I said that this is one thing that *could* actually be caused by the larger tires, and that's why there's no real reason to try to fight it. Pick your battles with the dealers -- don't let them win too much, but let them win when the situation warrants it. The only thing I would add to your post is that given the unequal a-arm lengths, when the tire goes like this \, so does the wheel bearing since it's contained within the same structure that holds the tilted wheel -- and they don't just *want* to go like that, they actually do it... And man, does it look scary when you're riding on 35's with 7 inches of lift, no swaybars, doing 70 through Glenwood Canyon on I-70. Someone out there has pictures of this... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" />