My daughter has an 03 Grand Cherokee wagon, the dealer has diagnosed it to have a bad front wheel bearing. What does it take to remove and replace the "Hub & Bearing" ?
What is the chance one could go bad with only 50,000 miles?

As always, thanks for the assistance
Doug

I would jack it up and shake the wheel up and down to see for myself.. Is it making a squealing or grinding noise? Why did the dealer look at it in the first place?
Big JIm <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

My daughter says there is a grumbeling noise, thats why it went to the dealer. I just hope they diagnosed the correct side.

Grumbling noise sure sounds from here like a wheel bearing.. To check it out yourself jack it up and fool around with each tire. Could be the axel nut just needs tightning.. Or might be the races are still good and only the bearing itself needs replacing..
Big JIm <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

Grumbling is a pretty sure sign of a bad bearing. The bearing is a one-peice "unit bearing" and yes, sometimes they go bad prematurely. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> They are not servicable. It's happened to me, and it was on a vehicle with around 60K miles on it.
CJ

Thanks for the reply,
What do you mean by "Not Serviceable"? I hope you mean you have to replace the bearing & hub assembly .
So my next question is can you do the repair in your drive way, and what tools do you need??

Thanks Again
Doug

By "not servicable" I mean the whole hub/bearing assembly has to be replaced as 1 peice. It's a driveway job, but no fun. Alot of times the bearing assy. is rusted/frozen/stuck in the knuckle, and does not wanna come out. It's held in by three bolts, but also has a sort of "press fit" in the knuckle. A friend of mine found that if you use an old worn out brake rotor, and bolt it on backwards in place of the existing rotor, you can wail on it with a BFH and sometimes that will persuade the stubborn bearing to let go. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" /> Or you could use a slide-hammer on it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />
Or you could pay someone to do it. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />
CJ

Mine went out at 60k and I just did the same one again at 110K . It was a Timken brand from checker.Only a 1 year gaurantee.( 4 years has passed) this time it was $165, bearing only.Also you will need a large metric socket,a bearing puller and it might come right off. Then again I live in AZ and I have experience at it now!!!!