Continually Rear Bearing Failures

I have change the axle bearings in my truck twice (about 170K miles on it). Both times I have used Toyota parts. I pulled the axles and had the Toyota dealer press them on. The first replacement lasted about 35K before they got noisy again. Now I am just over 30K on this second set and the RR is making noise again at higher speeds. I had the brakes apart yesterday and spinning the hub the right rear seems to make some noise.

Is there are reason I keep getting noisy bearings on my truck? Could the axle shafts be damaged? I love my truck and it has been bulletproof other than the rear axle bearings. I have never had a single rear axle bearing failure on any of my previous RWD cars and trucks and these Toyota ones are super expensive and pain to change.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

No, the seals are good, no leaks. That's the only thing I am thinking is the flange or shaft got slightly tweaked. Just looking for things to check or want to see if others have had similar issues.

 

I would bet on the shaft or the housing not being straight.

 

Are you sure its the bearing and not the rear rotor rubbing the backing plate?

 

I an absolutely sure it's not the rotor - I have dealt with that issue before too. If the flange was tweaked it could have been by the installer if he made a mistake on the press. However, I am not getting any vibrations or any other issues. The housing could be bent, but I rarely carry heavy loads with the truck, so it would be strange that would be it.

Any tips on how to check this stuff for being true? I assume a dial indicator for the flange, not sure on the axle or housing.

Any other ideas one why these bearings keep failing. It is very frustrating.

 

Bump. Any other thoughts?

 

I second the idea that the housing or flange could be tweaked. A flange will usually show up in other places, like a tire that seems to always need balancing, or that tire wearing a little funny. But that depends on the severity of the bent flange. A friend of mine owns a driveline shop and he’s had to bend back entire housings that were chewing through bearings. He was able to fix it with a few external welds to the housing to heat it up in one direction. The axle has been bent by someone spinning donuts one wintry night and tagging a curb pretty hard.

A second thought would be your tire and wheel setup. Do you run a small or negative offset wheel and or large tire? Or even just aftermarket wheels? Or a bent wheel that gets balanced out at the tire shop? It’s a rarity considering the beef of the rear axle.

Third would be fluid contamination or breakdown. How often do you change the rear diff fluid? And what do you put back in? I try to change mine every 30k but my truck works hard. It also lives outside in the cold which takes a toll on fluid going from -20 to full stress with a big heavy trailer.

Another thing that can cause issues with the fluid is a stuck or broken axle breather letting moisture in to the housing. Assuming you don’t have a boat that you launch regularly, that’s usually how moisture gets in to the housing.

 

The alignment bar ColoradoTj mentioned above is how my buddy identified the bent housing. He’s got a couple of them but it makes a bent housing very apparent. Having a drivetrain shop setup the axle with the alignment bar isn’t cheap, but not usually any more than having the bearing swapped out.

 

To answers your questions, I haven't owned since new, but I have for the last 10+ years. It was company truck when leased for the first few years. I have mostly carried light loads, below the payload. Maybe once or twice I have carried a really heavy load, like sand for the kids sandbox, but that was many years ago and I don't think it was overloaded. The fluid is changed as per Toyota's recommendations and always a synthetic - Royal Purple or Castrol.

Unfortunately there are no driveline shops anywhere near me. And you are right I probably won't buy that tool at that price. I almost feel like just buying a entire low mileage rear end and swapping, but even those are super pricey and I don't want to swap unless I know the problem for sure.

 

You could get a used axle (the whole thing from rotor to rotor) from a junk yard for around $800

 

As for a used unit, make damn sure the gear ratio matches your front differential.