Front wheel bearing question

[mikeb]

I learned in auto shop eons ago to tighten the wheel bearing nut pretty good and then to spin the rotor to force the grease out from under the rollers, and then to back off the nut to the first castellation and insert the cotter pin. The reason for backing off one castellation is to leave room for the bearings to expand when they get hot. I've been doing it that way for 35 years now.

So i took my expedition up to have the front end aligned and they told me that the wheel bearings needed to be replaced. I wasn't about to pay them to do that job (THEY replaced the wheel bearings last time I had an alignment done and it's been about 1-2 years since they did that; hell anything is possible and they might have been bad) so i swapped the bearings and took it back up there. They called me again and told me that the bearings needed to be replaced - WTF?? I JUST finished replacing them. I picked up my expedition WITHOUT having them do the alignment.

Out of curiosity i pulled out the chiltons and checked the procedure, which was almost the same as I did except after backing off the nut you tightened it up finger tight and put in the cotter pin.

I've had the alignment done multiple times at that shop with my "loosely" adjusted wheel bearings before with no issue.

I'm thinking that there is a front end guy there that's making money hanging parts.

I am thinking about complaining to the corporate headquarters but i want to check myself first. Has the procedure for repacking wheel bearings really changed on newer cars?

[JC316]

I learned in auto shop eons ago to tighten the wheel bearing nut pretty good and then to spin the rotor to force the grease out from under the rollers, and then to back off the nut to the first castellation and insert the cotter pin. The reason for backing off one castellation is to leave room for the bearings to expand when they get hot. I've been doing it that way for 35 years now.

So i took my expedition up to have the front end aligned and they told me that the wheel bearings needed to be replaced. I wasn't about to pay them to do that job (THEY replaced the wheel bearings last time I had an alignment done and it's been about 1-2 years since they did that; hell anything is possible and they might have been bad) so i swapped the bearings and took it back up there. They called me again and told me that the bearings needed to be replaced - WTF?? I JUST finished replacing them. I picked up my expedition WITHOUT having them do the alignment.

Out of curiosity i pulled out the chiltons and checked the procedure, which was almost the same as I did except after backing off the nut you tightened it up finger tight and put in the cotter pin.

I've had the alignment done multiple times at that shop with my "loosely" adjusted wheel bearings before with no issue.

I'm thinking that there is a front end guy there that's making money hanging parts.

I am thinking about complaining to the corporate headquarters but i want to check myself first. Has the procedure for repacking wheel bearings really changed on newer cars?

First rule, alignment shops will say ANYTHING is bad to get a sale. I had them tell me my perfectly good ball joints were bad. I asked them to show me and suddenly they weren't that bad anymore.

[94mstng94]

Sounds like they pulled your history, checked previous recommendations, and recommended them again without verifying the work had been performed elsewhere. Ahh... The signs of an un-trained parts changer.