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Bad rear wheel bearings

146K views 284 replies 98 participants last post by  DrivenDaily 
#1 ·
Car: 2013 Malibu LTZ. Problem: We started noticing a steady drone which increased and decreased with vehicle speed. It didn't change with engine rpm or whether the A/C was on or off, etc. I immediately suspected wheel bearings, but what practically new car has the wheel bearings go out at 20,000 miles? Well, the answer is: this one. It was covered under warranty, but nevertheless, BOTH rear wheel bearings had to be replaced. I've had cars go over 200,000 miles without having to replace a wheel bearing. What's up with that? Anybody else have this problem?
kjhansen
p.s. accidently posted this to the "general" forum too. Belongs here.
 
#4 ·
Hello kjhansen,

I understand that you are experiencing a steady drone which increased and decreased with vehicle speed. I also understand that you are asking for your fellow forum members opinion on this situation. I might not be able to provide you any advice but I would be more than happy to look into this concern for you. Please private message me if I can be of any assistance.

Jennifer T.
Chevrolet Customer Care
 
#5 ·
That's disconcerting. I'm still dealing with my alignment fiasco (three visits to the dealership hasn't got my steering wheel pointing straight; have an appointment today at another shop), and I was pretty disappointed at even NEEDING an alignment after 28,000 miles of almost entirely highway. I generally go twice that mileage before needing alignment.

I assume you've covered bases like driving in water, or pulling a trailer, etc?
 
#6 ·
We don't pull a trailer and it hasn't rained enough around here in months to form a puddle. No, the wheel bearings (both of them!) just started making noise. Now I have a check engine light for Code P00B7, slow coolant flow. This could be even more major. We'll see. Back to the dealer.
 
#8 ·
Greetings,

I too have a rear hub bearing issue now. Not sure which one but I haven't put much effort into determining which one anyways. I have just under 41k miles and have also had cars go WELL beyond 100k up to 200k before hub bearings wore out. I suspected this issue was out of warranty but checked with my dealership to be sure and with the hope that they might have mentioned it being a known issue that GM was stepping up to take care of. At this point if I want it fixed I'm on my own apparently.
My last two vehicles went beyond 100k before needing ANY repairs with the exception of typical maintenance items. This probably explains why for nearly 40 years I could have bought a GM car under their employee discount but didn't until this one. I really like this car but this issue really taints the overall experience.
 
#10 ·
I have had a front one replaced but after checking the part numbers all four hubs are the same.If this many are going bad this soon maybe its something GM might want to take a look at before it becomes a BIG problem like other things they have overlooked in the past.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Since I posted this original question about the wheel/hub bearings, one of the replaced bearings (left rear) has also gone out. It started making noise at 29000 miles. So it had less than 11,000 miles on the bearing itself. Since the car is still under the original 36,000 mile warranty, this bearing was also replaced at no cost to me. However, there must be something that is causing these bearings to fail. The service desk at the local Chevy dealer was succinct: "Bad part," was all they said. Three bad parts in a row? I sent a letter to Chevy complaining about these failures and they did respond. They called and said (paraphrased) "So sorry," only it took them 5 minutes to say that. My thought is that the hub itself must be seating the bearing improperly or there is some other suspension problem that is accelerating wear on the bearing. Or maybe the torque spec is wrong in the repair manual, causing over- or under-tightening of the bearing. Maybe the hub is machined out-of-round... who knows. They shouldn't be failing so quickly.
My suggestion: Get an extended service contract (also called an extended warranty) on this car--or apparently ANY GM vehicle. Not through the dealer though. Typical dealer markup ranges from 100% to 200%. I have an extended service contract on my 2007 Buick Lucerne and it has paid for itself after four expensive problems. It's good until 100,000 miles and cost $1200. So I did have to pay to get those four problems fixed--I paid up front by purchasing the extended service contract, but any (covered) problems the car has now (80,000) until the car hits 100,000 miles will get fixed free. I got the contract through the credit union I financed the vehicle through.
 
#13 ·
Thanks for all the replies. I seriously started thinking of getting an extended warranty this morning as I listened to the ever increasing whine coming from the back. I really like this car and would like to keep it for a while. Since I'm a high mileage driver I'll have to pony up a little extra to cover the miles. I thought about asking the local repair shop that has done work I didn't want to do if they had any warranty recommendations.

I'm also thinking I will do this repair myself. It's my hope that I can get a Timken(or similar) from the local auto store that is superior to the junk GM is throwing on these cars. As someone confirmed another thought I had when I brought this to their attention; They'll just replace it with the same part that will prematurely fail.

I'll post more as this unfolds. As always, if anyone has anything to add, by all means do so. Thanks.
 
#14 ·
We also have a 2013 LTZ with 36,700 miles now. We have already had one front and one rear hub assembly replaced. We did get extended warranty through dealer ( I guess I should have researched the purchase of the extended warranty). Now we have a headlight out and was told since we are over the 36,000 miles and the extended doesn't cover lights, the headlight is on my dime. I said I would do it myself but not sure I can if it's HID. I haven't dug into it yet. My wife and I love the car but now worried about future. I thought too bearings should go a lot further.
 
#16 ·
Greetings all,

I decided yesterday to push this issue at the dealership. More for the fact that it has been eating at me that I feel I've been had than avoiding the cost of the repair. The service manager FINALLY admitted "yeah they're junk, we've replaced tons of them". So the general manager managed to talk me out of the do it yourself repair. I told him if someone else pays for the repair 100% I'm interested otherwise I'd rather do it myself and be done because the part they throw on there will likely prematurely fail. Meaning if we shared the cost, I threw good money at a temporary fix. We're suppose to revisit this on Monday.

I work for an OEM and I can tell you they ALL weigh the "risk vs reward" scenario. None of them are truly interested in absolute quality. It simply has to be "good enough" and that's based on the "risk vs reward" analysis. IE: cost, profit, liability, etc. Since no one is likely to die as a result of bad wheel bearings there's little incentive for GM to step up.

I'd be interested to know who make these bearings for GM.
 
#17 ·
Don't buy a GM or AC Delco bearing. You can buy a bottom of the line, made in China bearing for less than half what GM wants for theirs and I honestly can't say the GM bearing is any better. Or, find a Timken or SKF or some brand made in Germany and buy theirs. I wouldn't reward GM by purchasing their product at inflated prices for an inferior item.
 
#18 ·
I absolutely agree. Timken and SKF are exactly the brands I was targeting. As it stands now the dealership called and the repair is on someone else(GM/dealership). So while I am sure the bearing will fail I at least can get the repair done while the weather's nasty. Next one that fails I'll do myself as I expect it happen fairly soon given their track record. Hopefully at that time I will find temps much more hospitable for garage car repair.
 
#21 ·
Had a rear bearing replaced today @ 43K miles. Been making noise for a few thousand but finally got annoyed enough with it to finally have it replaced. Had to pay deductible on my GMPP, which I think is BS. Service tech acted like it was because of "hard driving" and not a widespread issue. It's still making noise so I'm thinking the other side has issues too which I'm taking it back in tomorrow for. I can't believe GM isn't replacing these as faulty parts. Bearings SHOULD NOT go bad at 43K miles. This is the first GM car I've owned, at this rate it will also be the last.
 
#23 ·
Ha! So I had that one replaced only to get in it and head down the road and hear the other rear one faintly whining. It's been close to a few weeks now and it's fairly loud now although the stereo is enough to hide it for now. So I called the dealership, specifically the service manager, the one that got the GM assistance on the replacement and he told me that GM only allows one per ninety days. I will likely replace this one myself with a quality part since we're reaching temps in the 50's and 60's.
But as someone recently noted, GM shouldn't be allowing petty assistance every ninety days but should be stepping up to correct a spate of bad parts they're so generously passing the burden (and sometimes the cost) on to us.
As 2013LTZinNashville pointed out, this also is the first GM car I've ever bought despite having access to the GM employee discount for the last 40 years. My wife and daughter both own GM cars recently purchased and have had good luck thus far. But they were purchased two/three years ago. I'm currently looking at other cars as I DO plan on moving on to another brand.
Oh, did I mention that I actually work for another OEM and passed on their lineup for this Malibu since it suited me better than my employer's cars.
 
#26 ·
Well, some updates: First, the Low Coolant Flow code I got was from a bad water pump. Incredible. What car has the water pump go out in under 30K miles? Or under 100K miles for that matter? But it was replaced under warranty... So we drove the car from Missouri to Arizona to visit family. The Change Oil warning came on, so we went to a Chevy dealer in AZ. They changed the oil for us without an appointment (thank you Chevy Dealer in Lake Havasu City, AZ), but also told us that the transmission was leaking around an axle shaft! We made it back to Missouri with no problems, but by now we have lost ALL CONFIDENCE in this vehicle, especially since it has less than 4000 miles left on the factory warranty, which is only 36000 miles. So we traded it in on a 2012 Buick Regal T. The Regal is a year older, but has a 4 year, 50,000 mile warranty with over 20000 miles left on it. We'll see if Buick is any better than Chevy.
 
#27 ·
So we traded it in on a 2012 Buick Regal T. The Regal is a year older, but has a 4 year, 50,000 mile warranty with over 20000 miles left on it. We'll see if Buick is any better than Chevy.
Isn't the Regal based on an Opel platform too?

I think what I would have done is to purchase a GMEPP warranty to extend the current warranty another 3 years and 36000 miles or so. Although it might have cost several hundred bucks, I would have the piece of mind and could have driven the car more years and gotten my money's worth out of it.

Be clear, I understand your frustration with the problems that have surfaced. However, they've been handled well by GM under your warranty, haven't they?

I would check on the cost of a warranty with an online seller of GMEPP warranty (the GMPP is being phased out in 2016 IIRC and it becomes harder for dealers to interface with the warranty people (now Ally) since GM is cutting the wire in favor of their GMEPP warranty). I have bought twice from Black Cadillac in PA, Edinburg or something like that online: once for 08 Cobalt and 14 Malibu. gmoutlet.com? That's where I learned that GMPP on my Cobalt will be harder for dealer as of 2016 because the direct connection will be lost. My Cobalt warranty expires in March 2016.

Might even check on cost of extending GMEPP for the Regal. Quotes must be given through direct contact, just like selling a car. Done by phone and internet forms. VIN and current mileage will allow them to give a quote. BTW, I have no connection with the online company I mentioned. I have been impressed both times purchasing. If I wanted to buy a Cadillac and lived within a couple hundred miles, I'd shop their store because the salespersons I have worked with are very professional.
 
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