hey any of you guys with 18"+ rims having problems with your wheel bearings? mine recently started to make this grinding sound when i hit the brakes to slow down at stop signs.. i took it in to get it checked, thinking it was my brakes, but they said that it was actually my wheel bearings and that it might be from the stress of having 18" rims on my car..good thing the guy was a big help and got the parts in on warantee, so i didnt have to pay an arm and a leg.

SinZz--

 

If it has anything to do with the wheels; it's not because they're 18's, it's because they're damn heavy.
Glad you were able to get some of it covered under warranty.

 

ya i posted a topic w/ the same problem. i thought it might of been the brakes to but i didnt take it in. I ended up taking off my front wheels cuz the niose was coming from the front especially the driver side. I fixed it the old fashion way by banging on the axle,rotor and brakes a little (with my hand so no need to worry ) after i put my wheels back on the noise went away. its been about 3 weeks to a month so.

Good info on knowing that it might be the wheel bearings. I'm guna be redoing my xbizzie and was going w/ Boss 338 wheels i know those wheels are going to be"real" heavy so now might buy'em just to have 4 shows.

 

hmm.. so i guess im not the only one..but still.. there are quite a lot of xb's here with 18+ wheels.. anybody else have problems with the wheels?

SinZz--

 

Cionide, what do you think about offset too? I've been thinking about this, and I imagine it's like holding a barbell in the middle vs. holding it on one end. I would imagine it would have to be a pretty severe offset change, but even a moderate one would impact the bearings over time. What do you think?

 

I made the "heavy" comment more as a joke. If the wheels are balanced and proper hub rings are used, the wheel weight shouldn't be an issue.

For the size and weight of wheels most people use, along with the mild changes to offset, there shouldn't be any bearing problems. If anybody is that worried, just inspect & repack your bearings at the 30k, 60k, 90k, etc. services.

The biggest concern for bearing wear is not using hubcentric rings on the new wheels, or driving on wheels/tires that are out of balance. When an out of balance wheel spins on the hub, it puts differing pressures on the bearings that can become extreme as speed increases... very bad.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

 

thats what one of the mechanics said when they were fixing my bearings..its either out of balance or unaligned. so im going to get my car realigned and check the balance on the rims..see if anything's off.

SinZz--

 

I just saw this as an issue on the XB1 forum. That thread is over a year old.

Seems like lots of XB1's are having the rear wheel bearings go bad and they use the same POS wheel bearing hub on the XB2..

Something to watch for!!!

Just checked our XB1 26K miles and with the wheels and brake drum off, the hub is smooth to turn, but stiff... like there is no grease in them or something. They are sealed units and over $250 from the dealer, $120 from amazon

 

My car makes this noise too. I have 20's but its only been just recently and now with the cold weather its not making the noice anymore. Im going to repack the bearings asap.

 

I think i have the same issue? i have TRD's i will be taking it in for a check up.

 

my xb does the same i thought it was the brakes. i have factory option 16s...

 

At what mileage point are you seeing this??

I went with aftermarket 16's, have them balanced every 10k, and used hubcentric rings.

 

I also went with aftermarket 16's (hub-centric), but my focus is on the alignment, not the balance. I only rebalance if something changes on that wheel.