General vehicle thread

[Irving]

How delicate are wheel bearings now a days?

The driver front wheel bearing on my van is getting noisy. I've been noticing it for a few days (July 8th) and just diagnosed on Saturday. I've got the part ordered and it was supposed to be here today, but it doesn't look like it's going to make it tonight. This is not the bad wheel bearing sound that I'm used to where if you load the bearing by making a turn it gets louder. It is consistent through out and only changes based on speed.

Based on my experience having bad wheel bearings in the past, they can go awhile before total failure. This seems to be increasing in noise since I've noticed. I've got to drive about 500 miles tomorrow and I'm concerned that I'm going to strand myself in the middle of nowhere. Should I try and take a different vehicle?

I suppose I could see if a local shop has one, buy it, take it with me in case I need to do a road side repair, and return when I get back. To answer the obvious question, I'm not sure if I'll need my big ladder tomorrow or not, and the big ladder won't fit on my other vehicle.

As a side note, fuck you Amazon and Colorado, because Rock Auto will no longer ship to my address.

[Irving]

On an unrelated topic, I try to use synthetic oil in my van and shoot for 5,000 mile oil changes. I realized I've never actually checked to see if the engine is leaking or burning oil between changes. This time around I was getting late on my oil change and was getting a bit nervous. Turns out I shouldn't have been because not only was the oil level just right, but I don't think I've EVER seen oil this clean at an oil change, and this was at 6,400 miles. Van has 230,000+ miles on it. Well done Dodge.

[ray1970]

I run my company trucks 10-15K between oil changes. Never had any problems. Oil is a lot more scientific than it was back in the day.

[Irving]

Do you do 8 hour drives on loud wheel bearings though?

Seeing that picture again (even though I just took it this weekend) makes me think I should try a 10,000 oil change and see how it goes. Paying $40 for an oil change sits a lot better if it's 10,000 miles. Hell, that's only like once a year on my wife's car. Too bad my Amigo eats oil or it'd be a once every 2-3 years on that car.

[ray1970]

Do you do 8 hour drives on loud wheel bearings though?

No way. That?s just crazy.

[Irving]

Well, hopefully you'll be near Holly, CO tomorrow, cause I've got your number.

[brutal]

Do you do 8 hour drives on loud wheel bearings though?

Seeing that picture again (even though I just took it this weekend) makes me think I should try a 10,000 oil change and see how it goes. Paying $40 for an oil change sits a lot better if it's 10,000 miles. Hell, that's only like once a year on my wife's car. Too bad my Amigo eats oil or it'd be a once every 2-3 years on that car.

Miles or time. And time to me means every six months. I put on maybe 5-6K at most on my truck and it gets changed twice a year. Going into towing season, and before winter. The oil will accumulate water and if it's not driven enough to cook it off, it will continue to contaminate the oil.

[Irving]

That's what I do with the Amigo. I'll change the oil every 14 months or so, and it's always at like 2,000 miles.

[Spdu4ia]

Guess I won?t be driving this car this week. New tires on the way .

[brutal]

Guess I won?t be driving this car this week. New tires on the way .

I'd be getting an alignment as well.