Steering issue, please help !

[Fester's Quest]

Kornhead

"Poor" is the keyword here. I don't knock your work so don't knock mine. I came here for friendly conversation.

[Fester's Quest]

There is a shim kit available for the front bearings. Get one and do it right! The search function is your friend!

Get the right setup on there and the bearings will last for years.

BTW, the spacer is specific to the hub it is on and cannot be switched, I say this as maybe when you had your bearings changed, the spacers may have gotten switched. The spacers have to stay with the hub they were with.

I'll see about getting one. when i first bought the car, the previous owner took the spacer out and left it that way, that was a shocker !

[crazyrog17]

I'm kind of surprised nobody has mentioned sway bar bushings. They keep the wheel from moving front to back, which would happen when torque is applied by gas or brakes. Check both the bushings at the LCA and under the rad support.

[Fester's Quest]

I'm kind of surprised nobody has mentioned sway bar bushings. They keep the wheel from moving front to back, which would happen when torque is applied by gas or brakes. Check both the bushings at the LCA and under the rad support.

Thats what i thought it was when the problem first started happening. i changed the lca's and greased the bushings under the radiator, tourqing them down tight, but no luck there.

[koRnhead]

Simply put, it is poor work, whether you have the correct size or not, with a grinder you simply cannot make the spacer needed. Did you succeed in making one, yes most definitely! I give you props for that. But you did not succeed in making one that would stop your bearings from toasting themselves.....hence the "poor" part. Not a knock on you. But find a shop with a lathe and have em turn one for you. Or order the kit and get the one you need.

[Bert]

Thanks for the help everybody !

I'm going to be replacing the wheel bearing tonight. Luckily the Timkens i got from Autozone had a one year warranty. So it looks like i'll just have to do this repair on a yearly basis. I wish i had a new spacer but i have no idea where to buy one. I've been using a spacer that was fabed from an old inner race.. ugh ! Seems like i heard somewhere that a Kia Rio spacer would work, but couldn't track down a specific year or part number for it.

Looking forward to hearing that you simply and successfully replaced your front bearings, even more so to hear about all this 5000 miles from now.

[Fester's Quest]

Looking forward to hearing that you simply and successfully replaced your front bearings, even more so to hear about all this 5000 miles from now.

Me too, lol. This is the same repair method that i used on this wheel before it badly needed to be replaced 18,000 miles later. 10,000 miles of which were wobble free. it's a yearly fix at best. Woot for warranties !

So this shim kit i've been hearing about works pretty good ?

[FestYboy]

it's the only real way to do it.... each knuckle requires it's own custom fit shim, you can't swap shims from another knuckle. due to the machining process at the factory, the gap between the inner and outer races varried and would thus change the preload on the bearings had a standard shim been used (susequently ruining the bearing prematurely).

[Fester's Quest]

Thanks for the info about the shims !

Every time the wheel bearing goes bad it warps the rotor and i just fixed that problem with a hammer, lol. I can't believe how well it worked ! No wobbles at all.

[drddan]

I'll see about getting one. when i first bought the car, the previous owner took the spacer out and left it that way, that was a shocker !

:shock:

Not the first time i've heard that

Another thing is to get hubs from a JY festy and have the bearings done, and install them!

[MasterTec]

After grinding it down to size, i measured it with a micrometer.

I know i'll keep eating bearings but since Timkens have a warranty, i don't mind doing it once a year. I'm glad that my rotors have a warranty too since it warps them every time the bearing goes bad as well.

On a side note, I recently found out that O' Reillys price matches with Rockauto.com and i got my lower control arms for a third of the price !

Parts stores love me

I despise that attitude, "Let the manufacturer continue to pay for me incorrectly installing their parts".. and even worse - doing so knowingly! Their warranty is supposed to cover defective workmanship, not incorrect installation. As a professional technician I am dis-gusted by your attitude and I hope that the parts stores refuse to honor the warranty.

Do us all a favor and either do the repair correctly or quit talking about it. You sound like you're almost proud of yourself for this!

[Fester's Quest]

I despise that attitude, "Let the manufacturer continue to pay for me incorrectly installing their parts".. and even worse - doing so knowingly! Their warranty is supposed to cover defective workmanship, not incorrect installation. As a professional technician I am dis-gusted by your attitude and I hope that the parts stores refuse to honor the warranty.

Do us all a favor and either do the repair correctly or quit talking about it. You sound like you're almost proud of yourself for this!

Wow.. sorry.

Our differences here are a matter of opinion about corporations, but i wont open that can of worms here. My beliefs are far from whats considered "normal"