[L.Turner]

In nearly 47 years of driving, and owning dozens of various vehicles, I think I can count on one hand the total number of wheel bearings I have had to replace in all of those 47 years. Yet, just since February of THIS YEAR, I can almost fill up that one hand with the number of wheel bearings I've had to have replaced on this ONE vehicle!

Is the design and manufacturing so inept as to disallow a few bumps and pot holes so that these wheel bearings can't take a little bit of punishment? I do put a lot of miles on a car due to my job. But, FOUR wheel bearing replacements within 20K miles???

 

[ImperialCrown]

There is a problem and it's not the bumps and potholes. Are they the front wheel bearings going bad?
Make sure that the ground straps between the front struts and the inner fender are present and intact.
Too many times these rot off or break off and allow an electric charge to pass from race to race though the rollers instead of from the suspension to the body like it should, eventually killing the bearing.
Be sure that all your underhood engine, transaxle, battery and body grounds are clean and secure as well.
When pressing (never hammering) the new bearing into the hub and knuckle, no load must be placed on the rollers as the dings left in the races will shorten the bearing life. Use a quality name brand bearing.

 

[djsamuel]

4 wheel bearing replacements in 20K miles is NOT normal. I replaced mine at 138,000 miles, nad I am currently over 230,000 miles and they're still fine. Something else is going on. Check the grounding strap that ImperialCrown mentioned, although that still seems pretty quick to fail even if that strap is broken.

 

[L.Turner]

I will definitely take the car in to the shop this week and have them check out all of this. I have an extended warranty on this car as it now is just under 70K total miles and the warranty is good up to 125K. I'm really glad now that I opted in on this warranty plan!

One of these bearing replacements was done after I was rear-ended a few months ago and noticed the problem immediately upon getting the car back from the shop. They still argue that the collision did not cause this but, since it could not be proven that it didn't AND due to the fact that I had had the car in for an inspection just a week before the collision, they went ahead and did the work anyway. Other than that, three of these have been done since I bought car near the end of February.

I'll let you all know the outcome of the inspection this week.

 

[djsamuel]

Please do let us know the outcome. There is definitely something going on here.

Good luck!

Doug

 

[L.Turner]

OK...with the holidays coming up at the last post, and, with a few other things that took precedence over this, I FINALLY got the car into the shop earlier today.
I knew that the front brakes needed to be replaced and decided to hold off taking the car to the shop until I could replace the rotors and pads...which I did last week. I wanted to make sure that the front end noise wasn't from the tab on the brake pads scraping the rotor. It wasn't.
Took the car in and dropped it off first thing this morning.
A few hours later got the verdict: Wheel Bearing needs replacing.
This is now the 4th bearing that's gone bad since I picked up this car one year ago this month. I did copy and print the above response about needing to check the ground system and gave that to the mechanic for consideration.
They did promise me that they are using genuine Mopar Parts from the Chrysler Parts Department and not some 3rd party OEM parts.

I'm also having to have an ignition coil replaced. I've been noticing some uneven idling when the car is in park or neutral. Then, last week the C/E light came on.

One thing I'm thankful for is that CarMax personnel convinced me to go ahead and purchase the extended warranty for this car. As it stands, my cost will not exceed $200 out of pocket for all the work being done. And, in addition, I get the use of a rental while the car's in the shop. The warranty is good for 6 years or 125,000 miles on the Odometer. I now have just under 73,000 on the odometer and plan to go ahead and trade this car in in about two years and get another car with the same warranty.

 

[dana44]

Thanks for the partial update. This is not a normal thing, and definitely not normal for a PT Cruiser, that's for sure.

 

[L.Turner]

Got word that the car is ready to go again. They had to replace both the bearing and the hub. It also needed an ignition coil for the Check Engine light. I'm going to specifically have to check if this is the same bearing going out all the time. Whatever the case, it's #4 since I got the car last Feb.

 

[dana44]

Has the repair shop indicated why so many wheel bearings are going out? Possibly the hub was damaged?

 

[ImperialCrown]

Have they verified the presence of the front body-to-strut ground wires? I agree that the technicians are missing something here. Must find the cause instead of throwing wheel bearings at it.

 

[dana44]

Yep. With the grounds, it was found with the front wheel drive cars quite a while ago that if proper grounding isn't done up there, the ground somehow makes its way through the front wheel bearings, the passenger side first, for some reason. As weird as this may sound, front right is usually the first one to go out. You did say your Cruiser was in an auto accident, rear-ended, right? Wonder what kind of tweak could have occured to alter the grounding.

 

[L.Turner]

Been busy the past few days with RLI. Among those is that the CE light came back on Saturday evening just about 24 hours after I'd picked up the car from the shop. So, it's back to the shop Wednesday a.m.
And, yes, they did confirm the presence of the ground straps. I specifically told them to make sure of this.
And, yes, it's the same front right wheel that had to have the bearing and hub replaced. The damage to the hub was discovered after the bearing was removed.....or, at least during the removal of the bearing. That resulted in the car being in the shop an additional day for the part to be ordered and delivered.
Also, yes, the car was rear-ended last May. That resulted in several weeks of me complaining about a noisy drive until it finally got attention during the 60K Maintenance Check.

At present, the car is driving very quiet again except for the rough idle and a bit of rough engine vibration due to what possibly is either another failing ignition coil, OR, maybe even a connection that came loose from the one that was replaced. Perhaps, even, the replacement is bad.

The rough idle is more apparent when in Park or Neutral and tends to level out when put into gear. It is an automatic that I have.

 

[dana44]

I think you are right about there being some kind of residual damage from that rear-ending accident, just don't know what it could be, but something is out of alignment or pinching underneath and up front. I wonder if there is something like a transaxle misalignment of some sort, and with the bearings and groundings, it is re-routing in some manner, maybe the lower control arm is tweaking and ground has changed. Way too many wheel bearings, which might also identify a coil grounding differently. I have seen the goofiest things make weird things happen, like a small copper wire clipping fall in an odd location and keep a car from starting, or a tail light being loose fry an electrical system but still run but have to disconnect the battery to keep the interior lights from running the battery down.

 

[djsamuel]

I agree 100% with dana44. Perhaps the damaged hub is the key this time. As far as the rough idle, the idle on my PT was getting rough. I also was experienced oil consumption. Based on input here on Allpar, I replaced the PCV and make up air hoses, obtained a Chrysler PCV valve to replaced the aftermarket one I had and got the flow restrictor for the make up line. Not only has my oil consumption returned to normal, the car idles MUCH better. Just a thought. Then again, a bad coil could very well still be the issue.

 

[L.Turner]

I agree 100% with dana44. Perhaps the damaged hub is the key this time. As far as the rough idle, the idle on my PT was getting rough. I also was experienced oil consumption. Based on input here on Allpar, I replaced the PCV and make up air hoses, obtained a Chrysler PCV valve to replaced the aftermarket one I had and got the flow restrictor for the make up line. Not only has my oil consumption returned to normal, the car idles MUCH better. Just a thought. Then again, a bad coil could very well still be the issue.

I appreciate the replies.

As for you, Doug, was your CE light on during this? That's one of the reasons the car got put in the shop last week. They did replace the #3 Ignition Coil and the CE light was off for just over 24 hours after I got it back. It's been on ever since. The PCode on this points to fuel system stuff as well as an O2 sensor. I even double-checked to make sure my gas cap was getting put on correctly and securely. But, the light's been on since Sat. evening. Car's going into the shop at 7:30 this morning.

 

[ImperialCrown]

A PCV valve by itself shouldn't trigger a 'ck eng' light, but may affect idle quality and oil consumption as stated.
Your actual 'P' codes would be useful to know for diagnostic help.
Was the #3 coil replaced for a #3 misfire (P0303)?
Was the fuel-related code for an evaporative emission leak? Evaporative codes shouldn't affect driveability.

 

[djsamuel]

Sorry, I thought the CEL was out but rough idle remained. I was getting the CEL for misfire, but then changed my spark plug wires. That took care of the misfire and the CEL. The idle was still rough though, and definitely not a misfire at that point, but really smoothed out after changing the PCV hardware.

 

[L.Turner]

Doug, the CEL did go out for just 24 hours and came back on.
I got word from the shop that they're having to do a carbon flush. It has to remain overnight before they can complete that tomorrow. So, at this time it could be a cat converter all the way up to, I guess, a sticking valve and anything in between.

They did do a code check but I didn't get it written down.

 

[ImperialCrown]

Sounds like it's back to a misfire code if they are decarbonizing it. The #3 cyl again?

 

[djsamuel]

Doug, the CEL did go out for just 24 hours and came back on.
I got word from the shop that they're having to do a carbon flush. It has to remain overnight before they can complete that tomorrow. So, at this time it could be a cat converter all the way up to, I guess, a sticking valve and anything in between.

They did do a code check but I didn't get it written down.

Its a good thing you have the warranty on this. Did this misfire occur before the accident? Just wondering if it turns out to be the converter if some internal damage to it may have occurred when the car was hit.

Just trying to think why you're having so many problems, since it is so unusual.