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Rear hub ass'y replaced: Already going out <5000 miles

4K views 26 replies 11 participants last post by  PLRX 
#1 ·
Hi guys. This is my first post on the Focus Fanatics forum so I hope I'm not starting a new thread unnecessarily. Anywho, I just recently replaced the hub assembly for both sides in the rear pretty recently. (less than 5000 miles ago) and that unmistakable drone starting coming from the rear again. If it means anything, I got the hub assemblies from autozone and they're duralast brand. could this perhaps be an alignment issue? Thanks for any feedback.
 
#2 ·
Welcome to our site.

When it comes to bearings for our cars, ONLY buy Motorcraft.

All others tend to fail pretty quickly.
 
#9 ·
Proper torque is very important. Not enough and it allows the bearing to fail early. If I remember right the rear drum takes a lot of torque, more than my torque wrench could read. I wanna say it's 181ft lbs but don't quote me on that.
 
#10 ·
171 ftlbs FWIW

But some say 173ftlbs.

That's a lot of torque wench [wrenchin]
 
#27 ·
I agree, 173 Ft-Lbs is correct.
 
#15 ·
175-200 works just fine, the car will never know the difference in 10 pounds at torque that high.

It MUST be close on that range (I use 200) or the bearing will shell out in 5 minutes. Simply getting it 'tight' absolutely will not cut it there. The high torque guarantees the bearings are firmly locked together as one part with axle, lower torque lets the bearings wobble slightly and junk city in minutes.

I use the nut over until I feel it give while pulling up to torque, some last twice, some last more, I haven't replaced them yet because they still pull up tight.
 
#17 ·
When I take the rear drums off to check the brakes, I always tighten them down to the highest setting my torque wrench will read, which is 150 ft-lbs. Yes, the manual does say 180-200 I think. However, I have yet to have any issues on either my 2000 or my wife's 2008 and she has over 90 on her car already.

Just hand tightening them is a no-go. The spec may be more, but 150 feels PLENTY tight enough. Going with the spec won't hurt either.

Just my .02.
 
#20 ·
I would consider the fact that rolling drum on the last final tighten means that you are exerting torquing force also into the rear suspension in the form of twistup load, that amount of load will be subtracted from your actual nut torque regardless of what your wrench says. Meaning you won't have full torque there....

From like 75 ft. lbs. on up I have wheel bolted on, car on ground, brakes and engine on and someone standing on brake. The only way to guarantee pretty much full torque on nut itself.
 
#21 ·
What is this twistup load you refer to?

Your torque wrench will click (or display) the correct torque setting, even if the fastener you are tightening is on spring loaded suspension parts that compress under the load of the wrench.

If you put the wheel on the ground to do the final torquing, you are possibly harming your bearings during install. You will not be able to spin the drum during the torquing. Having the brakes on is another issue.
 
#22 ·
That is unfortunate. My wifes 2000 Focus sedan has been running SKF brand rear hubs bought from napa for a long while now, no problems. I dont think motorcraft is necessary, but I know skf makes good stuff.

I did have to sand some rust off the spindle and applied a dab of anti-seize to keep the bearing from fusing/rusting to the the spindle again.
 
#23 ·
Think manual transmission, the total torque rating is shared by every part the power flows through and divides amongst them. Depending on how you fit the torque wrench in on nut (angle of attack mainly) the rear suspension can deflect some thus absorbing part of it. Same reason torque wrench manufacturers tell you never to put an hand on torque wrench head say using 1/2" fittings and six inch extension. When you load it, the whole thing can swing to one side and risk rounding off corners of bolt/nut. Human nature has you putting a hand on top of wrench head to steady it but doing so affects the torque since some is absorbed by your hand.

A torque wrench is nowhere near smart enough to know if you put all that power into just a nut or into everything else the nut was attached to. It just clicks to an given number. Put a wrench on front wheel bearings already installed say with atx in park, wheel free in air and twist load on the wrench and tell me how much load you just tried to put on the axle and parking lock inside trans, you can waste 25 ft.lbs. quicker than spit there just pulling all the looseness up solid.

I roll disc or drum while tightening maybe to 50+, after that the races have contacted, all you are doing is running up the force holding them together. Balls have done all the centering they are going to do.

If suspension components compress under the load, I assure you they ARE absorbing force, the wrench does not know that, all it reads is 'total' force, not everything force was applied to.

Having brake on does nothing, if bearing already run up partially, the brakes will have an easy .020" in sideways deflection front or rear before anything becomes a problem. At full torque runup you'll do well to get another thou out of the bearing. Even though brakes themselves are a force you are working against they force the torque to pretty much stay right there local to the nut.

Quick test of bearing after done, spin it, if there's a problem you'll know it. The balls better be right or the bearing was scrap to begin with. Never lost a one doing this, in fact they last forever.
 
#24 ·
twist-up load: he's referring to something else moving besides the nut or bolt you're torquing on. What it would be in this situation is that if you have the car jacked up by the subframe, then the suspension might be absorbing some of your torque instead of the nut. What should be done is that the suspension should be supported by a jack, and you should apply torque in a downward motion towards the jack so that there is no flexing of the suspension that might absorb some torque. If you torque upwards, or horizontally, then bushings or the springs will flex.
 
#25 ·
There you go, BTDT. There are ways of getting around the issue. Remember the angle of attack I mentioned? Simply a way to use the construction design of surrounding objects to aid you, not hurt you.

Look, there's 15 ways to skin a cat. I started doing this after observing how many times the torque did not seem very high at disassembly time. No way was there 175 ft.lbs. on nut then, maybe as low as 50 in some cases. I started looking for a way to guarantee the full torque amount. It seems to show, at disassembly now years later they seem to be tighter than they were before.
 
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