Friday’s features repair is Wheel Bearing Replacement on a 2005 Subaru Outback 3.0R.
Wheel bearing replacement may be required for a couple of reasons: first is a worn out bearing causing a loud noise while driving down the road. Second is play in the bearing. Play in the bearing may also be accompanied by road noise.
A noisy wheel bearing will be very evident to the driver: it’s usually a loud humming noise which increases in volume as the vehicle’s speed increases. Bearing play will not be noted until the vehicle is inspected on a hoist.
Our client’s Subaru suffered from a very loud bearing noise which we traced to the front left of the car.
The bearing on this car is typical of many modern vehicles in that it is a unitized bearing and hub assembly. The bearing is completely sealed and bolted onto the hub. Cost of unitized bearing/hub assemblies are higher than just the bearing but are less labour intensive to install and thus lower the labour costs.
Our featured Subaru is a 3.0R model which has the H6 boxer engine. This is a very smooth and powerful engine but lacks the “snaky” acceleration of the 2.5 L turbocharged engine.
For more on the Subaru Outback check out this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_Outback
