The bearing nightmare.

For those of you that dont know the story so far, About 2 months ago, i had a local all-subaru shop (Stan's Service in York, PA) replace my bearings. About a week later they went bad again. I took them back to the shop, and they replaced the bearings again, no questions asked. The diagnosed cause was that the seals were damaged when replacing the bearings.

Now, a month after that, my bearings are yet again, bad. I called them this morning, and the reponse I got was that the housings were likly distorted, and im basically SOL. The explination I got from them was that by driving on the bad bearings the second time (after he fixed them the first time) I warped the housings, causing them to go bad the third time.

Now, this sounded somewhat fishy to me, so I called Lancaster County Motors Subaru (A very well respected Subaru Dealer in the area.) I had a long conversation with the service manager, who I know well from having my car serviced there over the years, and he said it is very unlikely that my driving with the bearings bad warped the housings, and that it is more likely the shop damaged the housings when pressing the bearings in and out.

Now, what do I do? The dealer quoted me around $1100 to replace the housings and bearings again. I simply dont have the money. Should I fight the small subaru shop, or park my car for the summer and use this as a learning expierance?

What to do, what to do...

-Mike

[Earthworm]

I believe that if someone else caused the problem then you shouldn't have to pay for it.

I would suggest calling a few other respectible Subaru dealerships until you have enough people tell you that the damaged was caused by the installation of the bearings. Then take this list of people to the place that installed your bearings and suggest they re-think their offer.

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by Earthworm
I believe that if someone else caused the problem then you shouldn't have to pay for it.

I would suggest calling a few other respectible Subaru dealerships until you have enough people tell you that the damaged was caused by the installation of the bearings. Then take this list of people to the place that installed your bearings and suggest they re-think their offer.

I concur. Likely, they won't be happy about it, but, be as cordial as you can until they get nasty. Then, drop them an envelope in the mail which contains the "expert" diagnoses, a cover letter outlining your explanation and expectations and a line that says that failure to comply would result in letters, containing the same information, to SOA, the BBB and the FTC.

[kuoh]

Just so you know, even SOA shops will resort to blaming the housing, which also could not possibly have been damaged by them even if they were the only ones that had anything to do with your car. I've gone through at least two passenger side housings, one paid by SOA, and one driver side. Apparently, they just sort of "fail because I did something or for no good reason" has been the usual response.

Perhaps one of you performance guys can break away from the 5 speed mod for a bit and look into a bearing mod?

KuoH

Sounds like someone overtorqued the lateral link bolt as described on Subaru's Endwrench site. This happened to me but an extended warrenty covered it. Go to www.endwrench.com then archives, then drivetrain, then insider info winter 2002. You might get some leverage. This is stuff they should know. B.

[svx_commuter]

Originally posted by Green1995SVX
and the reponse I got was that the housings were likly distorted, and im basically SOL.
-Mike

Can you get the old housings? We are talking about the part that bolts to the strut, Right? How can that get distorted unless they took it apart with a torch? That sounds like a bad practice to me. Isn't the hub and old bearings supposed to be pressed out? Would you inspect the old housing before pressing in the new bearing? A round bearing will not work well in an oval bore.

Your driving is not going to make the housing bore become oval. Even if the bearing went bad and you drove on the bad bearing, it would not distort the housing. What made the bearing go bad in the first place?
You can also look at it this way. They installed new bearings that failed and ruined your housing.

How many bearings did you have replaced?

If you get the old hubs back I would like to check them out.

Originally posted by Boone
Sounds like someone overtorqued the lateral link bolt as described on Subaru's Endwrench site. This happened to me but an extended warrenty covered it. Go to www.endwrench.com then archives, then drivetrain, then insider info winter 2002. You might get some leverage. This is stuff they should know. B.

I printed that out and gave it to them when they originally did the bearings.

-Mike

[Beav]

The knuckle is a crappy design in that the lateral link bolt spans both bosses without a supporting sleeve between them. Even just bolting the lateral links to each boss with separate bolts would eliminate that problem. Y'all know what PPP stands for, don'tcha? That coupled with a poor bearing design (under-sized rollers for the load) spells disaster.

How long did the bearing last before they installed the first one in this story? Years? If so they should bear the cost of replacing the knuckle and bearing, etc. If you have a history of bearing wear then I'd say you're pretty much taking your turn in the barrel.

However, simply driving the car is not going to cause the damage. Driving will cause a poorly installed bearing to fail. The dang things ain't gonna go bad sittin' in the friggin' box on the shelf, ya know. How in the world were you supposed to know they screwed up the job and that driving would make them fail? Tell 'em to get real! Can you say 'horse-pucky'? Sure you can, I knew you could.

Originally posted by svx_commuter


Can you get the old housings? We are talking about the part that bolts to the strut, Right? How can that get distorted unless they took it apart with a torch? That sounds like a bad practice to me. Isn't the hub and old bearings supposed to be pressed out? Would you inspect the old housing before pressing in the new bearing? A round bearing will not work well in an oval bore.

Your driving is not going to make the housing bore become oval. Even if the bearing went bad and you drove on the bad bearing, it would not distort the housing. What made the bearing go bad in the first place?
You can also look at it this way. They installed new bearings that failed and ruined your housing.

How many bearings did you have replaced?

If you get the old hubs back I would like to check them out.

The bearings were replaced the first time at 114,xxx miles by stans in york. then they were replaced a second time at 115,xxx by stans. Now at 117,xxx they are bad again.

I am getting them done at the dealer sometime soon. I dont have the time to go after the shop. I'll probably just send them a letter.

When the dealer does them I will have them give me the housings and bearings.

-Mike

[Trevor]

Beav,

Your comments are very interesting. When in the past I have come up against poor design features in my cars during repairs I have always endeavored to make a mod. to eliminate repeat trouble.

It would appear that a spacer sleeve could be fitted to prevent overloading but this may have to be accurately machined or provided with shims to set the length accurately. I have not examined the set up so am only guessing the arrangement from your description,

What is the set up where separate attachments would cure the problem and is a mod possible ?

Once again I thank you in anticipation of your so willingly provided advice.

Regards, Trevor.

[Beav]

I don't think it's really much of an issue until a torque happy renegade tries to kill the bolt with an overpowered impact wrench. However besides employing a tubular spacer between the bosses one could simply tap threads into them and bolt the arms to the knuckle individually. I see no gains to be made by bolting them with the same fastener, other than $$.

Deja Vu... all over again.