Need opinions from engineers, ASE certified mechanics, etc.

[birdie2000]

No, I totally agree. I was just saying that's probably what they're trying to claim.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Front hub:
101-0269.jpg

They are about $50 each for aftermarket, not sure what OEM ones cost. Lots of places just use the original which is ok if they spec them. This SRT-4 was burning through front wheel bearings before I bought it and I found that one hub was worn enough to rock inside the wheel bearing. The passenger side was tight but I bought replacement parts to have on hand when that day comes


The fact that both went bad at the same time leads me to believe that it was a quality issue with the bearings, not because of sliding it around in a parking lot. Hell, a good gust of wind can move those cars into a new parking spot

[nascarnate326]

Tell her you learned from your mistake and will only be drifting a formula aroun her house for now on.

Wheel bearings on my Grand Prix were bad at 66k.

Gm used cheap parts still in those years.

[TylerT/AZ28]

your drifiting isnt at fault, unless you were completely sideways and shocked both bearings by drifting over a pothole then it wasnt your fault, no offense but your mother in law is a butthole, its just normal failure of wheel bearings, happens alot easier to FWD vehicles it seems and for good reason. overall i think you learned the lesson to not care about what mother in law says because you know better, and also to not get repairs or diagnostics done at urka or whatever it was

[jetice]

In a perfectly uniform scenario, there would have been about 120lbs of lateral force on the tires (assuming a 60/40 wight bias). If they fail under those conditions, the wheel bearings would break every time you would turn a corner.

<---Engineer in training

[scholtmj]

In a perfectly uniform scenario, there would have been about 120lbs of lateral force on the tires (assuming a 60/40 wight bias). If they fail under those conditions, the wheel bearings would break every time you would turn a corner.

<---Engineer in training

Agree.

[Gregs_gsxr]

tell her this, wheel bearings go bad, its all normal wear and tear. Your gfs mom is just a crazy *****
Then be like, well its not like we did this

[TylerT/AZ28]

thats one of my favs ^

[Dummybait]

my brother has the exact same car.. passenger side went out at 40k the driver side went out at around 60k .... his car has been nothing but problems, in every aspect . and he drives like a granny.

[BP_Z28]

Re: Need opinions from engineers, ASE certified mechanics, etc.

Tell her you learned from your mistake and will only be drifting a formula aroun her house for now on.

Wheel bearings on my Grand Prix were bad at 66k.

Gm used cheap parts still in those years.

GM use cheap parts? Who would of thought that

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2

[matlt1]

Ok guys so there may be some problems in store for me due to people laying blame for problems with nobody at fault. Car in question is a 2007 Chevy Aveo with snow tires.
Long story short is that the front hub bearings went out on my GF's car; this past winter we pulled the handbrake and drifted it once or twice in a snowy/icy parking lot. No curbs were hit. The dealership mechanics told her that pulling the handbrake and drifting the car--even in a snowy parking lot--could cause premature failure of the wheel bearings. Now her mom is pissed. So much so that she's thinking about suing me over it.

For peace of mind, I would like confirmation of my opinion that this scenario is near impossible. We have a failure of BOTH left and right front wheel bearings at 40k miles, handbrake applies brakes to the rear wheels and car is front wheel drive.

Urka Chevrolet in Ludington MI would be the dealership. Honestly I think these guys don't know what they're doing. The brake pedal in this car goes all the way to the floor and they say that it's perfectly fine.

As an engineer who works in the area of warranty I can tell you some OEMs or dealers will try to get out of honoring repairs if the decision to cover your claim is not black and white. That being said I would never go in to the dealer providing too much background as you have now found out what can happen (think being pulled over and saying too much then ending up fined for something you maybe should not have). Many people I have worked with are in the mindset that if you deviate from the norm of a product function, even if your are still within its limits that the deviation qualifies as abuse. So, as far as you pulling the brake being abuse I can somewhat understand where the dealer may have been coming from as you were using the parking brake in a manner other than intended.

Moving on to the more factual based assessment though I would say that your drifting had little or nothing to do the bearing failure. Bearing loading will be proportional to the driving surface coefficient of friction (COF). Obviously in the case of sliding on ice/snow the COF is low in comparison to dry pavement. Even if you drifted on dry pavement that still should not have caused premature bearing failure because you bearing loading is still lower than if you were making an aggressive high speed turn (think tight on x-pressway ramp).

BTW - I am not surprised the bearings failed at 40k miles as GM is notorious for using undersized bearing on their pass car applications. I'd expect them to need replacement in another 40k miles. Look at the Grand Am, Rendevous and others that also had premature bearing failures. IMO they just found an excuse and blew you off so they did not have to fill another parts bin with bearings at their warranty return center