Duramax mechanicin' question

'06 Duramax 2500 4x4. Dealer says I have a hub bearing going out and it costs $700 to replace. Can I do it myself or do I need to leave it to the pros?

 

Ask for a part/labor break down..... that is an expensive bearing. Do you have aftermarket wheels by any chance? I use a local shop for all my work now. Dealers are a rip off usually.....

 

Found Timken bearing kits online for $190. 17" factory wheels.

 

Easy enough to do yourself. The bearings is an assembly with the abs tone ring and everything all in one, normally is a good chunk of change (probably at least 350$ for a walk in customer to a parts store). I would jack your truck up though and see how bad it really is, you can grab the top and bottom of the wheel and try to twist it in and out to see how much play you have. Generally they'll go quite some time before really needing replacement, but you have to keep an eye on it. The labor to do it is just a few steps futher than removing your brake caliper.

1) remove wheel
2) Remove caliper mounting (the caliper and pads and the mounting as one unit) make sure you hang it from a piece of wire or ziptie so it doesnt fuck up your hose.
3) Remove rotor
3a) Undo the axle nut and remove the abs sensor wires from its clips up into the fenderwell and disconnect it also
4) Remove 4 hub retaining bolts and beat the whole assembly out of the steering knuckle
5) reverse procedure making sure you torque the axle nut to spec and get the caliper mounting bolts good and tight.
Should be an hours job for a newbie.

Antiseize is your friend in the steering knuckle. Also get a GOOD bearing with a good warranty, cheap bearings fail quickly.

 

Front? I have the same truck and replaced my front hubs myself and it was a pretty easy. I had 18s with a big offset and my hubs were shot after two sets of tires. I'm on my second set of tires with 22s with small offset and my hubs are holding up a lot better.

 

Do it yourself. Had the same price quote for my old Avalanche 2500. Think I got the part off Rock Auto for around 245 bucks and knocked it out in around an hour and a half the first time, then maybe 45 minutes when the other side went out a few months later.

 

Spitz,
Are you a mech?

Question if so, I have an 04 dually with a roar out of the back. I am thinking it is a bearing as It seems to be driver side only. I have jacked the truck and done the side to side to feel for play and i don't feel any do you get the same play on a dually as a single tire? I guess it could be my chunk, but I am unsure how to check for that. It is a duramax 4x4. Thanks

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll be doing it myself.

 

Real easy to do if you have any kind of mechanical knowledge. Save the money and do it yourself.

 

Yessir, 2nd generation about to own my father's shop.


The front and rear are totally different animals. The front are just hub assemblies and arent serviceable. The rear, well, there are few more bearings back there that it may be. First, does the noise change when you're on/ off the throttle, if so that generally points to pinion bearings. If its more of a constant drone or noise i would get the truck up on a GOOD set of jack stands, block the front tires and have a friend drive the vehicle in the air (slowly, but enough to generate the noise) and get a mechnic's stethoscope and see if you can pinpoint the noise by touching it on different parts of the axle housing. There will be two bearings one on each end of the differential carrier (where the axle tubes are pressed into the "pumpkin" is where you'll want to touch the stethoscope tip). You're looking for a comparsion between the bearings, if ones bad you should be able to hear it pretty easily. Also keep in mind that truck probably has driveshaft center bearings that hold up the driveshaft due to length, these like to go bad as they spin on average, 3-4 times faster than your wheels (think rear end ratio).

There are also two wheel bearings to each side very much similar to the old car front wheels(RWD) where you had to pack the bearings with grease so often.

Usually these bearings go bad from lack of changing the fluid, any debris that gets between the rollers and the race can start forming pits and then worm hole out like a pot hole on a road gets pounded to shit when it rains out (hydraulic action blow errodes anything around it). Driveline manf. want you to change out the oil after a break in perioid to get that crap out. I havnt had to pull any HD axles yet for bearing issues I have to say, many around here with 250K+ on them hauling construction equipment. If you plan on doing rear end work, that might be a little more in depth as clearances and gear lash have to be setup correctly for no noise and longevity.


ps- to really answer your question, no, generally the movement isnt the same. You wont feel that play so much in a tapered roller bearing ( I think the fronts are dual ball type). The bearings could still be rough however. If they do get really bad then yea, you'll get play eventually, but by that time its going to be a little late as any metal is going to find its way back into your diff. housing and into all the bearings. I see it a lot where people put it off only to find we have to clean the whole axle housing and replace all the bearings.

 

Ha ha. I am about ten miles from Timken, but now it is called Koyo.

 

Spitz,
Thanks
From the info given, it sounds like it will not be the pinion. It is a work truck and hauls a lot of heavy shit daily with a 4:10 rear end. Sounds like I will more than likely have to do all the axle bearings as I have let it go for a while. but the truck only has 130k on it.

 

There's a Koyo here in Orangeburg, SC.

 

I am having difficulty seeing your posts.......

 

Since we are talking 2500HD's I got a question. I just bought a 2012 and replaced the stupid ugly stock 17's with some XD 18's. I went with a 275/65-18 because I figured they would not rub. Well turns out they are just a smidge wide and when I crank the wheels all the way left the left side tire rubs on the outside of the tire on the back of the fender well. I have not leveled the truck at all. I put a leveling kit on my last 1500, but it kinda sucked towing as the rear would squat and the front tires would wear funny. I rather not put a leveling kit on this one. Is it possible to raise it up a bit with the torsion keys? I am assuming I would need to have an alignment done after doing this. I don't need a ton of lift. Maybe an inch. Any reason not to do this?

 

You sure can, if you're only looking for a little bit its fine. Alignment- yes! My truck sits on 285's and is an 05. I leveled it out with just torsion bar adjustment. Might ride a smidge rougher but its a fucking truck right?

 

The new 1500's switched to coil over versus torsion bars. Did the 2500 retain torsion bars?

 

New hub bearing kit arrived today. Looks like a work day tomorrow.

 

If you have th TB's yes you can, just be sure to realign the front end after.

 

Thanks for the advice, all. Repair was fairly easy.