well, i took my MY00 RS in for rear wheel bearing #5 this morning (18k miles, BTW). this afternoon they told me that subaru was going to replace both rear spindles, so they gave me a loaner outback. hey, i'll put up with a slushbox equiped wagon anyday if it means the wheel bearings will last more than 6k miles. :D thank you SOA!

is this just for MY00? Or does it includ MY01?

wow, I know you've been dealing w/ this for a long time.

I hope this fixes the problem once-and-for-all.

-Nate

What MY is this recall for? I want to know if I can be expecting new wheel bearings or not.

Thanks,

Jon

Is this a recall for everyone? Are we getting a letter or something?

nEW STUFF IS ALWAYS GOOD....

anyone have a listing for the recall?

Errr ... this doesn't mean there's any kind of official recall going on... they are just doing warranty work. So now dealers across the country are going to have i-Clubbers coming in asking for replacement bearings when there's nothing "wrong"...

only two recent ones that I can find...

http://www.safetyalerts.com/recall/a/01/legacy.htm
http://www.safetyalerts.com/recall/a/01/00v391393.htm

check:
http://www.safetyalerts.com/rcls/category/autosub/s-t.htm#subaru

i would imagine that since it is a none critical part (i.e. saftey wise and it fails gradually), subaru will not recall working units. however, if you have a bearing that fails, they will now replace both spindles underwarrenty whereas before they would only replace the offending bearing. for those of you who have had bearing problems, i'm sure you'll appreciate this. as far as MYs go, i would imagine that it would be any of the old body style, though i am not sure. check with your dealer to see if it applies to you. the service director did use the word "recall" however. whether this was a misnomer on his part, i can't say. what i do know for sure, is before they would only put another POS bearing in. i even asked if they would do the tapered roller bearing out of the back of the legacy and WRX, but they said they couldn't under warrenty. now they're replacing both spindles. a big change in policy, whatever you want to call it. perhaps one of the SOA people who peruse the board could give some more detailed insight.

So what happens if you're out of warranty? I have 60,000+ miles and I'm on my second wheelbearing faliure on my 98 Outback Sport. Am I still screeeeewed? If I bring my car in for the 60,000 mile service, think they will offer to replace them if I don't say anything and they drive it around and hear the noise?

I just talked to my local dealer last week, and they weren't interested in even LOOKING at it for free.

--Mike
http://www.raindrop.com/subaru/wheelbearings.html

My wife's '98 Forester just got it's second set put on >:o(

Retsyn,

Seriously? What symptoms did you have to indicate bad wheel bearings? I have a 98 Forester S with 80K miles and no apparent problems yet.

Jeff,
I dropped my car off last night at Fusz and saw yours. I left you a little note on the windshield, though I doubt it will still be there.

Chad:cool:

ohhhh, i miss my car. the wagon just isn't as much fun (and me with nothing to haul). my attempts to master the manu-matic go poorly. this process is not aided by hitting the brakes when i try to use the imaginary clutch.

as far as the dealer replacing the spindles out of warrenty, i don't know. i'd say bypass the dealer and speack with the regional rep.

For those of us affected by the recall (my wife's 95 Legacy has to have coil springs replaced) we can take solace in looking at the amount of recalls listed at safetyalerts.com for other vehicles compared to Subaru. (Check out Chrysler, or Ford).

My '97 OBS's right rear wheel bearing recently went bad and just got replaced today by my dealer under warranty. My car is 48k miles and almost 5 years. It only got power train warranty left and I thouhgt wheel bearing was not covered in power train warranty.:)

Foxbat

Have your dealer use Legacy wheel bearing instead of the Impreza ones. They are a perfect fit and your problems will go away.

My wheels make a really annoying squeaking sound. I know it's not the brakes, could this be the wheels bearings?

will the Legacy rear bearings fit any Impreza? Or only Imprezas with rear disc brakes?

I have a 99 Impreza L with rear drums, I'm going to be replacing the rear bearings soon, and if they will fit, I might as well put the Legacy bearings in.

Thanks

My dealership told me that wheel bearings are not covered under the powertrian warranty on MY00 but they are covered on MY01. I don't understand why but I was pissed. If there is a recall, I'm demanding a refund:mad:

I'm on bearing #5 as well, three on the left rear, and two on the right rear.

Warning: One of my wheel bearings BLEW OUT just one week after it was replaced! The feeling from inside the car was just like a tire blowing out, scary, unexpected, and super fast! I lost control of the car, involutarily changing lanes....had both hands on the wheel too!

The dealership that took the warranty claim covered it under SOAs parts warranty of 12mo/12Kmi. They even installed a Legacy bearing which they say is tapered and doesn't fail like th replacement Impreza bearings. Now I'm waiting for the other Impreza bearing in my car to go bad, hopefully within 12mo/12Kmi of its installation.

Good luck all!

p.s.- My car has 43,000mi on it, even so SOA was super helpfull!

Hopefully the spindles will do it. My right rear failed after 24k miles, and they replaced it with another Impreza one. If I had known I would have told them to replace it with a Legacy bearing, but it doesn't really matter now.

Just had #3, they said they had changed some parts to fix it but nothing out of the ordinary on the Invoice shrug The legacy uses the sealed units right?

are you sure it's a recall?

all I can find is the WXW80 O2 sensor recall

What exectly does a bad rear bearing sound like? My '01 has had a strange groaning noise from the left rear that has gotten worse over the last six months or so. It sounds like I've got a noisy snow tire on only that corner.

bottom, sounds like yours is ending up how mine was after about 30 seconds (read: rallying)

as mentioned i crushed the wheel bearing in my left rear wheel and when i took it in they replaced both rear wheel bearing (only right side was free damnit :rolleyes: ) but they simply did it with out me saying anything and pointed out to me it was under warrenty still. maybe i just have very nice local dealer? maybe you got fudged skeletor25rs :(

So what exactly is going on here?

My '98 was just diagnosed with a bad wheel bearing (3rd one), and I have 59k miles. The service manager said is was not covered under the powertrain warranty, so I was going to pay the $300+ to have it replaced (hopefully with the tapered bearings).

If I call the dealer tomorrow, will they tell me I won't have to pay for the work?

10th...it sounds like you were just getting yours replaced under warrantly just like everyone else has been doing on their lower mileage cars.

Beethoven, call them and tell them you want the Legacy bearing. They might charge a bit more for it, (~$100 for just the bearing).

What really bothers me though, I just went to Napa and bought the EXACT same bearing for $37.


Here's the part numbers if anyone's interested.

Legacy 4wd rear wheel bearing:
- subaru part #: 28016AA030 - $100
- napa part #: GRW175 - $37
(both are NTN 4T-CR1-08A05 bearings)

I'm going to find Napa part numbers for the seals too, probably can get those cheaper than $15 each too.

It's actually pretty easy to get your rear knuckle out, then just take it to a shop and have them press the hub and old bearing out, then press in the new bearing. Then re-pack the bearing with waterproof grease and install.

You could probably do the whole thing for $150.