Well folks, my front unit bearing went toast. Slid around a corner in a controlled slide in 4WD (on icy conditions) the ABS/ESC/Traction lights (all the orange ones) came on. Reset couple days later with JScan and it came back on. Jacked it up and wheel moves about 3/8" at the edge of the tire. Replacing both. Codes were C1011/1014 relating to LF wheel speed sensor. Posted for other peoples info. Jeep has 186,000kms (120,000 miles) and lots of mud holes and water crossings.

<Suggested to change the Title for Search Purposes>

 

Nice! Good that you already have the fix and have it under control.

 

That's exceptional life from the bearings. What brand did you drop in? I've replaced mine a few times (and typically in pairs) but I've been sticking with Timken and Spicer products where I can find them for a reasonable price.

 

Last time I checked a few years ago, all the JK unit bearings were made by ILJIN, even if the box said Timken. Do you know if that's still true?

My unit bearings have 213,000 miles on them.

 

Ron,

I've got a brand new Spicer in the garage, I can go check. I wouldn't be surprised to find that's the case though.

213k miles- whew. Maybe they aren't as fragile I thought....or I'm exceptionally hard on them, I'm thinking the latter.

 

I bought SKF. There has to be a way to drill opposite sides, add a grease zerk on one side and a small plug to vent on the other side so that grease can be replaced annually or so. The vent would prevent overfill of the bearing with grease which heats it up. A setup like this is used on constant speed airplane propellers,

 

270K miles on my JK and I was about 120K miles when I had to replace both unit bearings. But mine were after playing in a quicksand filled river. The extremely fine sand got into the unit bearing housing and was throwing codes on one side. On the other, it took a few weeks, but it eventually started making a grinding noise from excessive wear. If interested, here is video and stills of that part of the river (about 3:00 if not forwarded) ...

 

I checked and my Spicer bearings say Iljin on the fronts. Oddly enough, they're also stamped with the Mopar part number with the AE suffix.

*edit- these wheel bearings were out of stock and just came back in when I ordered them Feb 2020.

 

My Timken hub is ILJIN, and the Jeep part number has the suffix AC.
My Moog hub is ILJIN, and has no Jeep part number on it.

Thanks for checking yours.

 

Turns out I need axle shaft u-joints at least on the left. The right one came apart from the hub very easy which tells me that it has been done before including u-joint. But sanity tells me to replace both sides seeing as they are out. Ball joints seem ok.
Anyone know the size of steering stop bolt/locknut for the knuckle on the right. Work must have been done by a quality mechanic!! No wonder it turned better to the right !
And the new speed sensor is different than the original ones and is shorter than the old one. Old is too long for the new hubs which tells me the bearing is a larger diameter on the SKF.