+1 for wheel bearing failure

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Tydoc

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Posting mainly as reference for other drivers. About 1 week ago I had been driving over passes in HV mode and thought the engine sounded really loud. However after charging, driving around town in electric was still hearing it. Speed dependent but fairly prominent even at low speeds, sounding like a cheap motorcycle engine. Took it in today and found the cause was the front drivers side wheel bearing was bad. Car with 80k miles. I have driven all prior cars I have owned to around 250k miles and never had this issue. Reading on this forum and elsewhere looks like this is a fairly common problem for clarities and Honda really screwed up on this for our cars. So, if you hear a motorcycle engine sound in electric, that is probably your issue.
 
@Tydoc , what was the cost to replace if you don't mind sharing? I assume you took it to a Honda dealer? I've had to replace the front hubs on a 2002 Tahoe a couple of times in it's 230k mile life so far. It's not a big job on the Tahoe, and the part is about $150 from what I remember.
 
Tydoc said:
Posting mainly as reference for other drivers. About 1 week ago I had been driving over passes in HV mode and thought the engine sounded really loud. However after charging, driving around town in electric was still hearing it. Speed dependent but fairly prominent even at low speeds, sounding like a cheap motorcycle engine. Took it in today and found the cause was the front drivers side wheel bearing was bad. Car with 80k miles. I have driven all prior cars I have owned to around 250k miles and never had this issue. Reading on this forum and elsewhere looks like this is a fairly common problem for clarities and Honda really screwed up on this for our cars. So, if you hear a motorcycle engine sound in electric, that is probably your issue.
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We've had tow PHEV Clarity cars. The first developed a bad left-front wheel bearing after two years and 35,000 miles. We traded it in for a new Clarity, telling the dealer about the wheel bearing but they didn't seem to care.
 
I don't think Clarities are the only one having front suspension/steering issue. Our cars and EVs are so much heavier than ICE that the mechanical parts can't keep up. A lot of Teslas are having ball joint popping out. From what I read, they cost over $2k to fix. Ouch.
 
Robert_Alabama said:
@Tydoc , what was the cost to replace if you don't mind sharing? I assume you took it to a Honda dealer? I've had to replace the front hubs on a 2002 Tahoe a couple of times in it's 230k mile life so far. It's not a big job on the Tahoe, and the part is about $150 from what I remember.
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$650 done at dealership. However that was naivety on my part as it is not something I have done on other cars. Looks like other forums indicate about $350 at independent shops. (Though if I had it done elsewhere the dealership would have charged me a separate $160 diagnostic charge so only about $130 difference in the end). Uses the same parts as other Honda vehicles. Also on google search sounds like at least 5-6 people had it fail before 36kmile warranty and all were drivers front as well. Because of that, I think it is likely not just the heavier weight of the vehicle but probably a problem with how they sealed/lubricated it in the factory. Pure speculation there, but seems like a pattern.
 
What model year was this? It may not matter, but if speculations are a manufacturing issue then might be model year dependent….


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Our 2018 front driver's wheel bearing went out. We told the dealer about it when we traded for a new 2020. The dealer didn't seem to care.
 
I looked thorough my hondacare contract and looks like wheel bearing is a covered item. Did anyone had this replacement done covered by hondacare?
 
megreyhair said:
I looked thorough my hondacare contract and looks like wheel bearing is a covered item. Did anyone had this replacement done covered by hondacare?
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It’s almost guaranteed that if you have the Hondacare contract the bearings will not fail while covered.

That said, I’m glad we have the contract for 4 more years.
 
Another point of reference. I felt like our 2018 with 80k was louder than it should be with noise coming from front left, so I called up the dealer to get a price to replace both front left and right: $1282.

I'm inclined to hold off. Have others delayed bearing replacement for a year or two without further damage?

I've had wheel bearings replaced on other Civics and Accords over the years and don't remember it being $650 each accounting for normal rates of annual inflation. I suspect the prices have surged due to improvements in the general reliability of vehicles leading to lower service dept appointments and/or owners delaying or ignoring service needs.
 
Steven B said:
I'm inclined to hold off. Have others delayed bearing replacement for a year or two without further damage?
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If you truly have a wheel bearing failure, my opinion is that it must be replaced.
I feel like bearings do not gracefully degrade. When they fail, they go from bad to worse 'quickly'.

You could make an argument for just replacing the bad side. Failures are not that common and the good side could quite likely be good for another 80K.

Also, don't just assume that 'louder than it should be' is a wheel bearing problem.
It should be properly diagnosed. There are other things that can make it sound louder too.
 
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Usually if one side goes bad the other may not be far behind so replacing both just makes good sense. On front wheel drive cars the front hub is usually replaced and not just the bearing. Aftermarket hubs are not too badly priced. I would think $300-$600 per side would be a reasonable price.
 
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