Oppie wrote:
> I've got 160K on mine (lw300 2001) and still no sign of getting weak.
>
> > wrote in message
> ...
>> how long should a good quality front wheel bearing last on a Saturn
>> Station wagon(2000)
>>
>> which are good quality and which are poor?
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Mike
>

The only Saturn I know with any bearing issues whatsoever was/is the
Vue...Never heard of anyone having to replace bearings that early on any
S-series....Now my Vue's front bearings? That's a whole other story,
but the short of it is - make sure your rotors aren't warped, and keep
them from warping. Warped rotors seem to beat the snot out of an
borderline design limit bearing, and the best way to keep them from
warping is to make sure some monkey doesn't unequally over torque the
living crap out of the lug nuts when you have work, new tires or even
annual inspections done. When you get home, loosen the lugs and
retighten in the right pattern to the right torque (100 ft/lb for the Vue)

I'm on the 3rd set of front bearings now. The originals went at 35K
soon after rotors warped. Replacement Timken Bearings went only 20K
miles later. Both times, the rotors had warped (after an inspection the
1st time, and new tires installed the 2nd time) within 5-8K miles and
the bearings started making "snow tire" noise right after that. In both
cases, I had to jump on a lug wrench to loosen the lug nuts. After that,
I replaced with the same Timken bearings, new rotors and pads with
everything torqued right and I've gone 50K now without any problems.
All I do is make sure I re-torque after anyone touches anything...

Just an opinion, and I may get shot down, but it seems to work for me.
I have my Pops doing the same thing on his Vue from the begining, and he
has no problems. He's replaced the pads several times (he's rough on
brakes) and never had a problem with rotors or bearings with 60K miles
so far....