wheel bearings failing at 48K
 

A few weeks ago my car started to feel noisy. I took it to a wheel shop and they said my wheel bearings are going. The passenger side is worse than the drivers side.

My car has 48000 km and is about 2.5 years old. Do you think Mazda will fix this under warranty?

I have a blue 2002 Protege5, manual tranny.

yeah they'll fix it. It's still under warranty right? 4yr 50K miles??

2002's are under 3 year warantee, at least in the usa, don't know about canada.

oh wow. I wasn't sure. Then "no" they won't fix it under warranty. Sorry. To be honest wheel bearings aren't expensive nor difficult to do. I'd have a local independent garage do it. Get a quote from the dealership first though. They should be able to get you an exact estimate in matter of minutes. A local garage should be able to undercut them by a good bit. That's always been my experience.

why shouldn't they cover it under waranty? it only has 30,000 miles on it. and even the "oldest" p5's, assuming they are not over the 50k miles, are under waranty till about may of 2004. they came out in may of 2001.

The warranty is 3yr or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first.

He says he has 48k miles on it, so it should still be under warranty.

he has 48k km

Is this normal? I mean it seems a bit early to fail at 48k. What causes wheel bearings to fail?

My 98 Mystique blew bearings every 40 000kms and Ford said it was normal. But Mazda waranty is far more superior and they will replace those bearings undwer waranty. In Canada our waranty is 3 year s 80 000kms. Not 4 years! But they cover everything. All other dealers would have shot me down when I brought my CD player in at 70 000kms and they ordered another one and BLING BLING. I am jumpin again. :)

I would say no. Do you run wheels that are not stock or at least within the stock offset?

You say that this was a wheel shop. Have you taken it to the dealer?

In Canada, the Proteges are covered for a full 3 years/80,000 kms from the day it was first put on the road on the entire vehicle. The powertrain is covered for a longer period, up to 5 years/100,000 kms.

Mazda replaced both front wheel bearings yesterday, under warranty. Now my car makes a different noise. Its louder, higher pitched, sounds like the ocean. The dealer machined the front rotors at the same time. One more thing, my ABS light went on this morning. I'm waiting for the service advisor to call me back.

Do you think this noise is from the new bearings or from the brakes?

Dealer says one of the new wheel bearings is defective and is the cause of the ABS light.

Had the defective bearing replaced yesterday. The car feels good now. However, ABS light still comes on on the highway. Looks like one more trip to the dealer.

Here in Spain Mazda gives 3 years or 100000 km whatever comes first. You can also get 5 years / no km limit for 400 € when buying the car