Here's what happens when you cheap out and buy hubs from eBay that come from China...

Was driving home from work yesterday morning, going about 110 kmh on the highway when I heard/felt a loud bang, driver side front end dropped and made an aweful sound. I thought I blew a tire, then sparks started flying past my window. I realized it was worse, like my wheel came off. Almost. I tried to brake but my pedal went to the floor. I was being pulled into the oncoming lanes of traffic. I geared down and it took all my strength to hold the steering wheel and slowly maneuver it off to the shoulder where I skidded to a stop...Somehow I managed to not cause an accident or worse...

I got out and had a look. My tire was still there, jammed up into my wheel well, crumpling the edge of the fender and pushing it out so it doesn't line up with my door now :(

I assessed the damage and it appears my hub sheared in two, wheel caved in, ripped the brake calipers and brake pads off, CV axle went through my aftermarket Rugged Ridge manual locking hubs, shattering it to pieces, continued on and punctured a hole right through my rim, which is also aftermarket (Eagle Alloys), my tire, a 33" BFG M/T (Original KM series) was also punctured, which they don't even make anymore so I'm gonna have to buy all 4 new tires...Fml

Lots of damage/money, work, locating and replacing the aftermarket parts. And to top it off, it's winter up here in Canada, -25 celsius last night and a foot of snow and I don't have a garage to work on this in lol

All of this headache over a hub that I replaced 3 years ago with one from eBay to save a few bucks because my local auto parts store wants over $500 per hub...I thought I'd chance it, thinking the worst is the bearing goes and I could buy 5 hubs for the price of one of the name brand at Napa up here. I didn't even consider it could break in half like this. Funny enough, the actual bearing itself has held up, no play..

I'll be able to put humpty dumpty back together again, although I don't know what to do about my bent fender so Im bummed about that.
I guess things could have been a lot worse though. Could have been in a serious accident, killing myself or someone else right before Christmas. Its just money and time. Things can be replaced. Lives cannot.

The moral: If you have the money for a lifted truck, custom wheels and over-sized tires, don't be like me and cheap out on hubs made in China. You'll pay more in the long run, and possibly with your life...

The piece on the left was still bolted to my wheel, the piece on the right still bolted to the truck...[IMG][/IMG]

 

That's crazy. I can't say I've seen that happen before. Glad you're alright man.

 

Glad to see you're able to walk away from this.

 

Thanks guys! Could have been a lot worse for sure. I got lucky considering... Stay safe out there everyone! Merry Christmas :)

 

Just WOW! Thankfully, you avoided catastrophe and all you ended up with is a repair bill (which is bad enough). I think after that, I would visit my Ford store and purchase the replacement in OEM quality. Glad you're okay man! Merry Christmas back at ya!

 

Crappy soft Chinese steel, you can even see the splines all worn by the axle !
Reclaimed steel with no quality control at all _ lots of impurities.

I bought one of those cheap furniture moving hand trucks from "Crappy Tire" and the bearings in there were made from the same stuff.
One day all the ***** just fell out.
I replaced the bearings and upon removal of the old ones, the cheap screw driver I was using to get the race out was denting them !

You're fricking lucky !
I guess there's no point of going after the eBay seller, I would certainly let him know ?

 

I did contact the seller who, in case anyone wants to know and avoid is "primechoiceautopartsoutlet". They said my hub has a lifetime warranty and have offered to replace it with a new one but there's not a chance in hell I would install another one of their hubs. I don't think they are getting the point that they are selling a dangerous product!

 

OMG, that's almost laughable !
Your hub broke man, gee sorry...
Here have another one...

Yeah right...
What a crock !

EDIT:
The guy's in Canada, I would be contemplating a small claims suit for the damage to my tuck.
You would have to prove in front of a judge that the failure was not a result of improper installation on your behalf.
The judge may take one look at the hub and find in your favour.
The worst you have to lose is your time and 200 bucks.

 

Right? Lol

Lifetime warranty...What a joke. Wont have to honour many of those if they kill their customers. Maybe that's their business strategy...

And never thought of a small claims suit. Not sure how I would prove proper installation though...I'll probably just be like a typical Canadian and politely take it up the tailpipe lol

 

To prove proper installation and prove that the hub was in fact defective you would need to have a credible source to prove as such.
Like a certified Ford mechanic to vouch that in fact the hub did fail all on it's own.
Any one can see that the failure is not your fault, but the burden of proof is on you, and that's the only argument that PrimeChoice Auto Parts has.
If you get a certified Ford mechanic in there willing to go to "bat" for you, that's what's needed. (something in writing may be enough too on Ford stationary)
Small claims court works best if you do your homework.

It may not even be possible trying to sue someone outside of B.C, but Googling will tell you that.

 

FYI, that could happen to name-brand parts too..in fact, it happened to me.

I had the actual FORD hub installed about 5 years ago. Last year, it split in two, but luckily, it was still being held together somehow and the wheel/rim didn't detach completely and cause further damage.

I've replace both hubs in a 2 year period with eBay hubs and no problems yet.

 

Did you go back to the Ford dealer and let them know what happened, I would have ?
Seems odd why they would even break in the first place _ lousy steel is one thing, but maybe they're making them just too thin to save a bit of weight.
A little bit of abuse and they break _ not that you're abusing your truck.
I've driven cars trucks over many years with thousands of miles on them and never had a hub break, none of them were Ford's though.

And if it did shear off, then maybe you brake shoes were worn inside the drum enough to hold the hub in place on the axle splines.

 

I didn't go back to Ford because it was 4 years later and it would have been a waste of time and effort.

Does it suck that I had to fix it again so soon? Yup. But there's no point in doing anything about it 4 years later considering I don't know why it failed.

It didn't completely come apart because as soon as it failed, i pulled over asap and prevented it from causing more damage.

 

 

I just re-read my FB post about it... the brake caliper bracket was still attached to the truck and the caliper was holding onto the rotor still.

 

The hub didn't fail like Richy's did, the bearing itself failed.
You can still see the outer race in the hub all worn down and "cupped" that allowed the axle to slide out _ or would have if it wasn't for the caliper/rotor holding it in place.
If it had broke like the OP's, then the wheel would have fallen off along with the brake assembly. It depends where the caliper is mounted.

Which brings up a question, are these sealed hub bearings or are the fed oil from the differential ?
If they're fed oil from the dif. then low oil in there would eventually cause failure, but one would think they would make allot of "squealing" noise.

I still would have went to Ford, even after 5 years, and showed them what happened, just to see what they had to say, but at least a bearing failure isn't as catastrophic as the hub itself breaking in "2".
The steel in the hub is probably OK, but Ford probably put a cheap Chinese bearing in there.

 

So glad you are alive to write about this. God Bless you. It is crazy it just failed. Without warning. Scary. Thank you for sharing.

Jim