Broken wheel bearing...please help?

Question

I just purchased 2006 Saturn Ion last Sat night & started hearing a bad humming noise by Mon. I thought maybe it was the tires. Long story short the dealer finally looked into it after much pushing on my end & determined it was a bad wheel bearing. The part won't be in till 1st part of July & they refuse to cover my rental car & said I need to pick up my car, continue driving it until the part comes in. I've got children & voiced my opinion that I feel its unsafe & they should cover rental car till fixed! Mgr told me himself I could drive 10-20K miles safely....crazy! Have I recv'd enough bad cust svc to demand my $$ back??

Answer 1

something dont sound right... heres what id do call any auto parts store and see if you can buy one....if you can then they messing with ya...shouldnt take but over nite to get most any part and driving it any where could be dangerous and cause more problems...sure you might drive it for some time but no one can tell you when it will go and break... sorry but i think they yanking your chain

Answer 2

It should be fine. Wheel bearings usually will make noise long before it will fail completely. Just drive it cautiously until the part comes in.

Answer 3

They should be able to get the part in first thing Monday morning and get it fixed.  You might be able to drive it, but why take a chance?  If they don't seem to be willing to do anything, call your own mechanic and get it taken care of.  Pay the bill, and then give a copy of it to the dealership to be reimbursed.  If they refuse, go to small claims court and file.

Answer 4

A bad or noisy wheel bearing is not safe at all and you wont get 10 to 20K on it.

A bad wheel bearing can destroy the hub housing in the front and if in the rear can destroy the axle assembly.

I would recommend that you dont drive it because if you do more damage like you will then are they going to pay the additional.

Answer 5

my mom had her wheel baring start to go bad, and it only made noise for 2 days before it broke completely.... and that's only driving like 15 miles a day....  so yeah, I wouldn't chance it with the children.

I don't understand why it would take that long for a part to come in.  call and ask if they have any in stock or when they could get it in.  don't tell them you're waiting for it, pretend you're a customer who wants to purchase it and install it yourself.  if the time frame is less than that... then definitely say something to them.  that's WAY too long for that part.

Answer 6

A bad wheel bearing will not effect anything other than that annoying sound - short term.

If it was driven on for to long 5 thousand miles - then you could get into more extensive repairs, such as spindle wearing out due to the bad bearing

Long story short, yea drive it till they get the part in. Once they fix it, make them deliver the car to you, and I would not pay for this especially if it still has a warantee