sneezye

I am in the process of purchasing a 2013 ES 350 with 11,500 miles. The car is a 1 owner with no accidents on the carfax. Apparently it was a company car and based on the carfax entries, it was consistently driven about 1,000 miles a month year. There is a pulsating low frequency noise that increases with speed coming from the right front wheel well. The dealership has diagnosed this as a bad wheel bearing and is replacing it. I guess wheel bearings can go bad from sitting too long? Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Mike728

A 2013 driven 1k miles a month with 11.5k miles?

ESh

Wheel bearings can go bad only if you hit the curb or go over a pothole hard.

sneezye

Oops, I fixed it.

john2101

Pulsating low frequency noise can be caused by many sources... e.g. bent brake heat shield, worn brake pad, warped rotor. A bearing could possibly cause the noise but for the bearing to fail at such low mileage, it would have to be a very rare and unlikely occurrence. It's hard to diagnose over the computer screen. Have a video taken with the wheel on and off while spinning the wheel/rotor, and we might help more. Otherwise trust the mechanics. You could it to a small shop and have them diagnose the simple issue, no real need to take it to Lexus for this, IMO.

Good luck.

703

Toyota wheel bearings don’t fail.

LeX2K

I'm replacing one later today.

Clutchless

It is 10 years old and although it has low mileage, to quote the late Pat Goss who had a car repair radio show for many years and was the mechanic on TV's Motorweek: "anything can break on any vehicle at any time".
At least they are repairing it for you and it should have a warranty.

You were lucky to find one with such extreme low miles. The coolant should be changed because of time, and the brake fluid too.
You can look up the dealer service history by joining the Lexus Drivers site for free and entering your VIN.
​​​​​​https://www.lexus.com/My-Lexus/account/create-account

Tootsall

I had to replace both front ones on a 2003 Camry...with 280,000 km on the odometer. The mechanic told me I only needed one but I replied "Meh....do them both". That car is now at 380,000 km. I'd say that's pretty small potatoes for that mileage and other than a new set of plugs (which the mechanic said it didn't need at 200,000 km), and hoses and belts at about the same mileage, I'd modify 703's statement to "Toyota branded cars (including Scion and Lexus) are the lowest maintenance cost cars out there". You don't even want to know how much money I poured into that old Mercury 'Wallyworld' station wagon with the variable venturi carb (heck, I don't even want to know).

LeX2K

The car I'm doing right now (RX400) made it to 400,000 km, RR bearing is bad (super noisy) I'm doing both rear bearings..
By far, especially as they age compared to other cars which turn into massive money pits.

sneezye

Replacing the bearing fixed the problem.

LeX2K

Did you happen to smack the tire/wheel hard over a bump or curb at any point? That tends to ruin a bearing but you won't notice right way will take a few thousand miles before it starts complaining.

samsonn25

2013 ES300h here with 239k

Replaces front Right wheel bearings at 230k very worn out.
Replaced front Left at 231k worn also.
Replaced Rear right at 232k worn also.

Rear left no major noise yet.

samsonn25

You dont know 100% the history of the car, maybe they hit something, something defective, etc. ;

Anyway it only cost $20-45 in parts, the labor is a pain in the butt tho.

rmak

I have seen a brand new car with a bad wheel bearing. Very rare but part manufacturers do make mistakes.