This 2001 CLK320 only has a out 155K, yet we had multiple bearing failing on this car.

12/2013 at about 100K, one of the front bearing went bad and unfortunately, we got the URO Parts 2103300051 Wheel Bearing Kit done on both front wheels.
2/2015 at about 108K, the front right URO bearing went bad and we use Mercedes OEM bearing.
10/2020 at about 136K, the front left URO bearing went bad and we replace with new Mercedes OEM hub/bearing. The symptom was that on a turn on an exit, the wheel would hum and rumble. If I turn the other direction to change the side pressure, the noise would go away. Since I had the hub and everything opened, I replaced the hub. I had a second thought about tightening the wheel bearing nut, but it was a URO part so I just replaced the hub.
11/2023 at about 155K, now the front right Mercedes OEM bearing went bad. Two shops who was looking for something else said that it was bad. I do feel a little play when I slowly turn the car, but there is no growling or rumbling noise. How do I know when I can tighten the wheel bearing nut and when to replace the bearing?

We are inflating our tires with AMG rims to 35-36 PSI since the tires tends to have a slow leak in the back and we tried to even up the pressure on all four. Two shops already said that the front right bearing is bad. Are you guys getting good miles on the OEM front bearings? Is this normal? 47K seems low for OEM wheel bearing, no? We do not drive the car aggressive at all. Very slow and smooth streets. We did hit a couple of pot holes, but could a few pot hole cause the early bearing failures?

Thanks,

...I replaced my front bearing back in 2012 and never had a problem since. I really dont drive her often, but have you checked the front damper bar? When i had bearings swapped they changed bar too. Hope this helps. GL
R,
2Merks

I just replaced the front right OEM hub, which already had the new bearing installed.

Prior to removing the old hub, I did see some play with the old OEM hub and bearing. I checked the wheel bearing collar locking nut, and it was extremely loose. I could lightly use just two fingers and was able to turn the wheel bearing collar locking nut easily either way. I tightened up the wheel bearing collar locking nut a little with my fingers, and the play with the hub was gone. Apparently, the bearing was still good, and it looked in great shape, almost brand new. Again, since I already bought the new OEM hub, I just installed the new hub anyway. By the way, the OEM hub was filled inside with tons of Mercedes green grease, which was used to lubricate everything on the spindle and all the way out to the wheel-bearing collar locking nut.

Looking back, I think that perhaps 2-3 times when a shop and a mechanic said that the bearing was bad, they only felt the play on the wheel but did not take the axle cap off to see that the wheel bearing collar locking nut was loose. The two times that I replaced the hub, the play in the hub was due to the wheel-bearing collar locking nut being loose.

The last time that I replaced the left front hub and this time with the right front hub, I made sure that the torx nut that tightened the wheel bearing collar locking nut and the thread that it was screwing into was cleaned with brake cleaner and tightened with thread-locker to avoid any vibration in the future that can loosen it again.

Awesome news! Sometimes the mind knoes best! The dealerships will tell us what is wrong, but do the least.
R,
2Merks