Stinger23

I bought the truck with high mileage and the first bearing went south about 3000 miles after I bought it but there was no indication that it had been replaced right before I bought it (by the previous owner if they were trying to mask an existing problem) as the bearing was definitely old, and the rotors are clearly at least a few years old just from the rust/scale on them (and the wear from the pads). So presumably they did go thousands of miles before the first one failed, as you said.

Stinger23

Well, none of this makes any sense but here is what "fixed" the wheel bearing noise:

I just kept driving the truck as I was too busy to mess with it and after a a month or so it started getting quieter. After a couple more weeks the noise was gone completely. The last 3 months it never made the grinding/popping noise at all. I've never seen a bearing "break in" and it makes no sense but I saw it with my own eyes so I can't deny it happened.

This will be the final update as I sold the truck to Carmax a few weeks ago. Waiting for my new-to-me 2013 FX2 to be delivered.

dnlow

Interesting.

Not that you need it now but when I changed my bearing/rotor. There was same type of procedure to "set" the bearing. Not exactly sure what it was but it was something like torque to 250ft/lb, 5 rotations backward, and then set to 295. I am sure the majority of the time most will have no issues if not done this way so probably why it was not mentioned before.