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So the other day the Ranger-of-antiquity started making an odd noise. Followed by the occasional jerk and grind coming from the front left wheel. By the time I nursed it home it was pretty bad.....
So when I pull it apart this is what I found. 45 years old and this is my first failed wheel bearing.
So obviously a new pair of bearings. I have new pads to throw on so it'll get that. And the rotors are looking a bit thin (and 22 years old!) so I might as well replace them while I'm at it.........this $8 bearing is getting expensive! 
My dad and I had that happen on a '93 ranger. It had 400k. Wheel hearing got so bad it jerked the wheel out of my dads hands and we skidded a tire until we came to a stop.
Wheel bearings generally give a warning long before they fail.
At least that has been my experience.
fav wheel bearing story is a friends TE31 Corolla... he ran on a bad bearing so long... that when we fixed it, the hub had expanded from the heat and the bearing race dropped in, and fell out.... my friend was so poor... we used aluminum foil around the outside of the race to hold it tightly in the hub
After the first couple times experiencing customer cars where the vibration of the bad bearing wore out the hub and spindle (or whatever rides on the bearing and the bearing rides on) I replace bad bearings as soon as practical.
I used to wonder how people could put up with horrible sounding bearings for so long. I had never experienced one in the process of failing, until a couple years ago in my VW. Slowing down for an off-ramp, the right front went from silent to WNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG louder than the engine. (Funny: A lot of bad-wheelbearing cars come in as "Transmission isn't shifting." People think the wheel bearing noise is the engine)
I had a wheel bearing failure on the Jeep that scared the E36 M3 out of me. Driving on the highway, everything seemed fine. Go to get off the off-ramp and noticed a E36 M3load of travel in the brake pedal and the Jeep didn't feel right under braking. So I very carefully drove it home and then discovered the right front wheel bearing had self-destructed and had over a half-inch of play in it (that wheel had a few degrees of extra camber when I parked it).
It looked like the internal parts just stopped existing, for the most part. And somehow, it never made any noise (or if it did, it was so quiet I couldn't hear it while driving). The CV shaft and the brakes were pretty much holding it together, it seemed.
I had a wheel bearing fail on my '96 F-150 4wd. I was in the "is that a tire" phase of "what's that funny noise", and, at 70 MPH, it made a pop, and the front end took an odd set. I was only 2 miles from the house, so I limped it home.
It destroyed the spindle, hub lock, and hub so completely that I had to drill the bearing nut into pieces to get it off (Cobalt steel drills FTW), and use a 25# slide hammer to get the hub off. I replaced the spindle, hub, and hublock, and wheel bearings and axle U-joints on both sides. The wheel bearing on the other side had some pitting, so it wasn't long for this world, either.
Today I'm gonna take a couple Fathers Day hours and install all new wheel bearings, brake rotors, calipers, and pads.
Might as well do it right.
There had been a bit of noise the day before the real failure but it's an old truck prone to odd noises. When it failed to the point of feeling something wrong, I had just driven it on the beltway to the other side of town, so I had to nurse it home afterwards. This job seemed like one to undertake in the driveway with tools instead of in the grass at the corner of Dammit Ave and Crap Boulevard.
On an old spare dump truck I had a wheel bearing seize and the spindle actually twisted off, lost the wheel (and brakes) and had to fight it into a ditch to keep from going into oncoming lanes. That wasn't fun.
On anything with a hand packed bearing you should really check for play now and then. Acceptable end play is only something like .005".
Some of these sound like a real pain to fix afterwards. Fortunately, mine was on a unit-bearing front end, so no collateral damage. 45 minutes to swap in a new bearing and everything was good again.
So last night I got everything back together (with only one forgotten piece) and drove old Betty to work this morning. Passenger side O-ring was sitting there looking at me as I bolted on the hub. Got it all torqued down and noticed it was still dripping a bit of gear oil. Took it back apart and installed errant O-ring. All good.
Drive to work revealed perfect balance and vastly improved manners. Master cylinder is still tired so it's next but for now I'll take this as a success.
Years ago I had a rear wheel bearing on a Buick overheat until the hub/wheel fell off going down the road. It's a funny feeling when you're driving and the right rear of the car drops a foot! The immediate thought was "get off the road while it's still skidding". I remember the errant wheel rolling past me with the red-hot axle stub still sparkling! The most expensive part was having to replace the driver's side rocker panel cover on the unfortunate Fiero that happened to be driving the other direction. The overwhelmed Fiero driver was a high school senior taking his girlfriend to the prom in his Mom's car..., The tow truck driver was nice enough to take it right to the junkyard for me. I spent most of the next day with scissor jacks, a crescent wrench, pliers and a couple of big hammers, making it roadworthy again.
