How often should you have to change out your wheel bearings?

I have a 2001 pontiac sunfire. Its been 14 months since I had them changed. 6 months of the 14 I was unemployed and not driving except to the grocery store. Now Meineke who didn't do the original work claims they have gone bad again.How often should you have to change out your wheel bearings?
Wheel bearings can last a long time and should only be changed on condition. ie, there is no regular scheduled change interval for them. If the bearings are the repackable type they are usually cleaned, inspected and repacked during brake servicing. If they are the sealed hub type that is typical on newer cars and especially on the front of most front wheel drive vehicles such as your Sunfire, then those are just changed out as they are not serviceable. the only way that your bearings would go bad that soon is if they were incorrectly installed or the parts that were supposedly installed were defective. If you haven't been hearing any of the telltale sounds of a failing bearing such as noise when going around a curve in one direction but not the other, etc. Then I would pass on the offer to fix it again...How often should you have to change out your wheel bearings?
As long as they were packed well and installed properly you should not need any, I guess the guy at Meineke does not want to be in the same boat you were.
Well, it's not so much a time or amount of distance that dictates when the bearings should be worked on. From experience, that minimal amount of mileage shouldn't have killed them. I'd take it to another mechanic that will offer a free inspection or one at low cost. My personal bet is that they just need greased.
don't know the exact mileage but I have been around cars most of my 57 years and have spent 40 plus working on them and if I had to guess I would have to say 100 thousand miles.
When they make noise. Bad bearing installation will make noise in a week. Most of the cheap bearings are from China and they're crap
do you hear them wineing or howing . they should last at least 100 th miles if installd corectley so ther bad now it thir falt!
Jack the car up

grab the tire at the top and bottom.

push and pull in and out

if the tire wiggles you need bearings.
The Sunfire has a hub/bearing assembly at each wheel. These are integral units and are not serviceable like the old style wheel bearings used to be. My guess is, they did not actually replace them before, they replaced one or more but you have one or more different ones going bad now again, or the replacement parts have failed prematurely (which is good because you can get them replaced again under a parts warranty).

What exactly is the problem? How do you know it's the hub/bearing asm's going bad? Are you hearing a particular noise? Vibration? Vehicle pulling to one direction or the other? Really need more info.

bird