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Location:
Batemans Bay, NSW
Registered:
February 2005
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Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Tue, 02 August 2005 11:10
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just wondering what the signs of wheel bearing failure are... can it fuck you up if ur travelling at speed ect...? (ie: how serious is it when one fails/busts/whateva happens to em...)
and
Can you replace the stock bearings with stronger items and the like........?
cheers
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Location:
Rosanna, Melb
Registered:
June 2002
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Re: Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Tue, 02 August 2005 13:39
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They start going "woom woom woom woom" as they get rooted. Never heard of catastrophic failure. Though I did hear of one welding itself to the stub axle after driving Adel->Melb with no bearing grease at all.
Hen
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Location:
Brisbane
Registered:
February 2003
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Re: Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Tue, 02 August 2005 13:49
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| DRFT - 86 wrote on Tue, 02 August 2005 21:10 |
just wondering what the signs of wheel bearing failure are... can it fuck you up if ur travelling at speed ect...? (ie: how serious is it when one fails/busts/whateva happens to em...)
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makes 'woosh woosh' sound when you turn corners (this is RWD car) - ignoring this sound leads to grinding sound when cornering - ignoring that results in continuous grinding sound followed sometime after by a thud/crunch/schreech when wheel comes off.
ignoring any badly worn bearing will result in some kind of failure - on an alternator it sounds like a sqealing kids toy, with a stub axle it usually results in an unpleasant car accident.
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Can you replace the stock bearings with stronger items and the like........?
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just buy new bearings from reliable spare parts shop, pack with proper wheel bearing grease (not generic black stuff) and install and seat as per manufacturer's instructions.
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Location:
Kita-Ku, Sapporo, Japan
Registered:
January 2003
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Re: Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Tue, 02 August 2005 13:56
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tow trucks often have rear axles come out while driving.... not pretty...
bearings are sturdy little bastards tho, and they usually give you a reasonable amount of time to fix it, but if the race itself comes apart, they can disintegrate quickly...
the faster you go, the faster they can break due to the higher forces and temperatures involved.
as Chuck said, just replace them.. for what? $40-50 per side (as a generalised guess) you can afford to change then every year and never have a bearing failure 
i always change mine at the first hint of noise (after having a datto bearing that almost came apart.. it had maybe 3-4mm sideways movement !!!)
Cya, Stewart
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I supported Toymods
Location:
melbourne
Registered:
June 2002
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Re: Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Tue, 02 August 2005 22:48
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i have replaced one wheel worth on my sprinter, wasn't noisy but you could "rock" the wheel on the spindle.
i took it to a mechanic at first, who was going to install gold ones for $200 each wheel, 100 bucks parts 100 bucks labour. i bought two bearings and an oil seal for about 20 bucks from a bearing shop (per set)
i removed the old races with a hammer and standard sprinter jack shaft, then installed the new ones with a hammer and a short length of steam pipe. pretty easy, but easier to get them pressed out and new ones pressed in.
packing them with grease is pretty simple too, tricky part is doing up the nut to the right torque, search my posts to find the thread i started on it, good info in there.
a friend of mine had the rear wheel bearings replaced in his $WD TX3, and one of them locked up while he was going 100 km/h, causing his car to spin through oncomng traffic and end up facing the wrong way on the side of the road.
work out if you trust yourself or your mechanic more.
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Location:
Gympie
Registered:
June 2005
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Re: Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Tue, 02 August 2005 23:24
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Had a young guy best described as of the 'bush mechanic' mindset. ie ignore it until it stops you driving, then fix it if you can. This bloke had driven for quite a while in his XD Falcon equivalent V8 Fairlane (Unlicensed, Unregistered, warrants out for his arrest) until the front passenger side wheel partially detatched as he was about to turn a corner. The outer bearing had heated up and collapsed, rooting the stub axle, smashing the brake caliper before bending the steering link and smashing chunks out of the mag wheel and destroying the tyre. Point was that it WAS only the caliper preventing the wheel from leaving the car entirely. The outer bearing having been freed, the inner bearing is then able to pass over it as well. This guy was lucky to have been going slow. Could very easily have been a rollover/wrap around tree/head on with other car.
If you do this yourself, it is generally straight forward, HOWEVER, there are bearings that you tighten til your eyes pop, and there are bearings which are sensitive to the amount of pre-load. In other words, make sure you KNOW, don't guess this one. A bearing requiring pre-load, if over tightened is as bad as a worn out bearing. Too much pressure results in excess heat which destroys the Case Hardening on the rollers, resulting in the failure of the bearing. Most front wheel bearings are tapered, hence use a pre load.
In practice regular servicing of wheel bearings can mean they last for part or even all of the life of the vehicle. Generally that means re greasing them every 20,000 km. Our Rodeo Turbodiesel Ute has 320,000+km and is still on the original front wheel bearings. They are done every 20,000km. Mostly these things fail due to the grease in them becoming hard with age and no longer having contact with the moving parts. Fresh grease in the right place = new lease of life. Having said that, they are carefully inspected for signs that they need replacement, and would be over the shoulder in a heartbeat if they were at all dodgy.
Hope that helps
Cheers Richard
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Location:
Batemans Bay, NSW
Registered:
February 2005
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Re: Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Wed, 03 August 2005 01:04
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Thanks all, most appreciated...
This post was just so I know what to listen for ect when it does happen... as I know running wider rims/spacers/ect puts more stress on the bearings.
(mine were replaced (apparantly) not long before I bought my ride)
(AE86, running 8" rims)
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Location:
Kita-Ku, Sapporo, Japan
Registered:
January 2003
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Re: Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Wed, 03 August 2005 01:28
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listen for any noise  ... if in doubt, jack up that corner and hand rotate the wheel to see if there is any rumbling or roughness while turning 
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Location:
Batemans Bay, NSW
Registered:
February 2005
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Re: Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Wed, 03 August 2005 05:44
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thanks mate... The jack kinda failed the other day, which was really fucked of it..  just bailed and dropped my car. Need a decent jack... no scissor jacks.. 
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Location:
Carlingford NSW
Registered:
October 2004
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Re: Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Wed, 03 August 2005 08:40
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There isn't really a right or wrong way to tell, its really all about feel. With alot of Jap cars, they run large double row ball bearings, which I have seen completely fail but still very quiet. The bearings should spin freely, with a slight resistance (sealed bearings only) Wheel bearings are generally rated at about 15000 rpm (more for smaller ones) so sustained usage shouldn't be a problem. As far as using the right grease goes- its just there for heat transfer, the anti friction part is the actual bearing. Not to say you dont need it, but most sealed bearings come with a high temp synthetic grease from the packet... bearing seals should not be removed!!!!
Bearings generally fail from lack of grease- confused? Like I said, grease is mainly used as heat transfer, therefore lack of grease will make the bearing race heat up too quickly and failier isn't far behind.
As far as shock loads go, radial loads are the ones you got to look out for- ie drifting into a kerb- anything which thrusts the bearing race toward the center or away of the car.
As fas as upgrade- sure, there are upgrades, ball bearings- cylindricial rollers- angular contact. But what you have to remember is that the bigger point of contact of the balls/rollers, the limited amount of speed you can use. But you can get around that by using C3 clearence/single contact seals/brass cage bla bla bla
Keven Verhoeven
CBC Bearings and Power Transmission
Artarmon Branch NSW
[Updated on: Wed, 03 August 2005 08:43]
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Location:
melbourne
Registered:
January 2003
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Re: Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Wed, 03 August 2005 09:36
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I am in the midst of replacing the ones in the celica.
The one that failed was missing the oil seal. Same problem I had on the rolla.
Never remove those seals. It will kill the bearing. I dont know why some people forget/remove them/never add them.
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Location:
Armidale
Registered:
January 2003
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Re: Wheel Bearings - Failures/upgrades?
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Thu, 04 August 2005 07:42
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| shinybluesteel wrote on Wed, 03 August 2005 08:48 |
work out if you trust yourself or your mechanic more.
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Why Adam doesn't trust mechanics, lesson 1.
Way back in high school, driving the ute home I hear a funny 'whoom-whoom' noise from up front.
Relatively ignorant it those days, so I swung by the 'trusted' family mechanic who took it for a spin 'round the block. "She's right, mate, take her home"
So I set off on the 40km highway trip home - about 5 km out of town the front drivers side wheel starts to lock up, trying to drag me into the path of oncoming traffic, including a semi-trailer. Ouch!
Manage to pull over - wheel bearing smoking. Got a lift home, next day Dad & I replaced the stub-axle (old one had bearing race immovably welded onto it) by the roadside. The Ute's never looked back!
Mechanics Pffft!!
What was the question again? Oh yeah, funny noises, warm or wobbly or 'rough-feeling' (when turned by hand) are all symptoms, and the consequences range from benign (common) to fatal (rarer).
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