Piece of $hit wheel bearings?!

[mayagman]

What the hell is up with these things.. Does anyone have repeat issues with wheel bearings? For me it seems to be the front left goes about every year or so.. Not that it's a hard or expensive job, just a pita. I'm trying to figure out if it's the race, if the hub assembly is warped, or if it's just this hard corner I take on the way to work every day.

Anyone have any sage wisdom on these little buggers? I'm all ears and covered in that lovely flourescent green MB bearing grease.

[kameraguy]

Could camber/suspension alignment play a role in increased bearing wear?

I have only had one wheel bearing go out, and that was with my Audi which had over 250,000 miles. That was definitely due to "normal" wear and tear.

I have 137,000 on my C36 and have not had problems with the bearings...yet! knock on wood.

[jnolte]

what is a characteristic of a failing bearing?

[Pagz]

could you post us an up close pic?..which parts of the bearing failed?(larger inner bearing race or the smaller outer/or both?)...
if somthing was warped you would be able to tell when you tighten the locking nut while spinning the rotor...
the bearings will not last long if there too tight or too loose.
also not packing the race correctly will lead to more premature wear....did you use a packing tool?...or did you spend an hour pushing it in with your fingers?

[mayagman]

I will when I disassemble the bearing system. I'll turn it into a full writeup with photos for future reference.

[rollinrealbig]

can it fall apart if you have a bent rim ? not that i do im just wondering ... But i know for sure it will mess up something if you have a bent rim and keep driving with one.

[martattack]

Originally posted by jnolte
what is a characteristic of a failing bearing?

For the front wheel bearings, it will probably start as a sort of groaning noise particularly when you turn the wheel certain directions.. Sometimes it will quiet down when you depress the brakes. From there it only gets worse. You may start to feel a shimmy or knocking in the steering also.

[martattack]

Originally posted by rollinrealbig
can it fall apart if you have a bent rim ? not that i do im just wondering ... But i know for sure it will mess up something if you have a bent rim and keep driving with one.

That will surely put more stress on the wheel bearings. When your wheel is bent and it shakes everything, all that energy goes through the bearing. It will fail much sooner than it normally would.

[davis449]

Can't testify to a repeat issue, but I can say that when my sister owned this car (in it's YOUNG life) the front driver's side wheel bearing seized completey and tore up the brakes and suspension. Basically had to have that whole side of the suspension replaced under warranty.

[trymonlam]

i just had mine freshly changed last week. a bitch to deal with if ignored for a while.
boomin was right, i got a grinding noise, a high pitch noise, along with vibration coming from the bearing. the tech told me that he needed to hammer it out because it's worn and stuck.

[mayagman]

I have a LOT of experience with these having built a few subaru EA82 snow/ice racer and rallymobiles, for anyone who's worked with scoobys you know these parts dont last long.

The characteristics are pretty straightforward.
In very early stages you'll generally notice a squeaky noise coming from the wheel hub that modulates with the speed you're going.
As it begins to get worse, you'll start to notice a dull groan/roar coming from the hub, that sounds almost exactly like low throttle load on your engine at 3000 or so RPM, so you may miss it until it gets bad. The giveaway is that this pitch rises as speed does, not as revs do. It usually doesn't get obnoxious until youve been driving on it for a good 5 mins. A good highway run will tell you for sure.
As it escalates even further, you'll begin to notice a lot of inertia coming from that side of the car, your car will accellerate slower and slow down faster. Also, cornering load on the bad bearing will make the sound a lot louder. You'll begin to feel a knocking sensation up through the steering colunm and through the floorboard of the vehicle, typically.
At this stage you should not drive the car except to pick up the part, and bring it home. Trips any longer than 5-10 minutes at highway speed will create dangerous levels of friction within the bearing case and hub, and it is possible for the bearing system to become completely seized, resulting in catastrophic failure.

I dont meen to make it sound scary, but once you've had a wheel physically break off of the car at 60mph, it is. Please exercise caution. I will post a tutorial on the procedure once I get my parts in some time in the next week or two.

[mayagman]

Semi-bump:
Is there anyone here with a manual or star techinfo access who can tell me the required torque figure for the main hub nut? As in, the part that socks down on top of the bearing casettes. I had the figure for the last install, but can't seem to find it for this one. I have in my head 88lb/ft for some reason, but I honestly can't remember. Any ideas? I'll be going at it this weekend probably. I'm just not comfortable with 'tighten it until you think it's tight enough'.

[martattack]

Originally posted by mayagman
Semi-bump:
Is there anyone here with a manual or star techinfo access who can tell me the required torque figure for the main hub nut? As in, the part that socks down on top of the bearing casettes. I had the figure for the last install, but can't seem to find it for this one. I have in my head 88lb/ft for some reason, but I honestly can't remember. Any ideas? I'll be going at it this weekend probably. I'm just not comfortable with 'tighten it until you think it's tight enough'.

I can look it up, but I'm not sure which nut your are talking about exactly. We talking front or rear?

[mayagman]

Front, the cotter pinned nut that retains the bearings and everything.

[jnenad16]

Originally posted by mayagman
Front, the cotter pinned nut that retains the bearings and everything.
I go by feel. it beats the torque wrench because you can adjust the thightness according to parts, so its not just a set figure.

nenad

[trymonlam]

i think it wasn't too long ago i started a thread about this and the torque figures were there.

[mayagman]

Well, just ordered the bearing replacements from trusty bmaparts... $26, lol
Last time at the stealership I paid $60, but even that's more than reasonable... EA82 subaru loyale single front was $80.

Gonna bust out my nice 5MP camera this weekend and make a little tutorial for all those armchair mechanics out there. Maybe whoever was running that 202 Tech site can put it up there.

[martattack]

Originally posted by mayagman
Well, just ordered the bearing replacements from trusty bmaparts... $26, lol
Last time at the stealership I paid $60, but even that's more than reasonable... EA82 subaru loyale single front was $80.

Gonna bust out my nice 5MP camera this weekend and make a little tutorial for all those armchair mechanics out there. Maybe whoever was running that 202 Tech site can put it up there.


I think nenad is right about the torque. The WIS says to tighten it slowly while turning the hub to seat the bearing. Then once it is tight, back it off until there is no friction. You're supposed to use a dial gauge to check for fore/aft play, but you'll probably be fine to check it by hand.

You should take pictures/tutorial and I will put it up on my site.

Martin

[OCKlasse]

Originally posted by mayagman
Well, just ordered the bearing replacements from trusty bmaparts... $26, lol
Last time at the stealership I paid $60, but even that's more than reasonable... EA82 subaru loyale single front was $80.

Gonna bust out my nice 5MP camera this weekend and make a little tutorial for all those armchair mechanics out there. Maybe whoever was running that 202 Tech site can put it up there.

please do! I am one of those armchairees in need of a bearing replacement ;)

[mayagman]

Well, went in to do the job this weekend...
I remember being able to pop out the bearing races with a punch, however, I was not so lucky this time. They wouldn't budge! But, I did confirm that the races are in dire need of replacement. I'm going to assume that either the set I was able to pop out was just a poorly fitted one, or that the ones I have in there now are welded in. Either way, I'm going to have the bearings pressed out/in some time this week.

Needless to say I'm pretty frustrated, because there is no reason to have the races set up this way, in addition for some strange reason, there is almost NO lip for you to use a press with. You would have to have a very, very precise dowel to use with your press, so if you're not a MB shop, I doubt you could do it. There is about 1mm or less of a lip between the hub assembly and the race. I don't know how they do it, so I'll just leave it to them.

Nonetheless I have pics of the fouled bearings and race, and the disassembly and hub breakdown, that I'll post later today.