The wheel bearing thing is a curse

entirelyturbo · Post by **entirelyturbo** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:37 am

Okay, so I had a revelation today.

I don't know why, I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but it appears that almost ANY car that I drive on a regular basis has a wheel bearing issue.

Here's the rundown:

My Legacy: All four wheel bearings replaced already, now two are bad again.

My grandfather's Legacy: Two front wheel bearings went bad in the time we had it.

My 79: Turns out that the wheel bearings in the right front are destroyed, where I can take the hub and move it back and forth inside the knuckle.

Okay, so at this point, we'd just conclude that I've gotten the ass end of Subaru's known wheel bearing problems.

BUT WAIT!

Oh yeah, that's right! I was driving a Sienna shuttle van when I was working at Toyota several years ago, and that van also had a front wheel bearing come apart...

And guess what? The Mazda B3000 truck I drive at work? A right front wheel bearing went out on it a couple weeks ago!!

That means virtually every car that I've ever driven more than 10,000 miles in my life has had a wheel bearing issue.

Now, logic would suggest that I'm causing it somehow.

I've had several suggest that I not try to drive like I'm on an autoX course all the time

. I don't deny that I can be a little rough sometimes, especially when I'm pissed off or in a BIG hurry.

But that doesn't explain the 79, as I've actually yet to drive the car! It's sat in my garage waiting for me to get it running so I actually can drive it!

What's going on here?

douglas vincent · Post by **douglas vincent** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:53 am

Your cursed.....

I bet there is a Voodoo doll of you sitting on a bad wheelbearing!

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:37 am

I've never had to replace any wheel bearings and I slide everything I drive except for the box truck and go through heavy water. Could there be some kind of environmental cause? Do you get frequent salt water puddles up past the wheel centerlines? I only go through fresh water.

entirelyturbo · Post by **entirelyturbo** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:13 pm

For my Legacy, I only occasionally I go through water, and I've made special effort to avoid it lately. I live a good 50 miles from the nearest beach, and I've driven the car on the beach ONCE since I've owned it, and even then I didn't actually drive it into the water.

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:50 pm

I don't know. I live right on the coast and I don't even encounter other people going through wheel bearings very often and they're usually work trucks or high mileage cars. Even going through water up to the hood (before my lower air intake was installed) only killed my steering rack when water got past the tie rod boots. You're not too far from Haiti - maybe you can find a voodoo witch doctor to alieve you of the curse.

entirelyturbo · Post by **entirelyturbo** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:57 am

So it's been mentioned before in my other wheel bearing thread that bearings only come with packing grease, and need to be pulled apart and packed with actual wheel bearing grease before being put into use.

That might be true after all, but I need to dig deeper.

The mechanic at MY dealership says he always pulls the bearings apart and packs them with wheel bearing grease, he agrees that the grease they come with is only packing grease. As do you guys.

The parts guys knew nothing of this, and the mechanic at the other dealership (who has lied to me and shown general wrong knowledge on several accounts) insists that Subaru wheel bearings are sold complete and ready for service.

I also have the piece of evidence that I've driven a whole ~25k miles on the bearings I have now (which are aftermarket), and only two are bad... the same ones that were bad before. I would find it quite peculiar if these bearings have traveled 25k miles without completely seizing or blowing apart while only using packing grease.

I'm gonna try going up farther and asking someone at SOA.

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:10 am

I'd just replace the grease to be safe next time, but if it's the same ones going all the time, is there some kind of misalignment in the hub? It's pretty much just that, bad seals, or lack of grease that can do it. I don't think you can put enough heat in them from braking.

entirelyturbo · Post by **entirelyturbo** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 5:29 am

I've concluded that I drove so long on the original bad bearings that I warped the hubs, and that is destroying the new bearings.

I can even see it in my alignment specs, how my kingpin angle is off slightly on my driver's side front (control arms are new, caster is EQUAL) and how my right rear camber is always a little more than the left rear.

That's why I bought that hub from bvh56, and I'll probably be buying the other side from him too. I've got a source on both from 93 Impreza non-ABS hubs, which are identical to ours (same part numbers).

So I'll probably just take all four hubs in, have brand-new OEM bearings put in, AND GREASED PROPERLY TO BE ABSOLUTELY 100 FUCKING PERCENT SURE

, and then just take one weekend that I have off and swap them all out.

I'm still going to find out for sure whether the bearings are sold to the end user ready-to-use or not. I want to hear it from SOA themselves.

entirelyturbo · Post by **entirelyturbo** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 6:24 am

Aha! We're getting somewhere!

http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/ReplacingInfo.pdf

Post by **Legacy777** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:04 pm

Excellent info

n2x4 · Post by **n2x4** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:06 pm

So the old trick of breaking the axle nut loose is bad? That means anyone who wants to take the nut off better have air tools then. I've done it on both my front axles too!

Interesting info either way.

entirelyturbo · Post by **entirelyturbo** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 10:53 pm

n2x4 wrote:So the old trick of breaking the axle nut loose is bad? That means anyone who wants to take the nut off better have air tools then. I've done it on both my front axles too!

I'm confused. The only way the axle nut can have anything to do with the damaging of a wheel bearing would be if it's not tight enough or missing.

n2x4 · Post by **n2x4** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:39 pm

According to your PDF you found it says:

"The vehicle should be in the air
with the wheel removed prior to loosening
or tightening the axle nut. If this
precaution is not taken, damage to the
wheel bearing may occur."

I don't understand what it would hurt either, but that's what it says anyways.

93Leg-c · Post by **93Leg-c** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:09 am

The FSM says the same thing -- to put the car on jack stands, remove the wheel, then unlock the axle nut. Assembly is in reverse order -- torque the axle nut, then install the wheel.

Apparently, if you loosen the axle nut with the wheel on, loosening the nut will loosen the bearing and could (or will) damage it due to the weight of the tire and wheel.

I don't know if this next piece of information is true or not, but one non-Subaru master mechanic told me that one of the races of the OEM bearings is actually like hard plastic and not metal. Perhaps that is part of the reason why the weight of the car needs to be off the bearing when unlocking the axle nut and when torquing it back to specs.

Just my .02.

entirelyturbo · Post by **entirelyturbo** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 4:11 am

Oh ok, I understand what you're saying now.

I think it would be okay if you have some of the weight off the wheel, but still enough to prevent it from turning.

I've always done it that way, but look where I am now

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The wheel bearing thing is a curse

The wheel bearing thing is a curse