Why do my rear wheel bearings keep running dry?

[8v-of-fury]

I have lost yet another rear inner bearing..

Due to? You guessed it, running dry. Had a little bit of play in both sides earlier last week, pulled the wheels and tightened them both up to within specifications. Didn't bother to pull the drums (time constraint) as they spun free and easy, and I had just serviced them several months ago.

The driver side inner was just completely dry pretty much, you could tell it was over heated and run without lube. I am pretty certain I ran a quality grease in there, and I packed the hell out of the bearings.

[CrazyAndy]

Failed inner seal or loose grease spindle cap?  That's the only thing I can immediately think of.

 Is it only the D/S inner that does this?  Maybe you have a ridge worn on that spindle's seal surface that's either eating the seal or not allowing the seal to completely contact the surface, letting grease escape little by little over time.

Or is it that the grease just walks itself out of the bearing cages into between the bearings in the drum area?

What bearings and seals are you using?

[8v-of-fury]

The sealing surface looks intact and ok. The seal does seem to have a good fit on there. The grease is walking off the inner bearing and ending up in the drum. Which is weird, cause i loaded the drums up too before i put them on.

The cap also was a tight sealed fit.

I honestly don't know what brand bearings or seal.. thats not true.. i got them from Parry's.. and they sell SKF bearings, some OEM seal as well.

[theman53]

I had 2 pex bearings from autohaus do that, but I wasn't using the best grease either.

Could be the things Crazyandy has said, and also the stub axle could be bad. The stub, especially after overheating it may not be holding the inner race tight. I have before took a punch and put a peen on the stub axle very carefully to make sure it isn't out of round, but holds the race in place. That is not in the Bentley, but it did the trick, I wouldn't reccomend it unless you understand fully. If you don't do it right it will make a flat spot that will trash the bearings in no time. I now have a slip fit bearing and sleeve retaining compound in rite lock RT-09 that holds things like this.

[8v-of-fury]

Hmm. This has happened twice to me on this side alone.. Both times the inner race was stuck to the stub.. Do we assume a tight fit? I will check the new bearing on the stub by itself first and see what is up.

[srgtlord]

Or you could swap to a sealed rear bearing setup.....but goodluck finding parts lol


http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4358337-polo-ibiza-stub-axle-on-a-golf-mk1-to-mk3-guide

[R.O.R-2.0]

are you using high temp wheel bearing grease?

and are you packing the bearings AND hub full of grease when you replace the bearings?

whats your bearing packing procedure?

[bbob203]

Or you could swap to a sealed rear bearing setup.....but goodluck finding parts lol


http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4358337-polo-ibiza-stub-axle-on-a-golf-mk1-to-mk3-guide

that is what i'm talking about!!

[8v-of-fury]

I do not know what kind of grease was in the grease gun when I used it at the time.. unfortunately. I want to say it wasn't the right stuff and that is what happened..

I am now using quality high temp wheel bearing grease in my gun for everything.

I packed the siht out of my bearings when I did them last, all the grease walked off an ended up in the middle of the drum.. Lesson learned the hard way. The only real way to learn eh? lol

[CRSMP5]

you get so many odd issues...

future input.. if you have to retighten the rear nut.. something is WRONG... that should never need to be done ever... only when you remove the drum...

[8v-of-fury]

Odd issues of driving an Mk1 as a daily.

Its a damn good thing I can fix stupid stuff on the side of the road like an amature McGyver.

Well when they take some more torque on the nut what is it that is happening? The bearings have shifted in their races??

[CRSMP5]

ive dailed a mk1 or b3 passat since 89...... same wheel bearings in them all... NEVER have i had to "retighten" a rear nut between brakes UNLESS it eats a bearing... think ive ate 2 in all those years at that...

drydean was taken over by castrol... and red penzoil are the only 2 greases ive used in all this time.. AND fag bearings... i use a metal seal from federal mogual (sp??) as vw rubber ones suck arss and fall out..

your doin something wrong if this common issue

[8v-of-fury]

Last two failures were from running dry and over heating. I guess my grease wasn't the right stuff. I have learned mastah, high temp bearing grease will be used from now on.

They are SKF bearings, and SKF metal seals.

[8v-of-fury]

How tight are you making them?

So that I can still just move the keyed washer dealio. Which I believe is per the manual? Or so I have read.

[belchfire]

IMO the bearings are barely adequate for a go-kart. I've had some good loads in my caddy and I was scared to death driving it. Smoked an inner once and had all kinds of fun trying to heat the race with a propane torch alongside the road it the rain. If your bearing goes on easily and then has to be hammered off then it probably spun and welded itself to the spindle. That will happen when the rollers seize. Once it's spun, the tolerances are toast. I don't like the peening idea as it introduces stress risers and creates the possibility of cracks. Mine has some marks from the disaster and I know I'm on borrowed time. Locktite has some green "bearing retaining" sealant that is specifically made to fill the gap. Kind of wonder if the surface the seal rides on is worn/damaged. Could be eating up your seal and by-by grease?  There's a toy called speedy sleeve that's .000X" thick and goes over the bad area and makes a new surface. I've had to re-adjust mine a bunch of times too. Grease is OK though. An idiosyncrasy?