Author Topic: Is this normal wear on CR bearings? Looks odd... (Read 3213 times)

fairweather · « **on:** January 06, 2009, 11:18:59 pm »

Left to right are 1-4 and the bottoms are the cap bearings. What would cause the non-uniform wear? Don't know much about bearing characteristics, is this indicative of alot of miles or something unbalanced?

Thanks for any insights!

Tom

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34116076@N04/3175426047/

Try this link if the photo doesn't show.

jtanguay · « **Reply #1 on:** January 06, 2009, 11:39:22 pm »

broken link...

VW_Commuter · « **Reply #2 on:** January 06, 2009, 11:40:12 pm »

link works for me.

cyrus #1 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 07, 2009, 12:07:28 am »

Doesn't work for me either.

fairweather · « **Reply #4 on:** January 07, 2009, 12:20:22 am »

Doesn't seem to work in IE, don't know why. I'll try to fix it.

Hosted another on flicker, seems to work in IE.

madrogers · « **Reply #5 on:** January 07, 2009, 02:35:15 am »

pic worked for me , the brgs look like normal high mileage wear, they look like what I see in the high way trucks when we do brg rolls at 600,000 miles.

oldskool rich · « **Reply #6 on:** January 07, 2009, 12:32:42 pm »

im building a powerfull diesel engine at the minit and i didnt realise until i came to it that bearings on a PD are only just good enough to take about 200BHP if that, i upgraded to sputter bearings which is just one side of the bearings cost £80 but its basicly incredibly strong material, guy recons it will take as much power as i can produce

its the side of the bearing that has worn on ur car (its under alot more pressure) so with that in mind it could be that your car has been thrashed or high milage, the uneven wear could be down to the way the air flows into the inlet manifold making less combustion in differnt cyinders or even a lazy injector. it realy could be anything, if it was just one then id say sumthing was wrong. tbh ive seen alot worse, i worked on a 18t that had been thrashed to the point that the bearings wer just tin foyle and wer starting to slip out the side of the rods that had turned blck from the heat

by the looks of them urs are off an early TDI ive heard a few of my friends have problems with these over 100k so i wouldnt be too suprised bearings are designed to go

myke_w · « **Reply #7 on:** January 09, 2009, 03:21:35 pm »

I'd agree this looks pretty normal for high miles, you might be able to attribute the light surface wear to occasional use of a non diesel rated oil as well.

I'd also consider the condition of the crank in your assessment - if it's still nice and shiny and shows no wear then I'd say you're safe to move on to the rebuild step.

Before ordering new, you might also want to look at the rear of the bearings for size info (whether they are std or oversize).

jtanguay · « **Reply #8 on:** January 09, 2009, 03:45:55 pm »

even if the crank looks nice, you might want to consider getting it polished.

myke_w · « **Reply #9 on:** January 09, 2009, 03:49:58 pm »

true dat!

fairweather · « **Reply #10 on:** January 09, 2009, 08:21:29 pm »

Ya, the rest of the diagnosis suggests very high mileage. The crank is going to get ground/polished to the first size under, the bores are egg-shaped and tapered. pistons are getting checked to see if I can reuse them in a sleeved block, otherwise it'll be new pistons.

I heard an opinion that the uneven wear (left to right) on the far right one might be a bent rod, that is being checked as well.

It just started out with swapping in a new ex mani, then I discovered a turbo with so much shaft play the fins were scraping the housing!! One thing led to another...