Bearings 101..
 

OK i know my bearings are shot... I will have the local Subie place do the work cause i have no place to get that involved with my car. Thing is what all do i need? I put a link below please name what part #s i need other then just 21.

http://www.subaruparts.com/diag/?mod...category=281-A

When i go to have this done what should i make sure is done? I know they have to be cleaned out and packed with proper grease other than that i dont know though...


Thanx for the help guys.

A well educated person told me that there is discussion about adapting an older Legacy tapered bearing rear setup instead of the newer style straight bearing that the SVX and Forrester have.

It may be worth investigating. There are probably lots of taper bearing Subarus in the junkyards.

Doug

The bearings should be taken off and torqued back on to the proper setting with the wheels off the ground.

Matt

You'll want to replace:

The Bearing
The inner seal
The outer seal

So, in this diagram, you'll need parts 21, 23 and 24 for each side.

Make sure they take a good look at the housing to make sure it has not been damaged in any way.

That might make for interesting reading - is this discussion on the web? I'm curious as I've never seen a straight bearing on any Subaru, but I'm no expert. The rear bearings on SVXs are certainly double tapered, however.

OK should i use the grease on the same page as the bearings???

Any good high-temp, disc brake rated wheel bearing grease will work just fine. Try to stick with a brand name you're familiar with - Vavoline, Texaco, etc.

It was a discussion that John (Lightning_8669) was having with the dealer that keeps replacing bearings on his Legacy. The mechanic was talking about how the old tapered bearings on Subarus never went bad and that a few guys have put the older style carrier, bearing, and a hub on their own newer Subarus to resolve the problem.

I'm only the messenger, but I'd be ppy to get more details if you want.

Doug

When I replaced the rear wheel bearings on my SVX, I did a bit of research on wheel bearing grease, and my feeling is that there are differences in quality between brands of wheel bearing grease. I ended up choosing a brand called Magnalube (mail ordered it) because it did well in a variety of standarized tests that qualify lubrication efficiency of grease. However, I consider its use on my SVX wheel bearings to be a bit of an experiment because the test data on this grease were missing one key characterization, and thus, I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone else until I see how well it works for me. Other brands that tested well are Redline CV1 grease (Summit has it) and Sta-lube ultra-whatever (red container) wheel bearing grease (available at many auto parts stores).

I've replaced quite a few bearings in just about every kind of Subie from FF1s to the SVX, but not much in the way of the newer models, I don't see many of them here. Typically flat roller bearings are used in straight axle, rwd vehicles as the axle floats in the bearing. There's really no way to retain the wheel hub without opposed bearings in an independant wheel. I do think some of the older Subies may have used opposed ball bearings rather than opposed tapered bearings... I work on too many cars to remember the little details (jeez, some days I feel like I have Kelly Bundy's brain, in order to retain a new fact I have to let go of an old one... ;) )

My humble opinion is that the SVX bearings are similar in size to those found in their lighter weight cars, although I've never had the chance to compare them physically, hence the failure rate. The first SVX bearing I replaced amazed me by the diminuitive size of the rollers. Even our cheap, excuse me - entry level, domestic junk has larger rollers.

One to go into the FAQ
 

A couple of new developments. The 2003 model year Forester and Imprezas are now equipped with the Legacy taper bearings instead of the previous (SVX Style) versions. This would appear to indicate that Subaru is aware of the problem (Todd Sipher at SOA in New Jersey actually told me as much) they are not offering customers of previous year models any assistance in correcting the problem.

Existing Forrester, Impreza, and SVX parts and remedy being done with the endorsement of Subaru of Canada:

The (original) part Number is 28016AA030 superceded by (legacy bearing) SCI541005. This is a duplex roller assembly and meets form, fit and function requirements. The bearing manufacturer's Part Number is: 46T0807050 and the manufacturer is Koyo, Japan. This was done with the endorsement of Subaru Canada.

For the 'bearing nuts' amongst us Koyo Bearings are located in Plymouth Michigan,
Tel. (734) 454-1500 and SKF has a very technical website with lots of useful data. http://www.skfusa.com/

instructions and installation tips can be found at:
http://www.ranma.com/~harlock/subaru/wheelbearings.html

Doug, I could friggin' kiss you. When I see Amber tonight, I'll get you a gold star!

One of us needs to try this and take photos.

I'll see you on saturday at the Detroit Auto Show, so we can settle up there *SMOOOOCH*

Doug

This is gettin' ugly. :rolleyes: I think I'm gonna yak.:eek: