Chronic Wheel Bearing Breakage
 

I just oversaw my daughter's purchase of her first car, a 92 SVX LS-L. We just moved to Yonkers (second hilliest city in the U.S.) and I wanted an AWD car for her. I little dreamed that she was buying a cult car. I also little dreamed that she'd gotten a lemon. The left rear wheel bearing has broken three times in the first ten days she's had it. A local mechanic is suggesting that I replace the axle and the spindle as well as the bearing this time. He says the cost of the three parts is $658. Yipes. Anybody have an axle or a spindle to spare or a recommendation of a place to search for same? Grateful for any help, Nick

Most likely the bearing was repaired improperly. If the hub was damaged it will cause the bearing to fail quite quickly when replaced. The wheel bearings are quite finicky with these cars and will fail if the procedure is not done properly. The bearings are shipped in a grease that is merely a rust preventative and not suitable for use on the car. They must be repacked with a suitable grease.

I have replaced a bearing in the past by finding a used spindle with a good hub and bearing. This is by far the cheapest, but probably not the best way of going about it. I would suggest you:

1) Find a new shop to do the bearing repair.
2) If you can't afford new parts, find a used hub/spindle.
3) Doing a seach here on 'Wheel Bearings' will give you a plethora of personal experiences with rear bearing failure. Many good stories and ways to avoid repeated failure.

Maybe this mechanic is incompetent. For the bearing to crack three times in ten days indicates to me that something more than the wrong grease is at fault. The previous owner had this bearing go on him twice in a very short time and that was a big reason why he sold the car. So this is not a new problem on this car. However, that said, I am an ignoramus in the world of SVXdom (if not the world of cars in general) and I am open to all diagnoses of my problem. Nick

The only people I let touch my car other than me is a Subaru dealer that is very familiar with the SVX. I only use them when I don't have the time or the tools to do the job.

There is actually a special tool used to do wheel bearings on the SVX called the Hub-Tamer. The dealerships are instructed to use these, but your everyday mechanic will most likely use a press to do the job. The Hub-Tamer is the proper way to do it.

All Subarus are notorious for wheel bearing failure. Find yourself a good mechanic that will do the job right and you won't have to deal with it for a very long time. That is, if the car isn't driven too hard.

Hey i was just in yonkers!!!....my friend chris lives off of palmer road!!!

You may want to try taking the car into a Subaru dealership for this kind of repairs. Wheel bearings will be prone to failure if not done properly. My guess is that the dealership would do this job probably better than anyone. You can try rushneck subaru in tarrytown.....Rye Subaru...pretige subaru in pleasantville...theres alot of suby dealers around here.

Overtightning of the axle nut will cause premature failure of the bearing. Using a hydraulic shop press to press in the new bearing instead of the on car service using a threaded install tool will cause premature failure.

I have seen too many shops take an impact wrench set on full and just let it hammer the axle nut on for fifteen seconds. Yikes!!

The SVX bearing is listed as "Sealed" but it can easily be dissected and regreased every 50,000 miles or so. I have three original bearings (One had to be replaced due to an accident) on my car and they have lasted 230,000 miles. I have cleaned and re-greased them about 4 times.

If the housing has been damaged, it will need to be replaced or you will never get good bearing life. If the hub is damaged that will need to be replaced as well.

I cannot fathom why an axle would cause premature failure.

A mechanic should be able to test the trueness of the carrier and hub to determine if they are serviceable or not.

Doug

I would suspect that improper replacement procedure is the culprit. I can't imagine a distorted knuckle or hub being the cause of bearing failure so quickly or repeatedly. I've worked with a lot of guys that change hub bearings with an air hammer and I'm here to tell ya that won't fly with Subarus. Most probable cause is the 'mechanic' (:rolleyes: ) is pressing the new bearings in by applying pressure to the inner races thereby smashing the balls into the outer races. No matter what he/she is doing there is gross incompetency at work and the responsible party should be flogged. Now if they were failing after 500-1000 miles there may be a different problem. Hopefully they haven't done anything stupid (also hard to believe at this point) and caused further damage that will require more parts.

Good Luck at ya.

p.s. I've done a dozen or so SVX bearings in the past couple years here, without incident. Add in another 40-50 other Subarus in Denver - they're like the plague out there.

bearing fixed; now tranny dying
 

Thanks for the sage advice. I took my daughter's '92 to a local Subaru guy and he fixed the bearing and all is well with the bearing. He said that indeed the thing had been over-tightened and he was barely able to save the knuckle. Now however, the transmission seems on life-support (the transmission fluid has been cooked to a dark, particle-ridden mess) and I am trying to decide whether to abandon Project SVX.

Re: bearing fixed; now tranny dying
 

Or at least start Project (5 spd) SVX.

I think that my rear bearing, could use some new grese iam just wondering how hard it would be able to do and the procedure to get at the bearings to re grease them? I really dont want to buy some new bearings.