Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

I know the rear wheel bearing has been endlessly chewed, but has anyone experienced a real failure - wheel seize or a bearing disintegrate?

Mine are droning some what, but since I plan on dropping the whole rear subframe next winter I am pondering if I could live with the noise until then.

Thanks,

Tapani

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

OT has a good story of one. It involves fire, as far as I remember.

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

Fire and a 3 wheeled vehicle, i think.

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

Sounds like you should get the spanners out !:eek:

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

I think OT's story involved a loose handbrake drum or something.

I've driven over 8000km with a bad rear bearing. Noise is awful but it hasn't gotten any worse lately :D

I bought hubs and bearings and seals from genuinesubaruparts.com, delivery was swift.

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

Aha! Found it:

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

That would be considered catastrophic in my books.:eek:

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

Excuse my ignorance but was this a consequence of the bearing?

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

yes, yes it is

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

As the bearing wears it develops play, which in turn allows the parking brake to rub against the rotor. As such it wasn't the bearing itself that blew up, but a secondary failure caused by the wear and misalignment of the bearing.

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

Yes, that was the only logic I could see.

Is there any way I can check this on my car? My appointment with the garage is next monday (after about a month of postponement). I still might want to drive until taht.

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

Jack up the corner of the car, grab the top and bottom of the tire and shake it up and down. You'll be able to feel any play in the bearing as slop in the wheel. It's hard to say what the limit is before you start getting trouble like that other guy, but if the wheel is moving around I'd limit the length of trips you take.

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

Thanks! They're due replacement upcoming monday so I guess I don't have to drive that much until then anyway :)

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

I'm almost finished.....

I decided to drop the exhaust and the dear diff to get the axles out - much easier than trying to open the rusted up supension bolts.....

I also used an old trick to get the outer races out - I welded a bead with MIG on both rolling surface, all around the circumference. When the liquid solidifies it contracts the race just enough to be able just to tap it out :-). Works like a dream. Those who fear distorting the knuckle do not do this ;).

The drivers side outer race was toast - a huge area of typical surface fatigue.

The grease in the new OEM bearings looked good, but I did change it to SKF EP stuff.

I used a long hardened threaded bar from a spring (McPherson) tool to pull everything back together and odd and ends laying around in the garage.

Exhaust and brake caliper installation tomorrow - had to call it a night.

Tapani

- edit: Added two photos. Looks like "spalling caused by smearing", i.e. primary cause is lack of lubrication (surface roughness details fuse together - see the roller). The grease was cooked - all black and hard. 20 years and 129kmiles. The nicks in the outer race were caused by me using the part as a tool. Do not look at my welding quality :-). The rolling resistance of the car decreased significantly - let's see if that has any effect on fuel mileage.

Re: Anyone experience a catastrophic wheel bearing failure?
 

Just had a total failure of the front right wheel bearing on my..........Toro lawn tractor. Got new bearings but have no way to press them into the hub. Looks like the lawn is going to get higher!