Contributing factors to bad front wheel bearings?

[DSMTurbo2]

Hello all. I have a bit of a dilemma; I'm have just killed my 4th front drivers wheel bearing since November of last year. I’m starting to think I have a problem other than just a couple factory defective wheel bearings.

I swapped to five lug hubs in November. Pressed in new wheel bearings at that time, it went completely text book. On and off since then I have had the bearing only on my drivers side start to loosen up until the point of squeaking. The alignment has not been touched in about 2 years, but may not be perfect, the ball joint is getting replaced this time around, it is SLIGHTLY loose but I have seen much worse.

What are some contributing factors that might be leading to this problem? I’m freaking out here!! Thanks Erik.

 

Check the torque on the axle nuts. Improper torque can lead to bearing failure.

 

[DSMTurbo2]

Ya.. like I said the bearing jobs were done text book... proper torque per the eclipse service manual. good thought though.. thanks. Erik

 

[Jason G.]

That's usually what will cause them to fail prematurely.

 

Is this with fact. parts or aftermarket?

 

[s_firestone]

I would wager you might have a deteriorated CV axle joint or a slightly bent axle or halfshaft. Halfshaft could be sitting slightly off-kilter (on that note a sagging motor or transmission mount might also do this). Hub could conceivably be out of round. You could also have a slightly binding brake caliper causing the bearing to heat up. What is the condition of the grease??? You are greasing the bearing fully before inserting it? Any bluing on the splines of the axle? Any chance your not getting the hub all the way in? How hot are your front rims when you cut off the car? What size rims and what is the offset(I ask that because really wide rims with the improper offset can stress out the bearings)? Are your tires balanced? How is your suspension configured(stock, dropped, rally, etc)? Any noises?

You could always swap hubs/knuckles, could be a slight difference the bore for the bearing. You could have a slight imperfection on a lip or burr that is forcing the bearing to seat at an angle.

 

[toybreaker]

^^^^ pretty well covered it^^^^

Make sure that you've got the correct washer behind the nut as well. I could see how the nut could bottom out before it supplied the correct pinching force to hold the bearing together if the washer was ommitted, or was thin.

I usually make my wife step on the brakes and tighten the nut by hand, and then torque it to the middle of the specified range with the car on stands.

On a side note, almost all of the bad front wheel bearings I see are directly related to over torquing, or using an impact on the axle nut. ( /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif yea, I know people do it all the time, I don't let them anywhere near my car)

The rest are killed by rolling the car around without axles in it. Just stick a t-case thru bolt and a couple of washers thru where the axle goes, throw a nut on it and tighten it up some. Now you can move the car without any bearing trauma, or contact between the abs tone ring and the wheel speed sensor.

 

[DSMTurbo2]

Quote:
I would wager you might have a deteriorated CV axle joint or a slightly bent axle or half shaft. Half shaft could be sitting slightly off-kilter (on that note a sagging motor or transmission mount might also do this). Hub could conceivably be out of round. You could also have a slightly binding brake caliper causing the bearing to heat up. What is the condition of the grease??? You are greasing the bearing fully before inserting it? Any bluing on the splines of the axle? Any chance your not getting the hub all the way in? How hot are your front rims when you cut off the car? What size rims and what is the offset(I ask that because really wide rims with the improper offset can stress out the bearings)? Are your tires balanced? How is your suspension configured(stock, dropped, rally, etc)? Any noises?

You could always swap hubs/knuckles, could be a slight difference the bore for the bearing. You could have a slight imperfection on a lip or burr that is forcing the bearing to seat at an angle.



wow great info everyone. I could try replacing the whole CV (i do have a couple around ) I should have mentioned that I have had two hub, knuckles in there ( I was ruling out a out of round bore in the old hub). I might want to check out the caliper but I do recall checking for extra heat before and it was fine, I have not noticed burnt grease and yes it is present /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif. I guess there could be a chance that everything isn't going in all the way but I would be very surprised I guess ( I will check it out) wheels are 16x7, 225 tire close to factory offset ( a very common set up, nothing crazy). the wheels are freshly balanced and have no vibrations. suspension is lowered with pro kits and and kyb's ( this is one thing I'm leaning toward. I have no camber adjustment, but they don't appear too bad. Dampers could use replacing but they are not done). The noise has been typical, every time it starts getting noticeably bad is when I turn and hear the break begin to squeak, this gets progressively worse as the bearing wears. Other than brake noise there is nothing. Washer is there, and it is the right one. This is why I'm so frustrated I have ruled out allot of stuff already, it is baffling me. thanks everyone.

 

Did you ever figure the problem out?