Repacking front wheel bearing w/ high temp grease? (feedback wanted)

[HavokRuels]

Frustrating that so many of these responses were made without actually reading much from the thread At least someone took the time to confirm that there's nothing hidden that's keeping them together.


Too funny

Yep I read it at midnight from my ipad and after I posted, I saw page 1 and realized it. That's usually what happens when someone bumps an old thread but of course someone has to chime in like an ass.

Take the unicorn comment and shove it.

I still wouldn't bother to repack a brand new bearing.

[SLC4EVER]

It's not for everyone, and not difficult at all...but if you are very hard on your brakes and suspension it will be the last time you ever do another wheel bearing. Well worth the effort if you take into account the labor it takes to install a new bearing and the money to get another alignment.

TT use to (or still does) sell repacked new bearings just for this reason. But it's been 25+ years since I've bought one from them.

[cata]

I still wouldn't bother to repack a brand new bearing.

I hear ya but I think it's quite retarded that manufacturers are cutting corners on what is probably the cheapest component of the assembly, the grease. I don't feel like doing these again in 5-7 years, just because they decided to save a few cents and sell me a product that won't last as long as it could. It works out quite well in their favor though, this kind of ignorance obviously helps keep their production numbers going, as people will be replacing them within a shorter time interval. It looks like this flaw is still apparent in newer cars, people are finding poor quality grease in newer BMW's, and that's just one example that I'm aware of.

I'm just not buying into it. If you can work with what's already there and double its lifetime with only a little bit of effort, then you'd have to be crazy to not do it.

[g6raddo]

Obviously it's not a little effort of you have spent this much time trying to figure out how to disassemble them

[MikkiJayne]

people are finding poor quality grease in newer BMW's,

How can you tell its poor quality?

[SLC4EVER]

I think it's more quantity than it is quality...but probably both. There is very little grease in them to begin with.

[iamdagerman]

What about those bearings that GAP sells that come packed with the REDLINE grease? I went though 3 sk bearing in 2 years are there any of high quality?

[SLC4EVER]

I would bet if they took the time to repack them with Red line, they would be good to go. By the way, you don't need to disassemble the whole bearing, just remove the seals and repack them old school style...grease in the palm of your hand and working it into the bearing until it pops out the other side.

[cata]

Obviously it's not a little effort of you have spent this much time trying to figure out how to disassemble them

If I knew what I were doing, it would be easy peasy. Not the case though, hence the learning curve

How can you tell its poor quality?

While researching, I stumbled into a thread on a BMW forum, and they were having failures well under 80k km's and both the OEM and replacement bearings were poorly packed with just the bare minimum grease. Someone had offered a re-packing service for those who didn't know what to do.

By the way, you don't need to disassemble the whole bearing, just remove the seals and repack them old school style...grease in the palm of your hand and working it into the bearing until it pops out the other side.

Sounds like a great plan. Since mine weren't splitting apart, this is deff worth a shot. You're basically saying to pack them on one side and let the old grease get pushed out? I know that you don't want too much or too less grease in there so am a bit worried about judging this correctly since I have no experience. What's an easy way to tell?

[SLC4EVER]

Don't worry about getting too much in there, the excess will work it's way out when driving...which won't be much. Yes, work it in from one side only. You will see the original grease ooze out, continue until you see the new grease. The bearings I used had two sets of seals on each side, you need to remove all of them.

[James 93SLC]

It's not for everyone, and not difficult at all...but if you are very hard on your brakes and suspension it will be the last time you ever do another wheel bearing. Well worth the effort if you take into account the labor it takes to install a new bearing and the money to get another alignment.

TT use to (or still does) sell repacked new bearings just for this reason. But it's been 25+ years since I've bought one from them.

Exactly the point! Thank you

In some situations (i.e. track use, autocross.....etc) it is worth the effort to make sure a part will perform to its maximum lifespan. We are not advocating this for everyone's daily drive.

I think it's more quantity than it is quality...but probably both. There is very little grease in them to begin with.

Yeah, you can see how little grease was in the bearing that I posted pictures of.

Unicorn glue.....way better than Gorilla glue

[SLC4EVER]

Yeah, the bearing you posted pics of is about the average amount of grease I've seen in all the bearings I've done. It's a no brainer.

[sdezego]

I would like to re-iterate everything DAK said above. I have been doing this for years and have never had to re-vist a set that I repacked. However, my MKII Scirocco used to eat them for lunch until I started packing.

From my build thread and a few other threads I posted on this topic: I took a small screw driver and rounded any edge that could nick the seal. Push up on the inner race and you can get the tool in there to work around and get the seal out w/o ruining them. If you are worried, then buy the ones repacked with Redline (or similar) from GAP or whoever else sells them.

[SLC4EVER]

However, my MKII Scirocco used to eat them for lunch until I started packing.

Funny, my '77 Scirocco use to do the same until I bought a repacked set from TT way back in the day when they were in SoCal. My 87 Scirocco was the first time I did it myself and was the only set I ever replaced in it. Corrado's...same thing.

[James 93SLC]

Yep I read it at midnight from my ipad and after I posted, I saw page 1 and realized it. That's usually what happens when someone bumps an old thread but of course someone has to chime in like an ass.

Take the unicorn comment and shove it.

I still wouldn't bother to repack a brand new bearing.

Don't take that part too personally, it was mostly directed at the naysayers saying it couldn't be done. I wasn't picking your post specifically.

I think Dak has driven the point home, in that he has never had a re-packed bearing fail on him. It's just one of those extra steps you can take to get the most life out of a part and it doesn't take that much effort. Much like running a quality synthetic engine oil vs. the cheapest stuff you can find at Walmart.

[HavokRuels]

No offense taken bro. I should have read the whole thread before posting anyway lol