On my 95 SE, I replaced both original axles for the first time in 2001. The drivers side I purchased a cheapy from an auto parts store, several months the passengerside split and none of the local parts stores had the passenger side available (remember this is back in 2001). After searching I found Raxles and ordered the passenger side from them. A couple of years later the cheapy's boot split and I just exchanged it since it had a lifetime warranty. Several months after putting in the new cheapy halfshaft the drivers side wheel bearing went bad, replaced it with a used knuckle assembly and it lasted several months before going bad. Then I went back to the original knuckle and used a new wheel bearing, this time it lasted around a year. I've been replacing the drivers side pretty much yearly ever since. The car has approx 225k miles and the passenger side bearing is still fine.

So my question is: Have others of you had problems with failing wheel bearings after replacing your half shafts?

I have always suspected that the CV joint on the cheap shaft was out of balance and causing the premature failure, but I have talked to some people in the field that said that some of the rebuilds use a poorly machined outer joint that is preloading the bearing and causing the failure. He said to compare the end of the Raxles knuckle to that of the cheapy and I'll see the difference, but since I don't have them torn down right now I can't compare.

I haven't completly ruled out the knuckle/hub as being a cause of the bearing failures but they both look fine to me.

 

Poor tolerances on parts that ride on bearings can shorten the life of the bearings. If the shape or size is not right it can cuse extra presure that can lead to pitting/contaminating the grease with metal and then the wear is further accelerated.

This is just an engineering prespective of what could happen if the tollerances are off as I havn't had this problem myslef but the poit is that quality bearings/races/shafts last longer.

 

Well one thing to make sure is that the axles nut has to be torqued down pretty hard, so you won't have play in the wheel bearing.

Learned my lesson the first time.

 

It's hard to know anything unless you have the failed wheel bearing and can inspect it.

My first suspicion is an undertorqued axle nut.

Dave

 

^
Axle nut. It needs to be torqued to 174 ft. lbs. if I remember correctly. Live and learn...

 

174min.-231max......Alldata

 

Tightened both sides to 200 ft. lbs., and used a good torque wrench. Besides the fact that if I torqued both sides the same it wouldn't explain why one side continually fails and the other doesn't.

I didn't look closely at the bearing when I replaced it, I inspected the hub and knuckle for damage. I was looking for signs that the bearing had spun in the knuckle or the hub had spun in the bearing but both looked ok and didn't show signs of wear.

 

Dramatazation of a conversation between me and my machinest literally two day's ago!!:

Me: Hey les, wanna press these maxima wheel bearings into these knuckle's/hub's for me, I already went ahead and cut out the races to save you some time and me some money

Les: Sure, when do you need them by?

Me: I can come back.

Les: ok cool, give me like an hour

Two hours later.........

Les: hey kevin

Me: Hey les, those wheel bearings all set?

Les: yes they are Hey what kinda shape is your cooling system in?

Me: these aren't for mine, customers, but since your asking mine is great, 350z t-stat water wetter blah blah toyota & bottled water blah blah.

Les: Well crappy coolant causes an electrolytic reaction.......

Me: Yeah I know, you can actualy measure it with a voltmeter, I've known this les, but where the F did that come from? Les..... are you high?

Les: Well I was at one of those a.e.r.a. seminars the other day, and the guy starts talking about electrical pitting on wheel bearings due to old coolant, there was a few other guys in there and between all of us over 200 years of experience and all our jaws dropped, we had a hard time swallowing it, he went on to start talking about shops that thought they were getting cheapo waterpumps because they were failing so quickly and when they finally went to a different manafacturer the sytem had been completely flushed because it was on waterpump # 3 or 4 and that confirmed they were crappy waterpumps.....well the engineer analyzing the failed pumps knew otherwise. But anyways, thought I'd tell you that he said it happens with wheel bearings to, crazy huh?

Me: yeah.

So what kind of shape is your cooling system in and do you have a multimeter? Just putting it out there, not saying it's the cause of YOUR issue, but if you have a multimeter take the radiator cap off and stick a probe in the coolant and another on the intake mani'. And yeah, tourqing them within the right range is crucial.

 

Bearing currents leave a quite particular damage pattern. If you still have your old bearing, crack off the outer race and have a look at the race wear. That should tell you quite a bit about how it failed.

Dave

 

Interesting thought on the coolant, doesn’t seem likely but who knows. I’ve just got a cheap voltmeter but I can give it a try.

Unfortunately I didn't keep the bearing, so I can’t check the wear. Don’t know why I didn’t think about this at the time, just in a hurry I suppose. I should also point out that the last 2 weren’t bad enough to be making noise, just a little play. I just check them periodically since the passenger side has 225k miles on it, and to my surprise the driver’s side is the one that has developed play.

I’ve also noticed a sound like a cupped tire, it’s so faint that I have to turn the air and radio off to hear and it’s only there at speeds > 50mph. Tires are close to needing replaced but look to be worn evenly. Might just be a tire or a rear wheel bearing (their original and have 225k miles as well), but now I’m wondering if it’s something out of balance in the front and that’s causing the bearing to be beat to death.

I think when I pull the transmission back out to check why it’s popping out of 5th I’ll go ahead and get a new half shaft from Raxles, since I need to send him the passenger side for replacement anyway. I might rotate the tires and swap rotors at this time as well. It will also give me a chance to compare the CV joint ends.

 

if it were the axle you would probly feel it in your steering wheel. did you have an allightment after you changed the bearing and axles?