I think my wheel bearings shot! - edit should it have loctite on the nut?

While bleeding the brakes today I had the pass side front wheel off... when putting it back on I noticed that alarmingly the brake discs and wheel were wobbling quite a bit...a quick look round the back and the hub wasnt moving so I am guessing its the wheel bearing thats shot.. the CV joing was wiggling with the hub so I guess thats ok? (I hope soo!)

so can I buy a full hub set up off the shelf from anywhere? as I dont have a press or the time to be messing around the cars supost to be going Curby in 2 weeks time and I still need to set the suspesnion up and get the tracking checked, plus change the brake discs!

or do I just ship it off my local VW specilist who I have used a few times and are pretty cheap on the labour rates and pretty quick. (only charged me 230 labor to change a dual mass clutch and fly wheel on the A4 when I supplied the parts)

cheers

Karl

 

Quickest solution has to be to source a spare (Mk2?) hub and cycle the other one through a garage whilst using that one.

 

thats the current plan... been told theres a mk2 in a scrappy not too far away so will pop over monday, but plan on checking my local scrappy just in case tomorrow,

 

Presume you know there are a few different types of hub. 239mm 17 and 19mm balljoints, and 256 / 280mm brakes 19mm balljoints.

 

You gota take the whole hub off so just knock the old bearing out and knock a new one in, or just get a friendly garage to do it with there press, thou 3 places wouldnt/didnt want to do my leon hub so I did it myself. Still quicker than hunting for a new hub, and with a new bearing it should be good for years of abuse.

 

It's not totally clear the way you've written this, but you did have the wheel bolts tightened up when you noticed this movement, didn't you? If the bearing is that bad, it would normally be howling as well.

You should double check it isn't just the ball joint moving around. That's a lot quicker and easier to change.

If you don't have access to a press, take the hub off and take it down to a local garage for them to change the bearing. I think I've got a spare 256/280 hub somewhere, but I couldn't vouch for the bearings in it.

 

yep the wheel bolts were tight and it doesnt appear to be the ball joint (that was my first thought) as the hub stays still, all the movement is within bearing area.

the odd thing is there was no noise from the bearing when I last drove the car and when I last drove it was on the way back from from work, where the car had been on the ramp and I had had all 4 wheels off to bleed all the brakes.

Danster - the car uses mk2 16v hubs as it has different brakes fitted, so Im guessing mine with be the 19mm ball joint version

Ill have a quick strip down today and see whats what before I start really panicing

 

UPDATE - I was curious so went for another look and got the torque wrench out, oddly the nut was lose! re-torqued to 265nm as per haynes, and now its all tight again, no play at all! so I plan to put the wheel back on and run it and see what happens, but before I do that should there be any thread lock on there? and if not would it hut if I put some on?

the nut is still nice and shiney as when the lad who had the car before me did the conversion he changed everything, I have a reciept for 2 new bearings on the 22 Aug 08, and the car hasnt actually been on the road that long as he didnt finish the converson untill around the start of 2009, and I got the car in Nov 2009 since then ive done less than 2k in it and I dont think the last owner even did that!

 

Bin the nut at the first opportunity - they're crimped and are less effective/prone to coming loose once they've been used.

The bearing may be ok, but this episode will have accelerated wear, so line up a replacement all the same.

 

256mm hubs will be the 19mm balljoint.
There should also be a large washer behind the nut on the end of the drive shaft too.
It is possible it was just not torqued up correctly, but as Chris mentions some damage may have been done to the bearing and drive flange due to running with it slack.

 

Looking at the nut on mine theres no crimp, thats why I asked if there should be thread lock on there..Ill see if TPS have 2 nuts in stock tomorrow and chnage them and see how it goes.

Ill keep an eye out for a new hub and get that one ready to swap over when the cars in storage for winter

Danster - The washer is there so thats ok,


cheers for the input guys

Karl.

 

The crimp isn't obvious sometimes, especially on the OEM nuts. Just the very top un-hexed section 3-4mm.

 

Okay Ill have alook tomorrow as its a bit wet now, but I will still order some new nuts anway just to be safe and I have picked up some loctite 248 thread locker http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_199363_langId_-1_categoryId_165691

would there be any harm in using that as well? belt and braces as i dont want this happening again

 

248 is pretty light, but then again I would caution 270. It'll probably be fine, but everytime you take it off, the threads would need a clean out with the shaft off to prevent build up.

Get a new nut, pop it on, and paint line it inside the hub and across the nose of the CV. Then you can inspect it once in a while and see instantly if it's moved.

 

will do, Cheers Chris

 

My last Mk2 suffered the same nearside nut backing off, I marked it (^^ pp Chris) and checked it monthly. Never bothered with Loctite.

 

nice to knqwo im not the only one...mine gets a bit of punishement with 180bhp or so going through it normally but if i give it some its up to 270... so a fair bit more than when the car was designed.

 

Here you are Danny, a good example of why VWMS used Audi Hubs and CV Joints, with stretch bolts, instead of nuts!

 

Bolt or nut, if it was not tight it would still make the drive flange flap around though, as there would be no tension holding the two inner bearing races together.

 

But, how tight is tight?

Torque the nut dry, and there will be less load than if torqued with light oil, which will have less load than if torqued with MoS2 grease, which will have less load than if torqued with MoS2 Paste!

A stretch bolt will offer more reliable loads no matter what the lubricant, or lack of it!

Plus. Should the system 'breath', or suffer impact forces, then a stretch bolt will breath, or return after impact, a nut on a big thread, such as this, will just loosen.