Mike - Well, I'm gonna have to disagree a bit. That may be the case in your experience, but over the years I have personally seen all of these bearing failures. Folks don't always adjust bearings properly or use the right kind or amount of lubricant. Some car owners don't know the meaning of a maintenance schedule. Cars get in accidents that sometimes load parts beyond normal limits. If someone is bookin' down the freeway and then stops the car in deep water for a time, those nice warm bearings will not always be protected from entrance of that nice cool water by a marginal grease seal. You're only thinking of the best of times, and normal situations. Well I've experienced bearings that have seen some of the not so good times too and really been put to the task. :^O Regardless of what a car has or has not gone through, these are truly pictures of bearing failure modes, and if you see any of these conditions, you should replace the bearings. FWIW all of the factory service manuals for any of my GMC products (I buy factory manuals for all my cars) have included pictures of bearing failure modes very similar to these, so I would assume that they must not be all that rare. The fact is, that one should periodically meticulously clean wheel bearings of all lube and dirt till they are spotless, inspect them closely, then lube, assemble and adjust them properly. If any of the bearings happen to have any of the pictured defects, they would be replaced at that time. That's my story and I stickin' to it. :^)
Barry -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 1:04 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [MBZ] Bad Wheel Bearings? In a message dated 7/21/2005 1:23:08 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: http://www.timken.com/products/bearings/services/valueadd/prevent.asp this site and the info in it is for really for industrial /very heavy duty applications cars (even Mercedes Benzes) simply do not and cannot be overloaded to the point that wheel bearings fail! ( things like spalling, Brinelling,Spall propagated by hydraulic pressure ect really never happen in automotive circles ( cars) these things happen usually to something like a real big truck with solid tires that has been overloaded cars have suspensions that soak up jolts ...no matter how big the pot hole the bearings don't go... the wheel/tire takes the damage even if you were able to overload a car ( lets say 4 cars on top of it) the suspensions would give way and the brake system would not be able to stop it .... THE ONLY THING that we car ppl have to be concerned with is improper installation ( I cant imagine how that would be possible) or lack of lubricant ..... this is really nothing to worry about mike collins phila 1985 500 sec
