Wheel Bearings.

[Bam Bam]

Is it me presuming wrongly here or is there a weakness with the type of wheel bearing on the W208 CLK and other models that have the same type of bearing fitted.
I can remember my brother who owned a 208 replaced 3 wheel bearings whilst he had his car for 18 months (2 Rears, 1 Front) and now I've just started to get a front end O/S whirring noise so my suspisions are this one is on it's last legs. I removed the wheel today but before taking it off I noticed a slight amount of play when rocking it from the 12 and 6 o'clock positions, I removed the hub cover and instead of the usual Nut and Split Pin config. I found a threaded collar with an attached locking bolt. I was tempted to slacken the locking bolt and put a 1/4 turn on the bearing to tighten it up but on turning the brake disc I could hear a faint clicking noise and I'm certain the excess play has damaged it too far.

Are these known to be a bad or troublesome design or have we both just be unlucky and jumping to the wrong conclusion.

Jim.

 

[television]

There is nothing wrong with the bearing design on you car, one never knows how a car has been driven. Jacking the car and tightening you can hear if it is not right, or if you can feel the balls when turning the wheel.

What happens when a bearing is not adjusted correctly the balls hammer small dents in the outer case and it soon becomes noisy.

We do not get many bearing faults on any MB

 

[jimsinessex]

I have had a 1999 W208 CLK from new which has now done 184,000 miles without experiencing any problems with wheel bearings.

A friend of mine with a W202 C class has had front wheel bearing problems but admits to having clouted the kerb hard, he is also experiencing excessive wear of the tyre shoulder. He is looking to remortgage his house to meet the cost of a full suspension alignment check at a MB stealership.

Jim

 

[hmang]

There is nothing wrong with the bearing design on you car, one never knows how a car has been driven. Jacking the car and tightening you can hear if it is not right, or if you can feel the balls when turning the wheel.

What happens when a bearing is not adjusted correctly the balls hammer small dents in the outer case and it soon becomes noisy.

We do not get many bearing faults on any MB

pedantic point..but ...no balls in my front wheel bearings malc they're taperred rollers.

i believe long wheel bearing life is helped by usage of good grease and cleaning , repacking and re-adjusting now and then.

just sensible preventative maintenance

the condition of the seal on the inside is important as water ingress will shorten the life of the bearing ....obviously

 

[television]

pedantic point..but ...no balls in my front wheel bearings malc they're taperred rollers.

i believe long wheel bearing life is helped by usage of good grease and cleaning , repacking and re-adjusting now and then.

just sensible preventative maintenance

the condition of the seal on the inside is important as water ingress will shorten the life of the bearing ....obviously

.Sorry I should have said rollers, but the same thing happens when they are allowed to run for long periods in a loose state and the roller hammers small dents in the outer cage. As you say this is where maintainnance comes in

 

[Bam Bam]

Thanks for your input Gents, after speaking to my brother he know advises me it was down to some "hamfisted" previous owner that caused the main problem with one of the rear bearings, the other 2 we may just have been unlucky, certainly not down to any form of misuse on our part as we do take pride in our cars.

He tells me he remembers stripping the threads completely on one of the rear bearings he had to replace, someone had been there before him and damaged the threads, they used Loktite (Spelling ?) to fasten the locking collar back into place but it didn't last and as he removed the collar the threads just came away in a swirl, he had to remove the whole stub axle unit, machine down the damaged area and re-sleeve it to accept new threads.

So that's my DIY job coming up this weekend, front O/S wheel bearing, I'll take it easy and gently as he warns me that the threads are a lot finer on the axle than other cars we've had.

Jim.

 

[television]

The main thing is to keep the wheel turning when you tighten it up to stop any denting by the rollers

 

[Bam Bam]

....just a follow up on this thread.

I started the job today and hope to get it finished by Saturday, I know it is the original bearing that has failed as the brake caliper (which took some removing by the way) was torqued really tight and the threads had Loktite applied to them, everything is shiny and new that hasn't been exposed to the weather.
The brake disc is off and the bearing seats need to be pressed out of the disc although I've been told if you are careful you can remove them by hand if you have the right tools, the engineers where I work have the right equipment to remove them.
There is no adjustment on these, once the new seat and bearing race is fitted (inner and outer) and the rear oil seal is located the collar is tightened and then locked into position, overtightening will just strip the threads as you are just tightening against the disc itself and this is where the previous owner went wrong and stripped the threads on the stub axle.
I'll let you know next week if the whirring noise was the bearing.

Jim.

 

[Bam Bam]

...it's taken me a fortnight to complete this work as I've just replaced the N/S bearing too.
After replacing the O/S there was still a slight whirring/humming noise from the front resulting in me replacing the other side last weekend. Now when I'm driving I still get a slight noise but I'm putting it down to tyre noise as I've recently changed over to much wider lower profile tyres on 19" rims, Pirelli P Zero Rosso's.
Different road surfaces make a different noise, if it was mechanical such as a noisy bearing the noise would stay the same.

Jim.

 

[television]

...it's taken me a fortnight to complete this work as I've just replaced the N/S bearing too.
After replacing the O/S there was still a slight whirring/humming noise from the front resulting in me replacing the other side last weekend. Now when I'm driving I still get a slight noise but I'm putting it down to tyre noise as I've recently changed over to much wider lower profile tyres on 19" rims, Pirelli P Zero Rosso's.
Different road surfaces make a different noise, if it was mechanical such as a noisy bearing the noise would stay the same.

Jim.

Good work, it looks like you are getting there and doing a good job.

tyres can be noisy depending on the thread type, if it changes as you say with the road surface. It is well known the P Rosso's are a good tyre but not that quiet. I use them.