Thread: Oil Fed Rear Wheel Bearing Drama

It could be that your hub seal is not square??

I had a similar issue and even though I fitted a new stub I fitted another new stub with new hub seal.

Is the reason for you changing to oil lubed wheel is because you have fitted maxi drive type axles and drive flanges??

If not, I’d stick with grease lubed

Originally Posted by W&KO

Is the reason for you changing to oil lubed wheel is because you have fitted maxi drive type axles and drive flanges??

It is for the front. The rears was to keep in theme, that and I liked the idea of not having to grease the bearings. Perhaps that needs some more thought...
As for the squareness of the seal, I used a drive flange with a steel plate spacer to recess in the hub.
P1130338.jpg
I seem to remember that it is supposed to be recessed 4mm although I can't find that spec in the WSM right now which says to use special tool LRT-54-003. Can anyone confirm 4mm recess?

Originally Posted by Max Headroom 2.3m

It is for the front. The rears was to keep in theme, that and I liked the idea of not having to grease the bearings. Perhaps that needs some more thought...
As for the squareness of the seal, I used a drive flange with a steel plate spacer to recess in the hub.
P1130338.jpg
I seem to remember that it is supposed to be recessed 4mm although I can't find that spec in the WSM right now which says to use special tool LRT-54-003. Can anyone confirm 4mm recess?

Was referring to the rears as when upgrading axles the instructions generally say to convert to oil.

I never had issues running grease before upgrading axles. 200k and the bearings were fine.

From memory it’s about 4mm, I assume the seal surface on the stub is in good nick?

Originally Posted by W&KO

I assume the seal surface on the stub is in good nick?

Haven't pulled it apart yet but stub axles were new when I converted it about 7000km ago.

I suspect the issue is nothing more than a seal not fitted that great or it was nicked while the hub was fitted to the stub axle.

try this when fitting seals:
smear a small amount of PTFE paste around the outside of the seal before fitting it to the housing. (white thread sealer that plumbers (sometimes) use)
smear some silicone grease onto the seal face (of the stub axle) this will ensure the inner part of the seal doesnt get damaged when fitting.


-----
other...
I have never subscribed to oil filled hubs and always grease pack the bearings and add some to the hubs.
I would never run the bearings in just oil even if you are running oil in the hubs, it simply is not enough.

Same with removing the inner housing seal so the diff oil lubes the axles/drive flanges, grease works far better.

As for grease vs oil, in my view, there is no advantage with grease in wheel bearings except that it tends not to leak.

Remember that Landrovers used oil lubricated bearings from 1948 to about 1995? and did not gain a reputation for wheel bearing failure. (Except for the grease lubricated semifloating rear axles on most Series 1)

At 700,000km on my County, I have had exactly one wheel bearing failure (a year ago), which I attribute to water/mud ingress while deeply bogged. It has been oil lubricated from new, of course.

The problem with grease compared to oil is that the rollers push the grease off the bearing surface, and it stays off until the bearing gets hot enough to melt the grease.

I always grease pack the bearings to ensure initial lubrication until oil feeds through from the diff/swivel. Early Landrovers - up to Series 2 from memory - provided a plug in the drive flange to allow an initial fill with oil rather than needing the grease packing. This was discontinued, apparently to simplify production, and the instructions changed from oil filling to grease packing in the workshop manual.

Another advantage with oil lubed wheel bearings is that if the oil seal fails (which is rare in my decades of experience) you immediately have an indication of the failure by the oil spraying around.
Whereas if/when the seal fails with grease lubed wheel bearings, there is almost no immediate indication of the failure. So you continue driving, often for thousands of k's, oblivious of the water/mud that has entered your hub and is now chewing away at your bearings and the seal surface on your stub axle, resulting in a far more expensive repair.

In over 50 years of owing and driving Land Rovers I have never needed to replace wheel bearings, except on a number of friends Landys that were grease lubed!

Originally Posted by Xtreme

.......Whereas if/when the seal fails with grease lubed wheel bearings, there is almost no immediate indication of the failure. So you continue driving, often for thousands of k's, oblivious of the water/mud that has entered your hub and is now chewing away at your bearings and the seal surface on your stub axle, resulting in a far more expensive repair....

This is my son's Defender which he bought at around 195,000Km. It needed a bit of work and we spent the next 4 years working on it off and on. We had the vehicle inspected prior to purchase which flagged some of the major issues that we were expecting to fix. We weren't expecting to have to replace the front CVs and drive flanges (rusted and fretted out - no lubrication) and right front & rear wheel bearings which felt a bit gritty but no clearance...yet. This was the right rear stub axle which had corrosion on the bearing races as did the front bearings. The grease looked quite manky.
P1130270.jpg
I am not sure if oil lubricated hubs and bearings are all that much of an improvement but as you have said, at least there is some indication of a leak path. I have discovered one of the shortfalls and that is when they leak it stuffs up your brake pads...