Thread: Am I wasting money????

Gday , If they are not making any grumbling noise and are not pitted or coroded the just inspect and repack em .

My MY03 fender just hit 170,000. The rear wheel bearings had developed a couple of mm slop. The fronts had started to wear the inner races. I had all of the hubs rebuilt, new rotors, pads. The biggest issue was that the front swivel housing were empty! No grease. The CV joints were rooted. This vehicle had dealer maintenance from new. Never missed a service. They never checked the swivel housings. The modern defenders do not have drain or level plugs on the swivels, they assume the grease will still be there. But there are no visible leakages on mine, they were just empty. I reckon they have been like that for a while, perhaps from new.

So Well worth stripping and rebuilding, wheel bearings are only $50 a wheel so might be worth replacing anyway if there is any doubt. But Check your Swivel housings.

I had my hubs converted to the County standard of oil in the hubs and adjustable bearings - involved changes to oil seals, lock nuts etc, but means that the drive flanges are more likely to last longer. And it will be very obvious if they leak.

Oh - And this is a plug for Fred Smith automotive - who's inspection of the vehicle included stripping axles etc. The most thorough check over I've ever come across. I now believe that Dealer maintenance is a waste after warranty runs out. I'd had the vehicle into the dealer twice for a knocking sound in the rear, to a local specialist also, and they had not noticed the loose bearings. I even had hardened drive flanges fitted at the last service which were damaged because of the bearing slop. The Dealers and the Specialists did not notice this. Finally it's been fixed.