Thread: Oil filled hubs for Disco

Originally Posted by mcrover

Once they get any movement in them they rip them selves apart........pretty much what all oul fed bearings do as they create a void where the oil boils and doesnt lubricate anything even if the part in question is submerged.

Eh?
You're saying any movement and they rip themselves apart, yet all landrover wheel bearings are installed with float. I run oil and I've never had the failures you're predicting.
Landrover oil filled hubs and bearings for decades, how many vehicles is that?
They went to grease so it wouldn't leak out as fast.

How exactly is the oil boiling? Is it reaching the necessary 300C?

Maybe grease is overall better than oil in wheel bearings unless it sets like cheese. However, it eventually works its way out of the splines between the axle and drive hub. If they run dry, they wear rapidly until you have a crunching noise and no drive.

The left rear ones on my Defender 130 were rusty looking when they stripped at 40,000 km. Others 3 still had a bit of grease on them and a bit of wear, but still okay. Bought a set of oil seals, but have yet to instal them. Meanwhile, have just periodically half filled the plastic caps with mixture of grease and hypoid oil and slapped them back on. Hasn't been enough to cause any problem of leaking through the grease seals onto the brakes.