Thread: D1 front wheel bearings .

I'm no mechanical expert, but the last time I looked at mine the bearings were packed in grease.
Depending on age of vehicle, the CVs should be oil filled, I think they changed to grease around 96?
The diff has oil obviously, so depending on what your CVs have, the oil in the bearings is probably pushing past a seal and coming from the diff or CVs.

So yeah, I reckon a seal is gone.

the left hand side has had the internal stub axle seal fail and is allowing the oil from the swivel pin housing to migrate into the bearings. this is a good thing and is how landrover bearings were ment to be.

the problem is that when they went from oil to grease bearings they also changed the main hub seal which means it will fail early as its not an oil type seal but a grease seal. once that seal fails you will have 80/90 on your rotors and pads which is great for stopping the brakes from squeeling and wearing unevenly but its not so good for your stopping distance.

In the very worst case the seal from the diff housing to the CV housing has also failed and you now have just 1 complete oil gallery rather than the 3 that theres ment to be.

I know this sounds weird - but the LHS is always going to be the side which cops the most wear, because we drive on roads designed for 'right hand drive'. On F-100's in the 80's and 90's I noticed the front LHS tyre always wore out first ( Not withstanding Ford engineering or lack thereof) because right hand and u-turns were being made harder and faster than left turns.

EDIT: I don't type as fast as BK.....

Having the hub bearing having oil is not such a bad thing in a way. I'd suggest getting new hub seals designed for oil fed hubs ( 2 or 3 lip version) so to avoid leaking onto the brakes, clean, re-grease said hubs, and check and/or inject some semi fluid grease into both swivels. That way you know you're covered.

There have been many threads about the pro's and con's of oil fed bearings - I suppose as long as the lubricant stays inside the axle is the main thing.

We dont fill the hubs with oil any more. We use the one shot moly grease.

It is so simple to do
1.Take bung out of housing
2.Turn the steering so the top of the ball is away from the filler bung
3.Push in one tube of grease per hub

And you are done until you rebuild the swivels

It is great for the s2 and s3 with the weaping seals as the grease sticks to the inside so it keeps it lubriacated.

carla