Wheel bearings or something else??? Help

[ABZY]

Hi

Weathers been good so had the first long run on motorway today. A good few miles in hear a noise from the front passenger side wheel - stopped on hard shoulder as though had flat tyre. Saw loads of oil grease from middle of wheels all over the car.

Took wheel off and noticed that wheels was very hot on front both sides and also there was not leak so assuming wheel bearing has gone???

Also noticed that the disc had a bit of play too - too other side off and no grease and no play at all??

Is it bearings kit and also what lube is recommended

thanks

Abzy

 

[jmackro]

Saw loads of oil grease from middle of wheels all over the car. Took wheel off and noticed that wheels was very hot on front both sides

Are you saying that there were grease leaks and the wheels were hot on both sides? If the symptoms were on both front wheels, then it is more likely that your brakes are stuck. The odds are pretty low that both wheel bearings would fail at the same time.

If something in the master cylinder is preventing pressure from releasing in the brake lines, the pads would drag on the calipers creating heat. That heat would liquefy the wheel bearing grease, causing it to leak out. Your bearings may now be ruined, but they may not be the cause of the problem.

 

[nashvillecat]

Hi

Weathers been good so had the first long run on motorway today. A good few miles in hear a noise from the front passenger side wheel - stopped on hard shoulder as though had flat tyre. Saw loads of oil grease from middle of wheels all over the car.

Took wheel off and noticed that wheels was very hot on front both sides and also there was not leak so assuming wheel bearing has gone???

Also noticed that the disc had a bit of play too - too other side off and no grease and no play at all??

Is it bearings kit and also what lube is recommended

thanks

Abzy

Heat is consistent with dragging front brakes, but I would expect the driver to notice this (unless all the driving is downhill). Also doubt the disk would "loosen up" if the brakes were binding. The more likely culprit/s might be extremely loose, poorly lubricated or severely worn wheel bearings, which may also lead to unwanted friction and - heat. From your description, I would expect you might have heard or felt "grinding."

You did not mention anything about wheel bearing and/or brake service which might offer a clue as to what may have failed. Nor is it clear why both wheel bearing nuts would be extremely loose, but this could explain the grease seals being compromised and serious brake disk latitudinal play. Considering the grease seals are inboard, I would expect the grease to be on the inside of each wheel. Grease on the outside suggests the wheel bearing caps were missing, ill fitting or the wheel bearings were over-packed with grease.

The wheel bearing play should be obvious, even without removing the wheels. In any case, removing each disk and examining the bearings and bearing races would be a good idea and is part of routine maintenance (every 40k) that is easy to overlook. I would not be surprised to learn that many E3s and E9s are still rolling on their original rear wheel bearings, which, to the best of my knowledge, are not not designed to be disassembled and reused.

I would venture to guess that virtually all commercially available name brand wheel bearing grease suitable for disk brakes would meet or exceed the original recommended grease. However, if someone is unlikely to neglect their wheel bearings - for decades - maybe Krytox is the ticket. http://e9coupe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5500


Hth

http://www.e9-driven.com/Public/Library/BMW-E9-Manual/pages/en/31200040.html#refertoc

 

[ABZY]

Hi it is only passenger side wheel that the bearing seems to have given up. But I will be chnaging both now just as a matter of course.

Will also have to look into brakes binding - dont get any grinding as such so not suspecting brakes but here a stupid question form a non-mechanical perspective.

How do i know brake master cyclinder is issue - is there a check easy way? They work fine and there is no grinding but BOTH sides do feel very hot after a long run (dont get that on rear wheels).

many thanks for the info so far

 

[Peter Coomaraswamy]

Just another thought, visually inspect the front disks, if the disk was getting seriously overheated-transferring heat to the wheel there MAY be a slight discoloration of the disk, very light brown or blueish where normally they should look just clean silver, you can also compare both sides visually. On track days with another car my wheels would get extremely hot but that was due to very hard braking for long periods of time. Another cheap easy way to check caliper operation is to simply jack up the car and spin the wheels while someone else hits the brakes- that would tell you if the calipers were not operating-or if they were binding. Along with a new set of bearings a good brake fluid flush may be in order and check the rear brakes for proper operation since if they are frozen all the stopping friction is compensated by the fronts. Both my rear calipers were completely seized on my coupe and under normal conditions I really did not notice it.

 

[nashvillecat]

I misunderstood that both front wheels were not leaking grease, but some of my musings still apply.

If you have a dragging brake you would likely experience the car tracking abnormally. There might be a pull toward the passenger side based upon your description.

A sticky caliper is not uncommon. Sometimes you can free things up by depressing the caliper pistons. Bleeding the system is always prudent as is examining the flex brake lines. Heat from the brakes shouldn't ordinarily result in grease liquefaction since most modern wheel bearing lube is designed to withstand such temperatures. (This might include repeated downhill breaking in mountainous terrain, but that is not to say riding the brakes couldn't be an exception to the norm.) However, if you achieved such heat, you would be well served by examining not just the bearings but the rotor for warpage and the pads for glazing.

Regarding the master cylinder, if it is only one wheel with a dragging brake, I would target the caliper or flex hose first. If several wheels experienced the issue, the master becomes part of the usual suspects.

 

[jmackro]

Regarding the master cylinder, if it is only one wheel with a dragging brake, I would target the caliper or flex hose first. If several wheels experienced the issue, the master becomes part of the usual suspects.

Right! When I suggested the MC as the suspect back in post #2, it was because I believed that both wheels exhibited the hot/greasy symptom. Now that you have clarified that only one wheel displays that problem, the MC is exonerated. And as nashvillecat writes, the caliper or flex hose on that side rises to the top of the suspect list.

One way to troubleshoot the brakes is to jack up that wheel and try turning it by hand. If you can feel it dragging or hear the pads contacting the disk, the caliper is probably stuck. If the problem is a flex hose swollen shut, the symptom may diminish with time; you would need to test the wheel's turning resistance right after applying the brakes.

 

[ABZY]

All, thanks for all the tips another few things to check for weekend - bearing ordered this morning from Jaymic.

Great point aorunf the back brakes too and will deffo do the brake fluid

thanks all will keep you posted

Abzy