# Bearing analysis wanted



## guineafowl21 (1 Oct 2019)

This an aftermarket rear wheel bearing from a mate’s Freelander, which I fitted about three years ago when I owned the car. It was rumbling badly but there was no play.

This may not be the right forum, but there might be some proper engineers here who know what could have caused the damage shown above. There’s some clear galling on both the inner and outer races of one side. The grease looked cooked. The other side looked perfect - grease the right colour and ball bearings still shiny silver. 

There were no foreign bodies that I could see.


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## sunnybob (1 Oct 2019)

from a distance, its all guess work.
Adjustment too tight
Adjustment too loose
wrong grease, not enough grease
sub standard metal


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## CHJ (1 Oct 2019)

Anybody done any Arc Welding on that vehicle?

I would discount any heat treatment problems with the original bearing as the 2 components (inner & outer) would have been subjected to separate heat treatment routines.

I have seen similar due to a lightening strike passing through an Aircraft control surface bearing.


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## guineafowl21 (1 Oct 2019)

sunnybob":2y66qbmr said:


> from a distance, its all guess work.
> Adjustment too tight
> Adjustment too loose
> wrong grease, not enough grease
> sub standard metal


It was a non-adjustable, sealed bearing, but the metal could have been sub standard. Aftermarket job from a local shop.

I’ve not had to weld it, although I sometimes use the welder to heat a tricky bolt up. Usually I get a good earth with the grinder and unplug things first. Possible, though.

Up here in Scotland they use a criminal amount of road salt and grit. It ruins cars. I wonder if a bit sneaked in and got ground to dust, but not before leaving its mark.


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## sunnybob (1 Oct 2019)

non adjustable sealed and only 3 years should rule out everything except poor quality. Welding arc I would put as a slim possibilty
When I buy bearings here, the man asks me if I want cheap chinese or good japanese. The difference in price isnt even half as much again.


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## AES (1 Oct 2019)

Overheating problem (by external heat source as CHJ suggests) looks possible, but personally I'd say far more likely to be sub-standard material and/or poor heat treatment schedule/s - i.e. cheapo bearing to start off with.


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## novocaine (2 Oct 2019)

has the car had a flat tyre in the 3 years it's been on?
has it smacked a massive pothole?

it looks like it has been point loaded at some point and deformed a ball. Looking at that inner race, it doesn't look like the balls have been round it in full contact for quite a while either so it might be the half shaft is damaged and the bearing isn't running true. 

from a picture of the race it's pretty much impossible to tell though.


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## guineafowl21 (2 Oct 2019)

No flats, but the main road out of here is littered with potholes. It could well have been that combined with a crappy bearing.

Unfortunately it’s one of those bearings with a magnetised shield to run the ABS sensor, so getting one from a proper bearing supplier, where I can choose Timken or suchlike, is not so easy. I’m usually faced with either genuine Land Rover (hideously overpriced) or various knockoffs of poor quality.


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## TFrench (2 Oct 2019)

Don't worry - it's a freelander, it'll be dead within the 3 years it takes to kill a bearing...


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## guineafowl21 (2 Oct 2019)

Agh! You sound just like the man in the parts shop!

Freelanders are cheap to buy and maintain, fixable and excellent in the snow. There’s also a substantial online forum presence for help, and readily available parts both new and second-hand. 

Set of front discs and pads -£50. New front calipers - £40 each. Scrapyard injector - £45, one of eight yards that responded to my request. Can your SUV do that?

Jap cars - reliable, characterless, hideously expensive parts.
European cars - good until they go wrong, then they never stop going wrong. Can’t get the part you want but must buy a whole unit that is more than the car is worth.


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## TFrench (3 Oct 2019)

I'd love to follow your logic, but 2 posts ago you said the original LR wheel bearing is hideously overpriced :lol: 

In all seriousness - landies have always been a joke between me and my old man. 3 years ago he got an early v8 defender as a project. We expected it to be forever breaking down but it's been incredibly reliable. It's now called thunderbird 2 as it's rescued so many other cars. Not to mention trailer loads of machinery I've bought and dragged in with it!


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## guineafowl21 (3 Oct 2019)

TFrench":htoc7u8p said:


> I'd love to follow your logic, but 2 posts ago you said the original LR wheel bearing is hideously overpriced :lol:
> 
> In all seriousness - landies have always been a joke between me and my old man. 3 years ago he got an early v8 defender as a project. We expected it to be forever breaking down but it's been incredibly reliable. It's now called thunderbird 2 as it's rescued so many other cars. Not to mention trailer loads of machinery I've bought and dragged in with it!


Yes, this bearing is one that slipped through the cracks. You can normally get decent OEM (as opposed to genuine LR) stuff, but not this time.

In a Defender, you flash your lights at other Defender drivers. Try that in a Ford Ranger...


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