Front Hubs Going Oval
Scuzzle - 25/4/14 at 10:48 AM
Has anyone ever experienced or heard about this. On my car I had a NSF wheel bearing go on the motorway and drove the last 60 miles with massive play
in the wheel. The bearing was fairly new and had only done 1000 miles, since then I have been through another 2 bearings both going after 600 miles,
taper bearings, decent makes all properly greased and torqued.
I also have a steering vibration at 70 MPH that I just can't seem to get rid of despite loads of wheel balances and rotations of wheels and
renewal of all the front suspension components.
Looking online I'm seeing stories of front hubs going oval and this causing premature bearing failure and steering vibration. It does not look
oval and the bearing races seem to chap in about as tight as you would expect them to so I'm not sure.
Anybody any experience of this or can think of any other reasons why I'm munching through wheel bearings
DW100 - 25/4/14 at 10:57 AM
What is it on?
prawnabie - 25/4/14 at 11:02 AM
When you say "taper" bearing do you mean a 2 peice bearing as iirc they are only nipped up and then backed off slightly, not torqued up.
owelly - 25/4/14 at 11:04 AM
How did you torque the taper bearing?
Scuzzle - 25/4/14 at 11:17 AM
It's on my MK1 Fiesta, by taper bearing I mean it's a 2 part bearing and race, not the full press in type.
The rears are just nipped up but the fronts are done up much tighter. I've done these bearings in the past and swung off a strong bar to tighten
them and they have never given any trouble.
[Edited on 25/4/14 by Scuzzle]
prawnabie - 25/4/14 at 11:23 AM
I'm pretty sure two piece bearings aren't done up to torque as above - The cortinas are the same.
DW100 - 25/4/14 at 11:38 AM
In that case yes it is supposed to be done up tight. There is a possibility that when the bearing failed the first time it seized and dragged the
outer race round damaging the housing.
MikeRJ - 25/4/14 at 11:39 AM
quote:
Originally posted by prawnabie
I'm pretty sure two piece bearings aren't done up to torque as above - The cortinas are the same.
It's a FWD car, so the CV joint passes through the bearings and the nut on the end is torqued to a very high value.
The inner races of the two bearings are butted together in the middle, so any bearing preload is determined by the machining within the upright.
I would check both sides of the outer bearing seat in the upright for any damage. Any raised surfaces (e.g. due to being belted with a drift) will
greatly increase the preload on the bearings and cause premature failure.
Scuzzle - 25/4/14 at 11:41 AM
Looks like I'd be best trying another hub then, it's the facelift MK1 so should be the same as every MK2 Fiesta. Cheers guys.
britishtrident - 25/4/14 at 12:25 PM
Was the bearing fitted facing the correct way round ? Usually only one face of the inner diameter has a chamfer to accomodate the fillet radius of
the drive flange hub.
Re rear bearings they should not be nipped up they need to be backed off a little to give a cleareance or the bearing will suffer when the it warms
up.
[Edited on 25/4/14 by britishtrident]
nick205 - 25/4/14 at 01:39 PM
My understanding of ovaling (sp?) relates to the interface between the upright and the lower ball joint. Not the taper fit type (e.g. cortina, sierra
etc), but the clamp and pinch bolt type (e.g. Peugeot 205, 309 etc). Done this way (I assume) to achieve space for the CV joint.
On the latter, the ball joint has a straight shank with a groove around it. The upright has a clamp with a pinch bolt that locates in the groove to
secure it. Over tightening the pinch bolt can stretch the clamp and leave play between the upright and the ball joint.
Can't see that this would cause wheel bearing failure, but it might account for the wheel play you can't solve.
205 setup here for reference...
Mk1 Fiesta ball joints look to have the same design...
[Edited on 25/4/14 by nick205]
davidimurray - 25/4/14 at 02:04 PM
Has the bearing outer race spun in the upright? Could it been that the outer is not quite as tight in the upright, torquing the nut up at first holds
the bearing tight by end load only, but then as it beds in, the outer race is coming loose and spinning. If this is the case you could always use
loctitie 638 or 648 to 'glue' the bearing in. They are both shaft locking solutions, but 638 breaks down at about 60 degrees and 648 about
80 degrees, so you can change bearing later.
Scuzzle - 25/4/14 at 06:38 PM
The races are in good and tight, the wheel bearing went originally on the way down South to Bogg Bros and they were good enough to order me a
replacement and use their press to push in the new races.
The wheel play was ridiculous, practically falling off but the hub looks OK and although the old races came out easily the new ones were a good tight
fit.
I've gone through another 2 bearings since then and I've no idea why. I've spotted a pair of hubs for sale on Ebay for £25 inc.
postage so I've just ordered them.
Currently I have Compbrake rose jointed rod ends which require drilling the hole in the hub arm for the track rod end out to 12mm so I'm now
wondering about just switching back to standard track rod ends as well now to see if this helps any with the steering vibration at 70.