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Johan_B

Member Since: 20 Sep 2024
Location: Gothenburg
Posts: 24

2008 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 CSW Tonga Green

Hi Esben!
Just to give you a bit more context as to why this is a hot topic.
We seem to have similarly aged vehicles, I bought mine in May this year. Since then I have replaced the two front bearings. With a lot of effort due both to stuck drive members and to the single nut.
Today my wife got home and had a significant oil leak onto the right rear wheel. Investigation revealed this:

Click image to enlarge

As it turns out, the truck had a failed MOT last year with both of the rear wheel bearings. Apparently the mechanic who replaced them snapped 3/5 bolts to the hub and didn't bother, just attached it with the two remaining. I haven't seen this as I have alloy wheels which cover this. Now the member was loose and the shaft had worn out the oil seal. Out of curiosity I also checked for play in the bearings and sure enough. Before placing the order for parts I went to the other side which had all 5 bolts but yes, play in the bearings. Now, given the unprofessional job that I can observe, I can think of a number of things they have screwed up. But here I have two sets of bearings with 15000 km and 18 month in service. Both have failed. My point is, at least to my experience that wheel bearings are almost like consumables. Some will last a really long time but many will fail. I think it is due to dirt and water ingress.
Anyway, when one is forced to do this job with such regularity, making it as easy and risk free as possible becomes a priority. I changed my front ones to the two nut system and now with a new hub I will do the same in the rear. A new hub would otherwise require (likely) a new spacer and those are expensive and hard to get (from what I have heard).

1st Dec 2024 6:02pm

Esben Kold

Member Since: 14 Oct 2023
Location: Horsens
Posts: 23

2008 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 SW Galway Green

Hello, I believe you are correct and that it is foreign materials that kills the bearings. Modern bearings of a decent quality will wear very slowly and outlast the seals. This is also one of the reasons for my question, since I do not find it necessary to adjust the bearings during their life cycle.

What a mess that mechanic made. All the more reasons to do things yourself, although I like to think that most mechanics have some professional integrity. Maybe I am naive - which is btw. the finest thing you can be - but I was shocked by your photo. I sometimes doubt myself and wonder if I should have just let the Land Rover specialist carry out the work, but I really want to do everything myself, so I am 100% sure no shortcuts are taken and everything is pampered like an infant.

My rear driven members were also worn completely out a 195000 km. All the bolts came out with ease, but I did soak them with penetrating fluid and heated them with a flame before using force. In my experience you are hard pressed to snap a bolt that way.
I hope you get more miles out of your bearings this time.

1st Dec 2024 6:29pm

Johan_B

Member Since: 20 Sep 2024
Location: Gothenburg
Posts: 24

It was a mess indeed. Sorted it (almost yesterday). The reason for the play was most likely that the one nut was not torqued to 210Nm, I could almost remove it with finger force once the staking was chiseled out. The 210Nm is meant to compress the spacer ever so slightly to get the correct end float. With a much lower torque these bearings probably had play from the start.

To counter the low torque he instead had gone bananas with the staking, cracking the one nut partly and also deforming the stub axle. This had consequences as I noticed when I prepared the drive axle to be inserted. I noticed there was scratch marks all over the length of it and, of course in particular, where the seal lip sits. I couldn't figure out where these came from but when I inserted the axle I realized there was a sharp edge sticking in from the crushed stub axle and if one was not careful it would scratch the axle. Therefor I am likely to do this job again in the near future as I guess also the new seal will fail.

Apparently he had also damaged one of the bolts for the caliper and tried to use another bolt, but not with fine threads as they are, but normal once. Obviously he didn't get far but left it at that. Fortunately I managed to insert a correct bolt from the other side and with a lot of patience and half a can of WD40 I got it through.

11th Dec 2024 4:04pm

Esben Kold

Member Since: 14 Oct 2023
Location: Horsens
Posts: 23

What a nightmare. Good you are sorting it now

11th Dec 2024 7:43pm

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