Wheel Bearings - What kills them?

[Tim_R]

So I've got to replace another front wheel bearing, last done about 2 years ago and replaced with a supposedly decent SKF bearing. It that time it's done around 12k miles and 1 track day. Previous bearings have also done about a max of 2 years, sometimes less, but they were cheap gsf ones. The original bearings lasted from 2002 to 2008 in my ownership, after that they seem to have been almost a service item. I don't believe it to be my driving style as the originals lasted well.

Bearings have been pressed out and back in by different people and garages so wouldn't expect it to be the way they are fitted. The cartridges are a snug fit in the hubs with the circlips correctly fitted to retain them.
The hub nut is torqued up to the figure listed in Haynes.

Anyone got any suggestions? Stripping the hub off the car and taking it to a garage to get the bearing done is getting old, along with having to do camber and tracking checks after.

[mr.brown]

I have an SKF one that lasted 0 miles. I made the mistake of moving the car 5ft without tightening the hub nut. £26 a time too :(

Might it be worth getting another pair of wheel bearing housings? Just in case there's some kind of damage that's not visible to the naked eye.

[Tim_R]

I had thought about getting another pair to put new bearings in and have sat waiting for the next failure. Then just do a swap out.

Driveshafts fitted and hubnuts done up before moving the car.

[steve bain]

Worn hubs cause bearings to wear prematurely. I was getting 6 months out of the ones on the Audi until I replaced the hubs. Cheap enough off eBay....

[james butler]

not pressing them in square first time also causes them to fail, this is something that's quite common when garages don't use the correct jigs to hold the hub square when applying 10+ tons of pressure.

[Nate]

General abuse from bad roads and pot holes
Incorrect fitting, including wrong torque procedure
Wheels that are spaced way off the original offset, which put the bearing under more stress
Cheap **** bearings made of cheese
Buying bearings from europrats

[sabre0699]

You have to be so careful nowadays of so called good quality bearings, BMW motorcycles were caught out a few years ago with SKF final drive bearings that they were repackaging and selling as OE.

They were failing after a few thousand miles (including mine ... I had mine checked by a metallurgist who pointed out that the bearings appeared to be inferior quality.... Far Eastern bearings ? which later had the SKF part numbers electro etched on) .

BMW paid for replacements AND two lots of labour for their replacement .

Nowadays, I either use a trusted bearing supplier or genuine equipment only , then at least you have some comeback