Wheel Bearing Question

[Ant-t]

My osf wheel bearing has failed again, it's been replaced twice in the last two years. It's grumbling and has only has slight vertical play when jacked up, the van has done about 4k miles in the last two years. A friend suggested it might be a worn stub axle, so my question is should I get it replaced again or would a worn stub axle cause this?

[Stesaw]

Could be a worn carrier as well I suppose.
I dont think replacing the bearing again will help any as it may just fail again. Just make sure you are using decent bearings and not cheap crap.

[Aidan]

How has it failed ?
Has one or either bearing broken up ?
What brand ?
How fitted ?

[colinthefox]

I've had this happen a few times with other vehicles. Stub axle worn, garage tightens it to get rid of play for MOT. That's much too tight for the bearing, and it fails in no time. I've had some success with Loctite Bearing Fit if the wear isn't too bad, adjusting the bearing then leaving the wheel jacked up overnight so it can set. Makes it difficult to get the bearing off next time though.

[Ant-t]

Thanks guys, the bearing is whining as it has the last couple of times (before being charged). When driving and on turning right the whine disappears. When jacked up there's play at 12 and 6 o'clock but not at 3 and 9 o'clock, hope that makes sense!

I don't know what bearing was fitted but it came from vw heritage. The last two bearings were fitted by a local mobile mechanic, he has been ok but I'm thinking of trying someone else.

 

[Aidan]

Heritage sell a choice of parts at varied prices, own brand Forst (outer has a nylon caged race  ), Febi Bilstein and Koyo.
The inner bearing is a standard bearing 6207 in C3 grind. I'd normally buy a SKF of that for around £8, Koyo are very good Japanese equivalent (or better depending on your point of view)
The outer is 308-203 (I'm using Timken Torrington number here, there may be others) which is a little bit special (ie it's not a standard bearing)
The Febi supplied rear one is usually the oem INA, made in Germany F-43710.1, which is probably as good as it gets, Febi kit 04843, labelled with the correct VW part number 211 501 283 D; a lot cheaper from Autodoc than from VW Heritage (like half the price)
The complete Febi kit 03691 similarly is half the price from autodoc and others online, always good to check on Ebay too using the part numbers as you may be able to get exact same parts, and Brickwerks sell the Febi kit and maybe other varied quality offerings as well
Use bearing fit for the inner bearing and reject housing if it just 'falls' in, ideally you'd want to press it in and it be a good tight fit in the housing, and check housing for ovality especially if repeating replacement
Plenty of good quality grease when assembling, fill the void around the spacer with same (if bearing runs too hot it melts the grease which floods the bearing), seals are available in full kit or separately if you buy bearings individually. Big circlip can generally be reused if not damaged.

Doug's VW Works would be worth a call for fitting, they are familiar with T25/T3s

[bigherb]

Heritage sell a choice of parts at varied prices, own brand Forst (outer has a nylon caged race  ), Febi Bilstein and Koyo.
The inner bearing is a standard bearing 6207 in C3 grind. I'd normally buy a SKF of that for around £8, Koyo are very good Japanese equivalent (or better depending on your point of view)
The outer is 308-203 (I'm using Timken Torrington number here, there may be others) which is a little bit special (ie it's not a standard bearing)
The Febi supplied rear one is usually the oem INA, made in Germany F-43710.1, which is probably as good as it gets, Febi kit 04843, labelled with the correct VW part number 211 501 283 D; a lot cheaper from Autodoc than from VW Heritage (like half the price)
The complete Febi kit 03691 similarly is half the price from autodoc and others online, always good to check on Ebay too using the part numbers as you may be able to get exact same parts, and Brickwerks sell the Febi kit and maybe other varied quality offerings as well
Use bearing fit for the inner bearing and reject housing if it just 'falls' in, ideally you'd want to press it in and it be a good tight fit in the housing, and check housing for ovality especially if repeating replacement
Plenty of good quality grease when assembling, fill the void around the spacer with same (if bearing runs too hot it melts the grease which floods the bearing), seals are available in full kit or separately if you buy bearings individually. Big circlip can generally be reused if not damaged.

Doug's VW Works would be worth a call for fitting, they are familiar with T25/T3s

It's his front wheel bearing.
 

[Aidan]

[ZsZ]

IMO The FAG sets are the best to use. Both front and rear.

I had problems with the rear SKF kits with SKF inner and Torrington outer. They were too loose by new.
The original rear inner Radax bearings were made here in Hungary, the facilities are now owned by FAG (Shaeffler Group)
Good to hear the febi kits have the same INA outers as the FAG kit. I wonder what they put in the box as an inner.

[multisi]

I have 1 set of original nos bearings for early front wheel.

[waltraud]

Cheap kits do fail early, it's well documented on all the forms, my concern would be whether a mobile mechanic knows to leave play rather than tighten right up? Not all bearings seat the same and need same technique to fit


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ant-t]

Just a quick update on this, Doug took a look yesterday and has done a great job with sorting out my front wheel bearings. Turned out the mobile mechanic had fitted a late wheel bearing on my early hub   Don't think I'll be using that guy again....

[Stesaw]

that'd do it