Club 80-90 Forums

Front nearside wheel bearing started rumbling so I got a new GSF one which lasted 500 miles aprox it went and I replaced it ,that one went and I was advised to buy better quality which I did this lasted 500 miles before it started rumbling, so I replaced the discs and found I had a different stub axle on one side, as in one was pre 1985 and the other post 85 so this time I thought I had solved the problem I had probably been fitting the wrong size bearing before. That was 500 miles ago and guess what?

The bearings/discs were all fitted by a very experienced mechanic (not in vw) and he used heavy duty grease each time, so where do I go from here?

All suggestions gratefully received

The grease has to be high melting point.If your mechanic used low melting point that could be your problem

Thanks, he used the grease he uses on the coaches he works on for a local company and they have had no complaints.

kit wrote:Thanks, he used the grease he uses on the coaches he works on for a local company and they have had no complaints.

Only asking as having fitted front&back wheel bearings myself and never had a problem using high melting point grease.

crap chinese bearings....
the early/late bearings are only different on the outer one.. early smaller stub axle diameter so no way an early will go on a late.... and a late would be slack as I dont know what...

Cheers mate I am pretty sure after the first 2 (always nearside.) bearings he used high melt.

I know this sounds bizarre, but are you sure it's the wheel bearing?

The reason for saying that is because we had a wheel bearing go whilst we were in France. Without all the tools required to do it myself, we put it into a local garage (we carried a spare bearing with us - just incase).

After the bearing had been done, we still could hear a sound coming fron the wheel and thought the worse. It sounded like it was the wheel bearing again.

Upon examination however, we found that the French engineer had slightly bent the disc backplate during the replacement and that was rubbing the disc.

GSF bearings are dog sh*t.
They use cheap, ill fitting Chinese kak.
If he is using good bearings (what brand?) and doing the job right, and the bearing is right, only reason I can see for excessive wear is silly offset wheels.
How is he setting the pre-load on the bearing?

I can only assume from the fact that he has been fitting wheel bearings for years now and that the driver-side bearings he has fitted have not been a problem that we are looking for something unique to the T3 or a problem we have missed, I still do not understand how they go for a while with no noise then they start rumbling after a month or 2 at approximately 500 miles?

If you do a bit of research on this and other well known VW Forums you will find the Faulty batch of front bearings from the likes of GSF outlets up and down the country has been with us for some time, So the answer is Don't buy them from there....

Regards

Fritz,,,,,,,,,

I agree but why is the off side bearing ok?

Simple O/S bearing may be from a different batch.....


Regards

Fritz,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Not 4 times though surely?

We love the Bender pic on your bus btw

So other than poor quality there does not appear to be anything else I should be looking for? How about the stub axle, could that be at fault?

Thanks for all the advice going to talk with mechanic today, any recommendations as where to get good bearings? I am loathed to ask the main dealer, cheers Kit