'02 Golf wheel bearings

Zheking · Apr 23, 2018

Anyone have any thoughts on why I'd be blowing through wheel bearings every 15k miles? In the front, both sides. I'm guessing it's because of the 17" wheels, but just looking for second opinions before I find some stock wheels / tires to go to.

steve6 · Apr 23, 2018

Not properly tightened, or incorrectly installed.

Vince Waldon · Apr 23, 2018

Hmmm... lots of folks run 17" wheels with no problems... not my first suspect for sure.

More likely in my mind that there's a part issue or installation issue... since you're going thru 'em in pairs it seems.

Some questions to ask would be:

- what brand of bearing have you been buying, and from where?
- are they being correctly installed, with the correct installation press jigs?
- is the main nut being replaced with new, torqued correctly, wheels on ground, roll the car forward and retorque etc etc?

Zheking · Apr 23, 2018

Vince Waldon said:
Hmmm... lots of folks run 17" wheels with no problems... not my first suspect for sure.
More likely in my mind that there's a part issue or installation issue... since you're going thru 'em in pairs it seems.
Some questions to ask would be:
- what brand of bearing have you been buying, and from where?
- are they being correctly installed, with the correct installation press jigs?
- is the main nut being replaced with new, torqued correctly, wheels on ground, roll the car forward and retorque etc etc?

FAG from rockauto.
Yes
150 lbs. back half a turn. roll wheel half turn. 40lbs plus 1/6th of a turn was the procedure I did.

I do have the 2" metalnerd lift as well.

Powder Hound · Apr 23, 2018

The lift would be hard on the CV joints, but shouldn't kill the wheel bearings.

FAG bearings do well - the last one I did is just fine.

If it has been happening a lot, I'd start to wonder if the knuckle is OK - is the bore for the bearing still perfectly round? It is a long-shot speculation to be sure.

Good luck,

PH

Zheking · Apr 23, 2018

Powder Hound said:
The lift would be hard on the CV joints, but shouldn't kill the wheel bearings.

FAG bearings do well - the last one I did is just fine.

If it has been happening a lot, I'd start to wonder if the knuckle is OK - is the bore for the bearing still perfectly round? It is a long-shot speculation to be sure.

Good luck,

PH

I considered the knuckle. They looked ok last change, and I figured it would be a long shot for both knuckles to be bad. I'll double check the axle nut torque on the driver side again tonight. It got changed about 2k miles ago. Passenger getting changed this weekend when I have access to the press again.

Seatman · Apr 23, 2018

I've reused the axle nuts, never used the torque wrench and ran 18x8inch wheels a lot with no issues on the bearings. I usually tighten the axle nut to ooft!

I have seen before where bearing have been left worn to long and it's caused the centre hub to no longer be a proper tight fit in the bearing. Like the bearing has gotten a bit to hot, bearing race seized temporarily and caused the hub to spin in the bearing but that takes a fair bit of neglect.

gforce1108 · Apr 24, 2018

225k on my 04 running 17s. One bearing replaced on each side somewhere around 130 and 160k? I just hit them on max setting on the impact.

Zheking · Apr 24, 2018

I got home yesterday evening and the driver side was tight. the passenger side however was not. Not sure how, or why, but it was lose. Retorqued using the 150 lbs back half a turn, turn wheel half a turn method, 40 lbs + 1/6th turn again, and it seemed to resolve all issues.

I guess stranger things have happened, just glad it wasn't a 4th wheel bearing.

Powder Hound · Apr 27, 2018

We'll hope. I dinged my 4-dr because of an icy hill, and while the left side tie rod was replaced, the wheel bearing failed a couple of years later. I figure the bearing races were pinged in the impact, but it took a long time to develop into a noticeable problem.

Hopefully your wheel bearing is intact, but if the car was driven with that axle nut loose, then it might not survive very much longer.

The good side is that now you know you need to work harder on tightening the axle nut.

Cheers,

PH

elroy · Apr 27, 2018

The Bentley torque method of half turn of wheel doesn't work. It leaves the not loose. Just put the axle nut on with a gun. The Bentley method allows it to back off

jokila · Apr 27, 2018

elroy said:
The Bentley torque method of half turn of wheel doesn't work. It leaves the not loose. Just put the axle nut on with a gun. The Bentley method allows it to back off

But then it tells you to turn it 60 degrees.

jetlagmech · Apr 27, 2018

I had a non VW once that went thru a wheel bearing like yours. every couple months I would have to tighten the nut another half turn to get rid of noise. I marked it and the nut was not turning loose. finally solved it when I replaced the hub after 3 bearings. It must have been slightly out of round causing the bearing to fail.

BobnOH · Apr 27, 2018

jetlagmech said:
I had a non VW once that went thru a wheel bearing like yours. every couple months I would have to tighten the nut another half turn to get rid of noise. I marked it and the nut was not turning loose. finally solved it when I replaced the hub after 3 bearings. It must have been slightly out of round causing the bearing to fail.

Me too, Ford pickup, bearing failed at 12k miles. Fortunately I was at my brother's (machinist extraordinaire), he spotted the bad spindle right away.
So if you're confident you've done the correct install and they continue to fail, time to take some precise measurements.

Zheking · Apr 27, 2018

jetlagmech said:
I had a non VW once that went thru a wheel bearing like yours. every couple months I would have to tighten the nut another half turn to get rid of noise. I marked it and the nut was not turning loose. finally solved it when I replaced the hub after 3 bearings. It must have been slightly out of round causing the bearing to fail.

I replaced the hubs when I first purchased the vehicle in March '17 when I did the wheel bearings the first time.

all good tips / input. thanks everyone.

KrashDH · Apr 27, 2018

elroy said:
The Bentley torque method of half turn of wheel doesn't work. It leaves the not loose. Just put the axle nut on with a gun. The Bentley method allows it to back off

How doesn't it work? It's worked for me...

coalminer16 · Apr 29, 2018

Could be stub shaft and/or the splined axle. They could somehow be mushrooming allowing it to loosen. Welding, impact, too loose are the big bearing hitters. Or a hard direct metal to metal impact.

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'02 Golf wheel bearings

Zheking

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