I just replaced my wheel bearings, seals and races..... They were long overdue. The first one I changed looked good with lots of grease still everywhere. The second one same side still plenty of grease but more discoloration in the grease. The third one looked like the second but the last wheel had the least amount of grease of all and wouldn't have made it much longer.I guess when checking your bearings make sure you check all of them. If I would have based all 4 off the first one I would have thought I was in good shape. The worst one did have a little black from the old grease on the wheel and the seal was starting to fail.I won't let it go so far before checking next time!

I'm curious to have a point of comparison, about how old and how many miles? General recommendations for trailer bearing service seem so much more frequent as compared to our TV bearings.Also, looking back on the axle with the seal that was near failure, any signs of dirt accumulation from loss of lubricant? With hind-sight, tell-tale signs of the pending failure?Thanks in advance.

We just returned from a 12K mile winter trip around the country. I dropped the 5'er off at my local dealer who services it with a few little things it needed done. As an afterthought I asked if he thought we ought to do the wheel bearings. We decided to do them since it had been a while. He pulled the wheels on the curb side and the rear looked like a grease grenade had gone off in there. Glad we looked at it. While driving I had no indication at all that anything was wrong.

IMHO that was a huge waste of time and money. Just because the grease was dark means nothing. How did the bearings and races look? Also the bearings you removed may have been of a higher quality than the new ones. Great you did maintenance but the bearings usually don't need replacing. Just clean, repack with new seals and you are good to go!

What did it cost you to replace everything? How much would you have paid to repack the bearings? I repacked mine about 2 years ago. Experienced discolored grease on one, but bearings looked ok, so just replaced seals. Makes you think about truck wheel bearings. I don't think its even a maintenance item on my current truck.

Cummins12V98 wrote:IMHO that was a huge waste of time and money. Just because the grease was dark means nothing. How did the bearings and races look? Also the bearings you removed may have been of a higher quality than the new ones. Great you did maintenance but the bearings usually don't need replacing. Just clean, repack with new seals and you are good to go!Bearings, races, seals, grease.... $125.00 IMHO, the bearings..... Almost nine years old and never touched just made more since to replace instead of re-pack. At the price I paid it was a no brainer. With me it's all about time and if the local shop would have been more reasonable I would have let them do it. Old bearings into the trash and new ones greased and in..... Spent more money to replace but definitely didn't waste any time. This was my first time messing with this and more than one shop, person and manufacture ( Alco ) recommend replacing due to my lack of past maintenance.

Checking wheel bearings.... | Good Sam Community

Dave_H_M
Explorer II
Jun 13, 2014
:h I am starting to wonder if a trend is starting here that wheel bearings have a recommended life like the tires. :W
jevanb
Explorer
Jun 13, 2014
Tgator1 wrote:
Makes you think about truck wheel bearings. I don't think its even a maintenance item on my current truck.
your rears are oil bath from the rear diff, the factory seals on every 25/3500HD are junk and leak, pull the rotors and take a look I bet they are leaking allover you e brake shoes

BTW I spent 60 on seals and another 20 on grease for my 5er and I did the job myself, with only 500 miles I would think they would be ok but they were leaking
abc40kids
Explorer
Jun 13, 2014
TomHaycraft wrote:
I'm curious to have a point of comparison, about how old and how many miles? General recommendations for trailer bearing service seem so much more frequent as compared to our TV bearings.

Also, looking back on the axle with the seal that was near failure, any signs of dirt accumulation from loss of lubricant? With hind-sight, tell-tale signs of the pending failure?

Thanks in advance.

Not sure on the miles, 5er is an '06 with one trip to Florida and the rest under 3 hours 5 or 6 times a year. The one seal that looked bad was leaking and you could we it around a couple lug nuts. The inner most bearing was pretty dry, that's one reason why I felt much better replacing them ALL and now will check them yearly and repack as needed.
abc40kids
Explorer
Jun 13, 2014
Cummins12V98 wrote:
IMHO that was a huge waste of time and money.

Just because the grease was dark means nothing. How did the bearings and races look? Also the bearings you removed may have been of a higher quality than the new ones. Great you did maintenance but the bearings usually don't need replacing. Just clean, repack with new seals and you are good to go!

Bearings, races, seals, grease.... $125.00 IMHO, the bearings..... Almost nine years old and never touched just made more since to replace instead of re-pack. At the price I paid it was a no brainer. With me it's all about time and if the local shop would have been more reasonable I would have let them do it. Old bearings into the trash and new ones greased and in..... Spent more money to replace but definitely didn't waste any time.

This was my first time messing with this and more than one shop, person and manufacture ( Alco ) recommend replacing due to my lack of past maintenance.
Tgator1
Explorer
Jun 12, 2014
What did it cost you to replace everything? How much would you have paid to repack the bearings? I repacked mine about 2 years ago. Experienced discolored grease on one, but bearings looked ok, so just replaced seals. Makes you think about truck wheel bearings. I don't think its even a maintenance item on my current truck.
Cummins12V98
Explorer III
Jun 12, 2014
IMHO that was a huge waste of time and money.

Just because the grease was dark means nothing. How did the bearings and races look? Also the bearings you removed may have been of a higher quality than the new ones. Great you did maintenance but the bearings usually don't need replacing. Just clean, repack with new seals and you are good to go!
MainerBob
Explorer
Jun 12, 2014
We just returned from a 12K mile winter trip around the country. I dropped the 5'er off at my local dealer who services it with a few little things it needed done. As an afterthought I asked if he thought we ought to do the wheel bearings. We decided to do them since it had been a while. He pulled the wheels on the curb side and the rear looked like a grease grenade had gone off in there. Glad we looked at it. While driving I had no indication at all that anything was wrong.
TomHaycraft
Explorer
Jun 12, 2014
I'm curious to have a point of comparison, about how old and how many miles? General recommendations for trailer bearing service seem so much more frequent as compared to our TV bearings.

Also, looking back on the axle with the seal that was near failure, any signs of dirt accumulation from loss of lubricant? With hind-sight, tell-tale signs of the pending failure?

Thanks in advance.

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