WRX Wheel Bearings
 

Well, I baked all the grease out of my wheel bearings at RFR. I didn't realize how bad they were until I bedded my pads in yesterday before the meet. After heating up the hubs again, the right front started making a horrible noise.

Since Indy Auto is all booked, the car's now sitting at Sierra Autosport... yes the Ferrari repair shop. :lol: "More than I can afford pal, Ferrari!" Hopfully I'll get out of there under $400... :roll:

1st the shop's going to check out the car and let me know if the bearings are truely shot, or if they can be rebuilt. I'm pretty sure the right front bearing is at least partially seized, due to the noises it's making. Luckily, Subaru has the parts in stock.

FYI, here's all the parts needed for replacing the wheel bearings:

FRONT WHEEL BEARING
28015AA070 Oil Seal - Front Axle, Outer
28015AA021 Oil Seal - Front Axle, Inner
28016AA011NT Bearing - Front Axle
28044AA000 Nut - Axle
28035AA010 Snap Ring F

REAR WHEEL BEARING
28015AA100 Oil Seal #1 - Rear Axle
28015AA110 Oil Seal #2 - Rear Axle
28015AA050 Oil Seal #3 - Rear Axle
28016AA030 Bearing - Rear Axle
28044AA000 Nut - Axle
28035AA040 Snap Ring R

One question is, are the Subaru wheel bearings sealed? The guy at the shop seems to think so, however, I remember talking to Gary about them, and he told me he would repack them with high-temp synthetic grease... which sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

So, hopefully the shop will give me a call and tell me they can simply repack the bearings and all will be cool, and hopfully I can get them to pack it w/ some RedLine or something. I just hope they don't tell me: "yeah, you need to replace 'em all, and we're busy so the car will be done on Tuesday." :?

I know you can repack them.

You need good air ducting to your brakes...

My thoughts exactly...We need to get a better air-ducting system figured out if we're going to run more track and Solo 1 stuff. There is just not enough air getting to them.

O.M.G.

So yeah, that awful noise from the right front: coat hanger.

Yep, the coat hanger got left on the RF after I had the caliper off to replace the rotors. :oops: That's what I get for working on the car when I'm dead tired at 11pm. The shop things the bearings are fine, so I'm gonna give 'em a go as-is.

I wonder how much the shop will charge me for a "coat hanger extraction". :lol:

Chances are my bearings still aren't 100%, considering the temperatures I generated at the track day, but I should be able to get to Lovelock and back for the event this weekend.

...how embarassing.

I'd like to be the first to say.... I'm never gonna let you live this down.

Don't worry though, I'm sure no one will get "hung up" on this.

Trust me... I deserve everything you can dish out.

(But for the record, I think it was Nick that put that wheel on. :P :lol:)

Suuuuureeee....

Scott working on his truck...

http://www.dangermice.com/Whywomenlivelonger.jpg

Bwhahahahaha...

OMFG! Are you kidding! Hahaha...Sierra must think you are teh smart!
hahaaha. That's good news I guess.

Did you guys have milkshakes while doing the work last night? Or just tired...

I don't think I can ever go back to that shop... they'll probably refuse to waste their time working on my car for fear that they'll just be dealing w/ my half-assery.

Wow. So many directions to take this incident.. I have no idea where to begin. :lol:

I would highly recommend rigging up some functional brake ducts though if you guys do more track events. You can do it really cheap-style too, it doesn't require expensive welded aluminum or carbon backing plates (those are more effective, but like 1000x the price).

Couple pics of a cheap, effective solution:

You should have told them that it was a safety device, to keep the assembly from flying off into a bunch of spectators...did they see the "B", after all, group B race cars need stuff like that.

No milkshakes. I did the fronts Wed night... got home from work at about 10:30, then busted out on the front rotors.

In addition to the coat hanger... Kevin thinks my rotors are on backwards (the slots are the wrong direction). I was sure that I put them on matching the way the old set came off, but now that I realize that I forgot the hanger in there, I'm not so sure I trust anything that got done on the car last night.

So, after work tonight: put the car on jackstands, swap the front rotors left to right, bleed the brakes, then leave for Lovelock. Any help would be appreciated... NO MILKSHAKES ALLOWED.

Oh and the best part: when I go to pick up the car... I'm going to make sure to ask for my coat hanger back. :lol:

Austin, what are you using for material in those pictures? Where is the best place to find that ducting? Racer Supply place or ? That is all I'd need. I was thinking of removing my fog light covers (for track days) and running ducts straight to the brakes. That would rule.

Yeah, I certainly could use some ducting... and a set of StopTechs... I could probably just use the stock ducting as a starting point, but attach a bigger scoop under there, and route it dorectly to the center of the brakes.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=572735

Starting part of the way down. Dunno if RaceComp ever came out with anything.

How sick would it be if I could get a set of STi fog light mounts (like on Eric's car) and convert them into a face plate leading to the brake ducts? That would be totally functional and not look too hokey... hmm? Are there any cheap replica versions of those?

You can probably find a set of JDM ones used without too much difficulty, so you can get a bigger duct.

hahahahahaha, oh man. Yeah, I did put that wheel on, but I figured you already took care of the coat hanger.

You know, I was looking for the coat hanger yesterday when we were doing your rears. But, then it looked like it wasn't needed for the rears with the endlinks and all.

Oh man.

It's not my car, that's someone's Camarobird. You can get the 3" hi-temp duct at any racer supply vendor.. stock car places might have it the cheapest, like Coleman. On my car I found some plastic rain gutter funnels down at OSH that I strapped up to the foglight holes in the front fascia, and then clamped the duct onto. The u-bolts & hose clamps you can obviously get at any hardware store, and then you just gotta find a metal piece to clamp onto the spindle... you could probably find some suitable conduit or gutter tube at the hardware store too and just cut it to your required size.

Just make sure the outlet nozzle clamped to the spindle blows the air into the center intake portion of the brake rotors, rather than on the swept area.

Don't worry dude, I'm not blaming you at all. I was the one working on the rotor in there... I should have remembered the hanger, and checked it after the wheel went back on.

Sweet...I need to find some fog light bezels, anyone have time to track some down? Let me know if you find any.

I really like that thread you posted JC, I'm gonna call Myles to see if they've developed any duct kits for the STi/ WRX. That would be too sweet.

I'm down for brake ducts if we want to make this a group deal. My car already has front vents for them. :P

Hehe, alright. :lol: You know I'm down to help you bleed brakes and swap rotors when you get off work.

http://www.subaruparts.com/catalog/?section=424

I still say the JDM ones are better. The USDM holes will be awful small IMHO.

Scott:

I wonder if my horrible sound on my car is the same thing. When the bearings go, does the sound get worse under load: ie: when you depress the accelerator does the sound get worse than when coasting. If so, that was one of the options I was talking to Nate about. I'll give hime a call as well.

I'll let you know next week, I have an appointment with Nate on Tuesday.

Nick

Scott, I've heard of hanging the competiiton out to dry, but there's gotta be a better way of getting it done.....

But seriously, glad it's not anyhting serious ;)

*ducking the response to this message*

Nate uses zipties, not coathangers ;)


kidding, kidding.

Those would probably get the job done. I could aways trim the opening a bit.60 bucks + ducting, could result in a pretty slick setup...I may start on this project soon.

I might still have the flow data laying around, but IIRC we needed at least a 2.5" ducting to get good results.

In looking at them, the hole does not necessarily have to stay round, It can be more oval/ rectangular shaped can't it? I would definately want to make the opening the biggest part of the system, in hopes that that would force the velocity up a bit. I could also track down a set of stock STi covers, like the ones I have now, and do it that way...

Well, at least if Nick put on the wheel, we can be sure the Lug Nuts are tight.... :lol: :lol:

A 2" duct is about as large as you can go and still route the duct around the control arms and axle... any larger and it will end up being exposed to damage from below.

That's what I was thinking. There is not a whole lot of room to work with under there. So that bezel may work out after all...


BTW...this thread is going nuts...34 replies in a little over an hour....nice for the tech forum

Well that's obviously better than nothing, but if you have small tubing and lots of bends combined with a questionable inlet, I dunno how much flow you are gonna have through there.

Scott, your bearings may not need replacement, but they DEFINITELY need to be repacked with synthetic grease- THEY AIN'T GOT NO GREASE LEFT Y0!

According to the shop, they do have grease left, since there wasn't any sign of leaking. I'm not so sure I believe that, since I saw how baked the brakes got, but I really don't have any options other than run on 'em as is or don't, at this late time. If there really was zero grease in 'em, they'd be making horrible noises...

I doubt the grease that's in 'em is in good condition, but I should be able to get through another weekend, then pick up a harbor-freight adapter and try my luck repacking them myself.

I hope it works on my car too... 74k miles, 4 track days, and some autocross = time for new high-temp grease, especially with the abuse they're gonna get next year.

The inlet doesn't have to be round, my foglight openings are rectangular and they worked fine. Like you said, it's good to have the opening area larger than the duct so it will scoop in more air and accelerate it into the duct. Just find an inlet piece with the smoothest taper down to the duct size that you can.

Ha, ha I once left a coat hanger hanging from one of the springs once. But when I heard the funny noise I remembered it was the coat hanger and not a wheel bearing. So I was saved the embarrassment of having a shop remove the hanger and hand it to me.

Now I don't feel so bad Scott. I was test driving the Ghia Monday after painting and such. Pulled into the drive way and the motor screems. Sounds like a cam gear or flywheel failure. Very bad sound. Pull the decklid and notice my bodywork dolly is wedged down on the pully grinding away. The thing is red hot and threatining to cinter itself to the pulley. It was a relief the motor was ok but I sure felt dumb. Trashed the pulley but nothing else.

Theo :shock:

These would make a sweet inlet for brake ducts...

http://southcoastperformance.com/ima...Conversion.jpg

Wow! Those look very EVO5...Where do you get them...

http://www.southcoastperformance.com...t%20Conversion

Cheaper from NASIOC though...
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=635729

Inlets are too small.

Only if you leave the foglights in. :lol:

Looking closer, the inlets are decent sized and you could enlarge them with a dremel.

http://cakeru.image.pbase.com/image/34700412.jpg

Wow...I think I might want to track those down for fog light use..they look pretty sick! :shock: