Hub/ Bearing Failure at track

[Dean]

Major league failure of the Front Left wheel bearing in the Star Mazda corner at Buttonwillow... at least 1/4" of play at the hub. I can beleive Sybir didn't post something. He knew earlier today.

[LetItRev]

Bummer. I hope you didn't have a scare of a ride associated with this.

[Dean]

Car held together, so not to scarry, just a huge amount of noise, grinding, rubbing of brake parts, etc. Hope Nothing else much is mangled. Grease and crap on brake pads, etc. May need new rottor as well. Kevin, Scott... Need a Stoptech hookup...

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

Car held together, so not to scarry, just a huge amount of noise, grinding, rubbing of brake parts, etc. Hope Nothing else much is mangled. Grease and crap on brake pads, etc. May need new rottor as well. Kevin, Scott... Need a Stoptech hookup...

I'm not sure I can get you a single rotor, in a size that I don't use... I don't want to abuse my deal w/ StopTech, and that one's pretty obvious. However, if you contact Tim Kelsch (tim@stoptech.com) and let him know I sent you, he might be able to work out something.

That said, I'm surprised you need a rotor... did really get hammered when the bearing came loose? I figured the rotor's in the caliper so tight, plus I'm assuming you'd be on the brakes, so I wouldn't think there'd be enough play in the system to cause damage... ?

[MattR]

Originally Posted by Dean

Eric or Matt I think South bound on McCarren at Plumb witnessing my return to Reno moments ago with my broken WRX on a borrowed trailer behind a borrowed truck...

It has been way to long a day. I didn't even notice until I saw this silver blur out of the corner of my eye as I turned onto Plumb.

Crap,. I didn;t see that., sorry to hear Dean. Damn. That's a hell of a spot at B-willow for a failure... :shock:

[Dean]

Hey moderators, can somebody move the last couple posts and this one to a new thread? "Wheel bearings and rotors, or Dean's broke left front..." What started as a sighted post has digressed into tech chat. Damn, that is unusual...

Originally Posted by sperry

That said, I'm surprised you need a rotor... did really get hammered when the bearing came loose? I figured the rotor's in the caliper so tight, plus I'm assuming you'd be on the brakes, so I wouldn't think there'd be enough play in the system to cause damage... ?

Well, I limped back to the pits with things banging around a bit. Off the brakes, the pistons get easily pushed back and the rotor can easily hit the caliper in the pad carrier area. Remember the caliper is fixed, and at that distance from the hub, I expect I had a good 1/2"+ possible wobble.

It may be OK, or salvagable with a light turning. We will see.

I think I want a set of spares just in case, possbly with hats. I have to leave for Laguna in 8 days. The inside pad at least is covered in grease, so that should be replaced.

My decision due to time, and other issues was to drop it at Lithia. I may regret this later, but we will see. After all, it is under Warrenty. I've also been having a left-right rear bias issue I'm having them check out. The left rear eats pads much faster than the right rear. Also want them to inspect other bearing and repack/replace.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by MattR

Crap,. I didn;t see that., sorry to hear Dean. Damn. That's a hell of a spot at B-willow for a failure... :shock:

So was that you? And there are much worse places to have a failure. That is a really slow turn relative to others... The 4th gear sweeper would have been far worse... That could have put me on the roof...

[MattR]

Indeed, you actually were quite lucky that it happened there...good point.

No, it wasn't me you saw, probably Eric, he was up to no good last night, playing a prank on me...details later

[Nick Koan]

Dean: Man, that sucks
Matt: what-what-what?

[AtomicLabMonkey]

Originally Posted by Dean

And there are much worse places to have a failure. That is a really slow turn relative to others... The 4th gear sweeper would have been far worse... That could have put me on the roof...

Seriously, that was a good spot to have a failure at BW if you're going to have one. Slow corner, lots of runoff. If that happened in Talladega or cresting over Magic Mountain, the car would be in much worse shape. Glad to hear you made it out ok Dean. :shock:

[sperry]

It sucks you had to go to Lithia, Dean... hopefully under the new service guy (Ray) things will go better for you than they have for me in the past.

As far as the bearing replacment... for future reference:

I dismantled the knuckels myself, put them in a box, went by Lithia and grabbed the necessary bearing parts and dropped them off at Aims in Sparks. They pressed out the old bearings, and packed and pressed in the new ones for an hour's worth of labor! Not a bad deal. Plus I got the bearings packed in better grease than Subaru would use (RedLine CV2).

Here are the parts for the front bearings, with the apporximate jobber price (from SubaruParts.com, Lithia's prices are similar if you can get the parts counter to place it under a shop's name. I used Aims.):

$13.46 (2 x $6.73) 28015AA070 Oil Seal - Front Axle, Outer
$16.30 (2 x $8.15) 28015AA021 Oil Seal - Front Axle, Inner
$113.54 (2 x $56.77) 28016AA011NT Bearing - Front Axle
$6.66 (2 x $3.33) 28044AA000 Nut - Axle
$4.50 (2 x $2.25) 28035AA010 Snap Ring F

I also had to replace my Left Front hub, as the bearing had frozen on it and destroyed the surface. That was like another $110 IIRC.

[Dean]

I managed to destroy the hub and axle as well as the bearing. They are covering all of the above under warranty.

They want $570 to replace the other side. They claim it can't be repacked. After you had the new one pressed, do yo think you could have shot more grease in, or is it mostly sealed? I may pull it myself, and have it done after Laguna if it survives. (crosses fingers)

[Kevin M]

Talk to Aaron about that other bearing. I'd much rather have them do it than a dealer tech personally.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

I managed to destroy the hub and axle as well as the bearing. They are covering all of the above under warranty.

They want $570 to replace the other side. They claim it can't be repacked. After you had the new one pressed, do yo think you could have shot more grease in, or is it mostly sealed? I may pull it myself, and have it done after Laguna if it survives. (crosses fingers)

Wow the axle too!? Did the axle nut strip off or something?

$570 sounds pretty steep for what's bascially a 2 hour job + parts. I don't think you want to bother repacking the bearings. I'm not even sure it's possible, but since the parts are only about $100, that's worth it for piece of mind IMO. Hold off on that one and see if you can't do it yourself this weekend. You should be able to do it for under $200 if you do it the way I did.

And one note about OEM bearings. They come packed with *shipping grease* only. If you install 'em as is, they will fail quickly. Grab a tube of RedLine CV2 from Summit (or borrow mine, I've still got a ton of it) and have whoever presses 'em in pack some extra grease in there... you don't have to clean out the shipping lube, just add some of the good stuff.

[MattR]

Dean, were there any warning signs, squeeks, sterring feel, anything? Or did it just let go?

[Kevin M]

Dean, you've got a PM.

[Dean]

Originally Posted by BAN SUVS

Dean, you've got a PM.

So do you...

[Dean]

Originally Posted by MattR

Dean, were there any warning signs, squeeks, sterring feel, anything? Or did it just let go?

Yes, but not what I would have considered classic wheel bearing grinding/growling noises. It was more rythmic like a slightly loose wheel, or brake pad rubbing on warped rotot.

I even stopped and checked the lug nuts because I thought it was the former as I had just rotated tires that AM. Didn't think to check bearing play.

Play was fine at the biginning of day 1, and I think it was OK when I rotated wheels. Total failure time from very first noise was probably 4-5 laps or about 15 miles.