26 replies to this topic

[antcole]

It doesnt bear thinking about the possibility of it happening in busy motorway traffic etc...... a lucky escape!
The car is near Torquay, well Paignton but im willing to just bite the bullet and go for renewing all the hub and its parts as the concensus of opinion here is wheelbearings.
The knowlegde base here is immeasurable Thanks chaps!

by the way.... what size is the drive shaft nut?

[Carlos W]

I think its 1" 5/16ths but hopefully someone will be along to confirm that! It says on the minispares website!

The police are very into replacing both of something when a part fails, so if one wheel bearing fails, they'll do both as a matter of course as the other one won't be far behind, that's why I don't think an ex police car would be a bad buy as they're well looked after!

[JonnyBMX]

just some advise, if you are replacing the wheel bearings (which it sounds like its certain) the the timkin ones are the way to go so much better qaulity then the copys.

also if you dont have a press to press the bearing races in with you can use a block of alluminium made up to the correct size to gently tap them down by doing it with a block of metal that covers the whole surface it helps them go in straight without damaging anything, important to use a soft metal block aswell otherwise you could damage things.

also yes as above the hub(castle) nut it 1 " 5/16 its a good idea to replace these if they are atall worn aswell, i think its recommended to do so everytime you take them off?

p.s have you seen how the police cars are driven? off the limiter all the time allthough they are well maintained they are driven quite hard

[Carlos W]

p.s have you seen how the police cars are driven? off the limiter all the time allthough they are well maintained they are driven quite hard

90% of the time a Police traffic car will sit on the motorway at 60-65mph, ok, when they are pursuing they are driven hard, but that isn't all the time

[JonnyBMX]

allright when they are patroling they arnt but police cars have a short life as they are driven hard

[petehuws]

I bought an ex police petrol Octavia vRS estate, it's been an awesome car, & a fantastic buy! That & my Cooper RSP are my most favourite cars, anyway I digress.
Wheel bearing in my opinion, exactly the same thing happened to a neighbours mini, you'll know straight away when the CV joint remains fused to the wheel bearings. As I blind buy my shopping list would be identical with the addition of new a new hub castle nut, & split hub nut washer.
Good luck & let us know how you get on

[antcole]

I bought an ex police petrol Octavia vRS estate, it's been an awesome car, & a fantastic buy! That & my Cooper RSP are my most favourite cars, anyway I digress.
Wheel bearing in my opinion, exactly the same thing happened to a neighbours mini, you'll know straight away when the CV joint remains fused to the wheel bearings. As I blind buy my shopping list would be identical with the addition of new a new hub castle nut, & split hub nut washer.
Good luck & let us know how you get on

I will post up the findings and pics etc, thanks so much for the advice and all the replies.
Minisport came through spot on with the delivery, dead on time... saviours.

Going to pull the hub off tomorrow and see.

[KernowCooper]

Any news on what the find was? ver interested in this, my money is on the wheel bearing from the symptom

[antcole]

Any news on what the find was? ver interested in this, my money is on the wheel bearing from the symptom

Set out today to tear the old hub off and after tracking down a 34mm socket, we were beaten back by the torrential rain!
Going to set about it tomorrow, managed to build up the new hub and ball joints ready for swapping out with the seized one....
Ill let you know tomorrow, although i had a look underneath while my son attempted to drive forwards and could see the whole hub flexing on the tie bar as it tried to move... so im pretty confident in the wheelbearings being fused to the hub and the outer CV joint.

[antcole]

Well, i got it all done.

As predicted, the wheel bearing had completely and catastrophically collapsed.
The rollers just fell out of the races when i tapped the inner bearing out..... although strangely, they werent fused to the CV joint/drive shaft.

When i released the drive shaft nut (which was INSANELY tight) the hub became free again but with a lot of metallic scraping sounds and rumbling.

I have a feeling the hub nut was way over tightened by whoever had last been there.... maybe im wrong but it needed my full 75kgs of weight bouncing on an 18" breaker bar to shift it.

So, having already built up the new hub ready, i slapped it all back together and the job was a goodun.

Did the other side wheel bearings also, as well as fitting new discs and pads.
The discs were on the thin side and while the hub needed removal to do the bearings, it made sense to do it all in the one job.

In total, just shy of 4 hours work and about a million coffees.

Thanks for the advice you lovely people, this forum really does come into its own when theres a cry of help!!

Edited by antcole, 16 December 2012 - 07:05 PM.

[KernowCooper]

Good job in 4 hours this weather and your safe now the otherside is done

[antcole]

Good job in 4 hours this weather and your safe now the otherside is done

It was a massive relief to find the wheel bearings were the culprit.... i had some element of doubt and the worst case being a problem in the diff as someone had suggested to my son..... so it was great to know the 200 odd quid spent on a new hub, bearings, drive flange and an outter CV joint was all money well spent.
As mentioned earlier, the temptation to just do one side would have been foolish... the other side was ok-ish but did have a lot of red fretting corrosion evidence and a distinct lack of grease.
Also, the CV boot was shot on the good side and all in all, a good job done with complete confidence in the condition of the front drive bearings.

Im going to order up a set of rear bearings asap and do them too.
God knows how long theyve been rolling round in all weather and so on.....

Glad its all tip top now.