Changing Wheel Bearing Oil - Coiler Axels

[Team Idris]

Had you considered draining and re-filling your wheel bearing oil ? I'm pretty harsh on the old range rover classic axels and have noticed how the gear oil in the wheel bearing gets trapped and goes dark first. So I took the time to pull one of the five bolts, drain overnight and re-fill with fresh oil.

Originally I thought it would change itself, especially as we get at all angles, but in reality it stays trapped behind the outer Timken bearing. I guess series do the same? This isn't the sort of vehicle that builds up oil scum over 10 years, it's always in bits for something. So I'll have to accept that I just learnt something new, and add it to my service thinking

P.S. I've never seen a Rover service schedule, so if this is in there and I didn't know, my apologies.

[western]

wheel bearings are or should be lubricated with grease, the oil migrates from the diff along the driveshafts to the hub/bearings, there's no need to 'change it' just clean & regrease the wheel bearings if the hub has to be removed for any other work -- changing a brake disc for example,

[landroversforever]

My rear wheel bearings on the 90 were running in the axle oil and were far better for it. I changed them once when I had it apart as an 'I'm in here and might as well' job, and since then haven't even had to adjust them. Done 3 sets of fronts in that time for contamination.

[jbs]

I've been running oil lubed wheel bearings for about 15 years and they've always given me good service, I Initially grease them on fitting them and then let the EP90 do the work.

John

[Team Idris]

The pre-grease is the bit I miss out now. Build it up and fill with oil, because I considered that grease would actually stop the oil circulating for many a mile. And at the very least, I'm not greasy sticky all over the place

[Tanuki]

IMHO if you've got oil in your wheel-bearings or swivel-hubs you've got a failed seal.

Keeping the oil and grease in their factory-appointed places makes sense to me: if you're doing any wading I'd much rather have two oilseals between the cr*p and the difficult-to-replace/expensive-bits [the diffs!] than one.

With the system as-designed, if water/mud gets into a swivel-hub or a rear wheel-bearing you can easily clear it: if the same water/mud gets into an 'oil-lubed-everywhere-without-intervening-seals' swivel-hub or diff it's going to get everywhere and so you've got to clean out both sides *and* the diff - which will cost you a lot more in terms of parts and downtime.

Same goes if water gets into your diff - with the OEM system you only need to flush out the diff - if you're an oil-everywhere-with-no-oilseals-between-the-bits type you've gotta strip and rebuild the hubs/wheel-bearings too.

[discomikey]

wheel bearings are or should be lubricated with grease, the oil migrates from the diff along the driveshafts to the hub/bearings, there's no need to 'change it' just clean & regrease the wheel bearings if the hub has to be removed for any other work -- changing a brake disc for example,

werent the early coiler (mushroom halfshaft type) wheelbearings designed to run in oil? im sure they were, not that they are any different to the later or earlier series type haha

[Nigelw]

Correct Mikey, it was the same on early Discovery 1s also until the advent of the 24 sline narrow hubs where they became greased bearings, this coincided with the move over to one shot CV grease too. Not sure of the change over point but it was shortly after 94 or 95 that they changed the swivel housings and gave only a fill plug and did away with level and drain plugs.

I circumvented the half shaft oil seal in the stub axle to give me oil lubed bearings, I think there is a lot of sense in having an oil lubed bearing and enabling oil to keep the half shaft splines lubricated and rust/corrosion free, reduces the chance of rapid wear and failure if it stays in perfect shape.

[jbs]

The reason my axles run the wheel bearings in the EP90 oil from the diffs is because I specifically removed the axle to stub axle seals when I've redone my wheel bearings in the past, and I was following the advice of someone who has a much greater experience of landrovers than I ever will-Although I was originally sceptical I'm very happy as my wheel bearings last longer than they ever did when I ran them on grease.

John

[Diff]

As Ralph/Western noted, ALL wheel bearings should be greased upon assembly.

This is standard in all the workshop manuals, regardless of whether or not the vehicle is the older type which does not have the inner seals to stop the migration of oil from the axle case.

By packing the bearings with grease, it gives the bearings the important initial lubrication to stop any wear before the oil gets to the bearings, plus it also means that when the hub does get flooded with oil from the axle case, the oil mixes with the grease to give a nice thick sludge of lubricant which is less likely to leak, which will stay stuck to all bearing surfaces even if the vehicle is left standing for long periods, and which will resist water contamination damage far better than oil alone.

Regards, Diff.