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        General >> Problems >> Near Death experience!!
        
(Message started by: Wafoo on Mar 15^th, 2006, 12:21am)

Title: Near Death experience!!
Post by Wafoo on Mar 15^th, 2006, 12:21am

Thought things were going too well,got the car back of the guy who did the bearings today,dropped it off at work for me.
Going home at 11pm nice straight stretch of road,then slight bend,decided to unleash some of the horses,got to 80 loud bang,graunching noise,car decides to go sidewards at a rate of knots,huge smell of burnt rubber and something else from passenger,finally wobble to side of road expecting blow out,nope still whole,mind you with a flat spot the size of Australia on it where it's skidded along after the wheel locked up!
Tried to move it,got drive one side not the other,so brought home on the back of the trailer,haven't looked at it yet so expecting the worst.......why is it always me?

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by Highlander on Mar 15^th, 2006, 12:23am

Bearings?

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by Wafoo on Mar 15^th, 2006, 12:28am

reckon so,brand new,must be the yehaaa cowboy mechanic

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by Daven on Mar 15^th, 2006, 8:45am

Phew - glad you are OK!

Dave

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by Dave on Mar 15^th, 2006, 9:29am

Agreed - could have been nasty!

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by mazzy_j on Mar 15^th, 2006, 9:37am

Good thing no one was hurt. Whoever did them might not have greased them up enough, or not fitted them correctly. Do new wheel bearings have to be run in because they might not have liked the high speed??

Hope it gets sorted ok :)

Matt

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by jonnycab on Mar 15^th, 2006, 10:09am

The same thing happened to me on the M25, en-route to Gatwick airport. I was doing 80mph at the time. Quite a scary experience. The new bearing was fitted only a fortnight before. At first I thought I'd been done but it was indeed the new bearing that had failed. It was a £30 pattern part. Nowadays I only buy the proper ones!!

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by Snoopy on Mar 15^th, 2006, 5:29pm

IF it was the nearside that failed after being renewed, it is most likely that the garage did NOT use strong thread lock on the shaft. as the nuts on the scorpio rear bearings are NOT left and right handed the nearside one always has a tendency to undo, which is why the use of STRONG thread lock and torque of 200ft lb is applied.

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by Simmo on Mar 15^th, 2006, 7:39pm

To add to Snoopys advice ; the instructions with the bearings say to re-check after a few miles AND the average DIY torque wrench won't go to the Ft/Lbs required.

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by mr._floppy on Mar 16^th, 2006, 12:21am

Seriously, it serves you right for speeding, what if you had hit another car while slewing uncontrollably across the carriageway at 80 mph ? @ {} {} []

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by Big_Green_Tank on Mar 16^th, 2006, 12:33am

From the sound of it, I reckon that this would have happened even at the speed limit.

Bob

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by Wafoo on Mar 16^th, 2006, 9:38am

exactly,it's a 70 limit,those bearings would have gone anyway,when he dropped it off at work for me he rechecked the torque and it was fine,the guy came round my house yesterday to see what happened,it was the offside,luckily it's all came off in one go,looks like no damage to hub carrier or driveshaft,but the bearing was just a huge mass of twisted metal,pattern parts,he told me the two bearings he got from the parts place were from two different manufacturers,one is a firm we've all heard of,the other not so,and guess which one went.
Coming round today to fit them,I'm confident he did it correctly after my earlier moan,so we'll see how it goes.
It's just the way they go with no warning whatsoever,very worrying.

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by jonnycab on Mar 16^th, 2006, 1:43pm

The car didn't 'slew uncontrolably across the carriageway', it stayed in a straight line as it was the rear o/s bearing. And as for doing 10mph above the speed limit (lock me up & throw away the key), if I thought it was going to seize, especially after only just being fitted, I don't think I would have even taken the car out.
P.S. It was scary enough at 80mph, imagine if it had happened on the Autobahn at 130mph.

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by Biggles on Mar 16^th, 2006, 7:34pm

I had the same experience a few weeks ago, doing 70mph in the outside lane on the M11. O/S rear bearing locked up, flat spotting a nearly new tyre, but holding a nice straight line and able to steer into the hard shoulder fairly safely. Suprised how well she handled under such conditions.
That was the 4th set of bearings fitted to the same wheel over a period of a year(every 2-3k miles). My local mechanic has been baffled as to why.Bearings have always been FMD supplied or equivilant quality.
This time he replaced the bearing housing as this is the only part that had not been replaced before, as it looked ok. Hope this finally cures it.

Peter.

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by tony on Mar 16^th, 2006, 7:47pm

Hi Peter,

The bearing housing?
Isn't that meant to be changed every time anyway. They do come as part of the kit???

Tony

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by Biggles on Mar 16^th, 2006, 8:02pm

By this I meant the hub carrier that the bearings sit in.
Bearing kits contain the bearings/seals/grease.

Peter.

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by mr._floppy on Mar 16^th, 2006, 8:56pm

I've heard stories of owners third or even fourth rear wheel bearing failure and have wondered

1. Are they doing it right ?

2. Are they neglecting to replace the hub carrier when replacing the bearings ?

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by jonnycab on Mar 16^th, 2006, 10:00pm

The bearing on mine didn't actually lock up completely (but it went pretty d**n stiff) it just went bang, followed by a rapid deceleration, lots of smoke and sqealing like a banshee. After I had stopped on the hard shoulder, I sat for a while wondering what had happened. I then managed to drive another 400 yards or so into Clackett Lane services with a noise coming from the back that sounded like a thousand mice in a mangle, but the wheel was amazingly still turning and on inspection there was no flatspot.
When the bearing was inspected the inner bearing ring had mostly disintigrated and the outer bearing had completely melted. The hub was also beyond salvation having been deeply scored.

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by Biggles on Mar 16^th, 2006, 10:12pm

My mechanic also replaced my nearside rear bearing at about the same time as replacing the offside rear when it went the first time and have never had any problems with that replacement.
He replaced the hub and bearings but not the hub carrier, the same as the offside. Maybe the offside one needed renewing although seeming to be ok.
I wasn't aware that you should replace anything other than the bearings unless parts indicated otherwise i.e. wear or damage.
Having said that though, I suppose it makes sense to change all components to enable prolonged life of the bearings etc.

Peter

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by jonnycab on Mar 16^th, 2006, 11:31pm

The hub should always be replaced if the bearings have gone. The hub should be smooth with no gouges. If the hub is gouged then you should not put new bearings on it.
Even minute scratches on the surface means the new bearing will fail prematurely

Title: Re: Near Death experience!!
Post by shaun on Mar 21^st, 2006, 8:47pm

thank god you r ok. had mine done at ford b4 i got my car 2 months ago