Wheel Bearing Temperature
Dennis W. Farrell (dfarrell@ridgecrest.ca.us)
Sun, 5 Sep 1999 12:11:42 -0700
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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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I've always had a concern about "how hot is too hot" for wheel bearing
temperatures. Especially true since I drive fairly long distances in 105
deg and sometimes higher temps. What I do is to compare the temperature of
the tire treads (sometimes "ouch") to the hub temperature (also sometimes
"ouch"). If they're about the same I conclude that the bearing temp, even
if high, is not due to incipient failure. The rationale for this is simply
that if the tread is hot it will heat up the tire and wheel and thus the
bearing hub so they should be at about the same temp. There are several
reasons this is questionable, but it has worked in practice for me for quite
a few years.
I also always - or at least when I think of it - check the bearing buddies
for grease level immediately before launching. If (as Harry said) I can
wiggle the follower piston in the bearing buddy it has enough grease.
On older bearing buddies, the O-ring which seals the follower piston gets
hard and no longer seals, so that grease will leak around it. I try to
replace the O-ring when I clean the bearing buddy and clean and repack the
wheel bearings.
-- dwf