Took me 12 years to figure out I was greasing wheel bearings wrong

I was packing wheel bearings by hand for years, just smearing grease on the outside and calling it good. Last month a seasoned tech at the shop on 3rd Street looked at my work and said "where's the inner bearing?" I pulled it out bone dry. Has anyone else been doing something basic totally backwards for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivia47812d ago

You ever try packing them with a cheap bearing packer from the auto parts store? That's what finally fixed it for me. I used to just hand pack and thought I was doing it right, but the tool forces grease all the way through so you know it's in there. Cost me like $15 and saved me from overheating a trailer hub on a trip to the coast last summer. Way easier than trying to figure it out by feel too.

the_anna12d ago

Is it really that big of a deal though? I mean, sure you want some grease in there but people have been running bearings with barely any grease for decades and they're fine lol. Unless you're towing heavy stuff or driving cross country every week a dry inner bearing probably isn't gonna explode tomorrow. It's not like you were putting the wrong grease in or something, that's where the real damage happens. Feels like shops like to make everything sound way more critical than it actually is just to sell you on a full service.