My 1992 Subaru loyale needs new wheel bearings quite often. Is the some problem with the castle nut or the wheels that I need to fix?

Edited May 30, 20196 yr by 92SUBloyale

Gots ta buy new cone washers, they are soft metal so once you tighten the washer hump side out towards the castle nut it digs onto the cone. No matter what, after you reached torqe spec keep going until you can slot the pin. If you back it off ya basically killed the cone. And now would be a good time to scope out those lower ball joints...

You might get away with re-using it once but after that ya need a new one. I've been down this road too many times. The one's at the wrecking yard are no good.

If your talking about the rears that's a whole diffrent story,  I got lucky and just pulled the whole assembly including trailing arm and the next time I splooge grease and re-sealed it.

I'm sure other sub-addict's will be along shortly..

Front or rear? 

They are different.  Front are ball bearings, rear are tapered roller bearings.

If the axle nut is not properly tightened, with the cone and spring washers properly placed, it's not good.   If everything is correct, it is not normal for them to wear out frequently.  150K - 200K miles is not uncommon.

 

Thanks, this will definitely help!

14 hours ago, DaveT said:

Front or rear? 

They are different.  Front are ball bearings, rear are tapered roller bearings.

If the axle nut is not properly tightened, with the cone and spring washers properly placed, it's not good.   If everything is correct, it is not normal for them to wear out frequently.  150K - 200K miles is not uncommon.

 

He mentioned "castle nut".  So it is probably the front. 

 

If my memory serves me right the torque for it is 145 ft/lb.    If torqued correctly the bearing should last you awhile.  I am on 190000 plus with OEM one.

 

Good luck,

Sam

The rears have the same nut as the front, at least for 4WD.  145 sounds familiar.   Up in that range.  

Who fits the wheel bearings? Are they lubing the bearing properly by packing the bearing with grease? 

If they’re fitting them with only the packaging grease, they probably won’t last long. 

How are the seals holding up? Are they also lubed with some rubber grease to avoid “burning” the oil seal out? 

Bearings wear out for many reasons - how do you use the vehicle? I was regularly replacing my rear bearings due to water crossings when regularly off-roading. Bog holes could do the same too if you played around in the mud long enough. 

What sort of signs of wear do you have to indicate the bearing is dead and what do they look like when they come out? 

As others have said, proper torque is key. And you have to retain the bearing spacer between the bearings on the front end. 

Cheers 

Bennie