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Front wheel bearings leak
Looking for suggested areas to further explore the cause of continued front wheel bearing oil leakage on 1997 XL chassis.
Brakes were completely replaced and new wheel bearings done less than one year / 5,000 miles ago. Leak was noted then, and bearings redone at same shop 3 months / 500 miles ago, for continued leak. Said leak now even worse.
Suggested cause(s) included hard braking (which is not the case), or sticking brake caliper. Are there any other common culprits that should be checked. Going back to same shop, but concerned…
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7 Replies
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Check out a recent thread over on the bus conversion magazine site. Good discussion about bearing run out and a lock tight product if it is leaking in a certain manner.
no personal knowledge or endorsement here, it just caught my eye as I had a rear seal leak recently.
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never heard of those 2 or three. Can’t see reasoning for that statement. Would think overfilled hub–wrong oil—poor bearing adjustment. Seal not installed correctly. If you had a caliper sticking you would feel it in the steering wheeel and prob feel the heat generated by the dragging. Neither should effect the hub oil until it got extreme!!!! Bob
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Mike and Nancy,
First, take the hub cap off, degrease it the best you can and go for a very short drive to see where the leak is coming from.
Your chassis has a Stemco (Stelco?) cap. It is a six bolt cap with a gasket. Make sure the cap bolts are tight. Make sure the oil level is correct. It should be about 1/8 to 1/4″ visible on the BOTTOM of the clear plastic center of the cap. Any higher and it is overfilled.
If the cap is leaking they are cheap and available at truck parts stores. If the gasket is the problem they are also available.
If it is overfilled, draw out some oil. Some caps have a drain plug built in them.
It does not look like a hub seal, but that is why you need to clean it up and then see where it is leaking. If it is a hub seal it is likely you have a bunch of grease behind the holes in the wheel.
Replacing bearings, hub seals, caps, etc does not rise to the level of rocket science and if the shop that did the work is incapable of putting things back together without a leak, maybe you should look elsewhere.
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Is always been to outside of wheel? I replaced all of mine this year Part cost $12 ea. If the reasons given you by shop are Questionable time to move to another. Sorry for short answer. I have a headache today. Bob
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Don’t forget to check the tiny vent hole in the rubber plug to make sure it’s not plugged.
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file:///Users/boateral/Desktop/5.jpg
Arrow points to micro pressure relieving vent hole Truk4u referred to. I would strongly suspect an improperly installed hub seal.
Based on shop responses Jon, has a good suggestion.
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That is the new stemco cap he may have the old one , with out fill hole on side ,old ones you could fill through cap , new ones you can not you have to take side plug out to fill, you can not take cap off face of it , it is solid on there , new ones are filled through side plug which will require a Allen wrench cut to fit to take plug out
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