The subject has been covered for years, but even on this site I’ve never seen a consensus reached regarding the feasibility of greasing our wheel bearings through the ABS sensor port. I read a lot the past few hours and I really don’t see there being a debate anymore. The argument has always been “you can’t grease a sealed unit”, well tell that to my ABS sensor hole. Our bearing housing is sealed on the outside ends, the inner bearings are not sealed and the abs tone ring is between the inner and outer bearing, so greasing the bearings through the ABS hole will get grease to the bearings. Some have mentioned possible ABS sensor issues from grease getting on the tone ring, but I haven’t read of anyone actually having a problem, plus you can just spin the hub and wipe the grease off the ring with a flathead screwdriver or something similar. I’m reading where some guys are using a mix of 75/25 grease and 140/75 gear oil with no issues reported. I haven’t found any definitive information on how much grease to pump in, but as preventative maintenance I’d think even just 5-10 pumps could do nothing but help.

This is not intended to bring an already damaged/worn bearing back to life, but as part of semi regular maintenance to keep the bearings healthy.
 

So, can we finally agree that this is a valid way to extend the life of our wheel bearings? Or does someone have something to say?

Not so much what the grease is made from but how the metals of the bearing load the grease over time. Its a hall effect sensor on the ABS and if the sensor can't detect the teeth because of other metals (wear metals) filling the gaps of the tone wheel teeth in the grease then the ABS light will be set.

 

Yeah I would prefer to have the old school cone and race that you can hand pack the bearings. I'm not going to do the expensive hub change over to get it as well as having manual hubs to shift in all the time. 

 

Again majority of the bearing failure is oversized tires and heavy offset wheel that add leverage forces and wear the bearings out quicker. I've got a conversation with another gent on TikTok about the failure that came in his shop which again had the heavy offset wheels and wide tires. Premature bearing failure will occur. 

 

As for me I go 180k to 200k on front unit bearings since I've never oversized, but undersized my tires. Never have to grease the bearings or worry about it.

So now the bearings are made from graphite 

 

If you’re seeing graphite loading it has to come from somewhere, and it’s not the bearing. Improper grease sure sounds promising thou. 

 

Not what I'm saying grease is only the carrier for the wear metals. I termed it graphite but that what it looks like after the bearing has worn down some and has that grey metal with small fine dust of metals in it. Regardless of what grease the wear metals will be in the grease later. 

 

18 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Not what I'm saying grease is only the carrier for the wear metals. I termed it graphite but that what it looks like after the bearing has worn down some and has that grey metal with small fine dust of metals in it. Regardless of what grease the wear metals will be in the grease later. 

 

Yes, as there is nowhere else for the wear metals to go. 
 

More grease means less metals by volume, and more grease means less wear. It’s really a good thing all around to have a little more grease in there. 

Greased the front left bearing tonight while replacing the abs sensor, took it out for a spin, bearing immediately exploded. Sent me and the truck through a nativity scene in my neighbor’s yard. Nah, it was easy and went well. Got about 10 pumps in before I felt a little more resistance and stopped. Napa bearings with 40K. I’m going to do the other side tomorrow with a tablespoon of gear oil and see which one goes further. 40 mile trip at 70mph, no abs light. 

Nice test, wheel see

10 hours ago, JAG1 said:

wheel see

That's funny!

Longtime Grateful Dead roadie exposes “the big lie” perpetuated by @Mopar1973Man and others.

 

 

 

On 12/2/2022 at 9:07 AM, Andyba20 said:

Longtime Grateful Dead roadie exposes “the big lie” perpetuated by @Mopar1973Man and others.

 

@Andyba20, I don't think they are perpetuating the big lie on purpose Andy. We, like everyone else likes to think these companies are telling us the truth, is all it is.