Technical Replacing rear wheel bearings AGAIN

Currently reading:
Technical Replacing rear wheel bearings AGAIN

Zardo

too many codes
Joined
Dec 1, 2003
Messages
165
Points
105
Hello,

my Abarth Punto Evo has 124 000 km on the clock, I already had to change a pair of rusty rear wheel bearings a few years ago when it had only like 40 000 km.

Now the sound of metal grinding itself to dust has come back, I located it to the left rear wheel (disapeares on sharp left turns, gets stronger on sharp right turns).

Why is it that those bearings will not stay functional, is it ill design stemming from the Abarth factory tuning, or does the regular Punto evo also suffer from these problems?

I had a 1995 Bravo before, drove it during 15 years through heavy winters and stuff, it had a few problem, too, but the wheel bearings always ran fine until the end.

And no, I do not do river crossings with my Abarth. It even has a covert parking spot...
 
Last edited:
Rear wheel bearing replacements are fairly common on all cars that use this type of bearing, they are cheap and therefore not really designed to last. I have replaced rear bearings on older puntos before and the newer ones have exactly the same set-up.

They are so easy to replace (especially with rear disc brakes) that one started playing up on the way to my MOT one day in my old HGT punto, So I picked one up at a parts place for £25 and fitted it in about 20 minutes in a carpark near the MOT centre, with just a few tools I had in the boot of the car.

I can't read the post that, you've linked to as I don't read German but it might be helpful to post here what the solution was, just in case someone else has the same problems.
 
The solution was to fit a rubber seal between the car and the bearing, the seal is available from OPEL

Part number 13342219 and category number 418004.

Opel had the same problems on their small cars (Corsa etc), but they fixed it with this solution.

Fit it on the support, I actually put some grease on it, too. It is supposed to minimize the penetration of water from the inner side into the bearing.

And yes, I drove a Fiat Bravo during 15 years before and never had any problems with the real wheel bearings... seems to be a model specific problem. Some are protected against water and some are not.
 
Back
Top