Wheel bearings

[RickyBobby]

Has anyone who tracks their cars replaced their wheel hubs/bearings yet?
Ive been thinking a lot a out this lately due to the knockback that I am getting on my stoptechs. I was going to put in knockback springs but decided to give the folks at Zechhausen and Turner a call and they both suggested new bearings. This actually sounds reasonable after 3 track seasons, but I'm hesitant because I've changed bearings on other cars with no improvement.
Am I the only one who has reached this milestone?

[Gearhead999s]

Originally Posted by RickyBobby

Has anyone who tracks their cars replaced their wheel hubs/bearings yet?
Ive been thinking a lot a out this lately due to the knockback that I am getting on my stoptechs. I was going to put in knockback springs but decided to give the folks at Zechhausen and turner a call They both suggested new bearings. This actually sounds reasonable after 3 track seasons, but I\'m hesitant because I\'ve changed bearings on other cars with no improvement.
Am I the only one who has reached this milestone?

I replaced my bearings by getting a new car


I have issues on my new car with Knockback but usually only after using the rumblestrips & curbs hard.

[Sleeper519]

Sorry, what is knockback?

[Richbot]

Slight amount of runout or vibration forces the rotor against the pads without the brake pedal depressed, pushing the pads away from the rotor so that there is dead space between the pads and the rotor the next time you hit the brakes

Rumbles are a big factor. Wheel bearings on a car like this with this much tracking is probably not a dumb idea. The front ones are stupid simple to change too, the rears are a little more involved

[rzm3]

Mine was changed at about 25,000 miles. Rear right bearing started making a clicking noise.

[klammer]

Thanks guys, had not heard of this, will keep it in mind. Btw, when should I look for it, how long/ how many events and if I try and stay clear of the berms and rumble strips will I prolong replacement need? Learn something new every day.

[Z K]

Originally Posted by klammer

Thanks guys, had not heard of this, will keep it in mind. Btw, when should I look for it, how long/ how many events and if I try and stay clear of the berms and rumble strips will I prolong replacement need? Learn something new every day.

Generally if the wheel bearing goes, you'll hear clunking sounds when driving and vibrations through the steering wheel sometimes (if it is the front wheel). If your bearing is really bad, you can wiggle the wheel when you jack up the car and push on the wheel with it still attached to the car.

[persian54]

Originally Posted by Z K

Generally if the wheel bearing goes, you'll hear clunking sounds when driving and vibrations through the steering wheel sometimes (if it is the front wheel). If your bearing is really bad, you can wiggle the wheel when you jack up the car and push on the wheel with it still attached to the car.

The thing is.... you can have vibrations in the steering wheel due to an improperly balanced wheel as well... or a tire with chunks missing.... how can you tell the difference if it's the wheel bearing?

Would this be covered under the BMW maintenance warranty?

How much do wheel bearings cost on this car?

[Gearhead999s]

Originally Posted by persian54

The thing is.... you can have vibrations in the steering wheel due to an improperly balanced wheel as well... or a tire with chunks missing.... how can you tell the difference if it's the wheel bearing?

Would this be covered under the BMW maintenance warranty?

How much do wheel bearings cost on this car?

You will usually hear a low rumbling sound and some vibration when the offending wheel is loaded going around a corner which is not to be confused with a scaloped or worn tire.

[Z K]

Originally Posted by persian54

The thing is.... you can have vibrations in the steering wheel due to an improperly balanced wheel as well... or a tire with chunks missing.... how can you tell the difference if it's the wheel bearing?

Would this be covered under the BMW maintenance warranty?

How much do wheel bearings cost on this car?

Usually it's more clunking/clicking/ticking than vibrations. The sound gets more frequent as you speed up and less frequent as you slow down. It becomes a "whirring" or "rumble" sound at higher speeds.

The 2nd way where you jack the car up, have the wheel in the air and try to push/pull on it and see if there is play - if the wheel has play, you know for sure something is bad.

[Maypo]

Originally Posted by Gearhead999s

You will usually hear a low rumbling sound and some vibration when the offending wheel is loaded ...

Word of caution -- "usually," but not always. A friend of mine recently changed a bad bearing that was actually the 'off-side' bearing, on his E36.

Had X1/9s back when, and they could fool you completely -- changed both fronts once, when it was a rear bearing howling.

[persian54]

Thanks for the advice and info

[Gearhead999s]

Originally Posted by Maypo

Word of caution -- "usually," but not always. A friend of mine recently changed a bad bearing that was actually the 'off-side' bearing, on his E36.

Had X1/9s back when, and they could fool you completely -- changed both fronts once, when it was a rear bearing howling.

It has always worked for me!If you have had a 4th Generation Camaro or a C4 or C5 Vette on R compounds like have,you become an expert on when to replace wheel bearings and even bring spare fronts to the track

[bigjae1976]

I wonder if the SIR B90 tool works for our cars...

Pad knock back is not fun when you don't know what it is and you are charging into a corner trying to slow the car from about 130mph to 40mph .

I believe it is more prevalent when the pads get low. At least that's the only time I got it in my E46 with the UUC/Wilwood kit.

[RickyBobby]

Rldzhao, did you replace all of your bearing or just the one that was bad? I don't have any of the usual symptoms of bad bearings so I'm thinking this is just a fact of life with the stoptechs and will add knockback springs. I'm not big on hitting rumble strips but our tracks our here do have lots of elevation changes and compression turns that really load up the suspension and bearings and cause noticeable knockback.
I also spoke with bimmerworld and their vote goes to knockback springs. They said they've seen few if any wheel bearing issues on the e90.
I certainly will keep an eye on my bearings though.

[Richbot]

There's always the left foot brake brush before the next corner too. It's standard operating procedure for me.

[RickyBobby]

Originally Posted by Richbot

There's always the left foot brake brush before the next corner too. It's standard operating procedure for me.

That's a given, I'm already doing it. I'm just happy that this car doesn't cut the engine power when you left foot tap the brakes like my last car did.

[kaiv]

I wouldn't bother replacing them that early (or before they fail).
I replaced the wheel bearings on my E46 M3 well past 100k miles. And that car saw a lot of track time, sideway action etc.

[RickyBobby]

It looks like it was my bearings. I approached the issue from the least to most expensive solution. Unfortunately the most expensive issue was the culprit.

Step 1: Knockback springs in the stoptechs. Showed a little bit of improvement but knockback was still there in hard esses (and of course the corkscrew).
Step 2: Replaced front wheel bearings. I've only driven on the street but so far I haven't been able to get any type of knockback even in high speed abandoned parking lot manuvers.

So the moral of the story is that wheel bearings are now part of my annual track maintenance plan.

[VictorH]

So what did they look like? Were they all loose and sloppy? Were the cages worn? Can you give us an idea about an estimate of the amount of wear those bearings had?

How many track days per year are you running and are you running R-comps or slicks?

Thanks

[Richard@M-World]

Originally Posted by RickyBobby

It looks like it was my bearings. I approached the issue from the least to most expensive solution. Unfortunately the most expensive issue was the culprit.

Step 1: Knockback springs in the stoptechs. Showed a little bit of improvement but knockback was still there in hard esses (and of course the corkscrew).
Step 2: Replaced front wheel bearings. I've only driven on the street but so far I haven't been able to get any type of knockback even in high speed abandoned parking lot manuvers.

So the moral of the story is that wheel bearings are now part of my annual track maintenance plan.

Keep us posted after you try it on the race track

[wwjd15]

I had 3 problem #1 vibration, #2 knockback, #3 car pulling to the left issue.
After replacing the wheel bearings on fronts, problem #1 and #3 are gone. Problem #2 still there.
After replacing new rotors, problem #2 solved.

My car runs perfectly finally. Hope everything goes well on yours.