can someone explain , for the non mechanically minded?

If mud and water gets past the seals, so will the grease / oil leak out, so that's a non starter..

jamesmartin said:

breathers wont keep water or mud out ,may help ,but checking after is best

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Thor1950 said:

What??????? putting the end of breathers up higher than the water surely would stop water getting in?

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Dippypud said:

but the water / mud can still get in past the seals ...

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One member expanded on the answer of another because a 3rd member clearly doesn't understand the issue....It's called being helpful

Now see if you can work out which is which...

hint.......you are a member

blue beasty said:

One member expanded on the answer of another because a 3rd member clearly doesn't understand the issue....It's called being helpful

Now see if you can work out which is which...

hint.......you are a member

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3rd member does understand But 3rd member directed a question to another member by name. And I would much rather have a answer from the person to whom question was directed to, not someone guessing what another member would say. It would be like Red opening a letter addressed to you and answering it and sending it back to sender

neiltce said:

If mud and water gets past the seals, so will the grease / oil leak out, so that's a non starter..

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not necessarily ,though often lr seals leak a little ,seals are one way seals as used by lr,the lip of the seal faces the oil.grease and as shaft or whatever rotates it oil is pulled along till lip clears it .on the outside lip is facing wrong way and water etc can pass through and does often,grease seals like wheel bearing seals dont even have garter spring to hold lip tight on shaft ,but even so there can be quite some impetus for fluid to want to follow a spinning shaft ie diff flange, series 2 gearbox input shafts amongst other things use a thread on shaft to wind oil back instead of seal

mudfever said:

The former garage did the Wheel bearing , the second mech has said the swivel housing is knackered , mr Muds just came home via the new garage and Betsy is still up on the ramp , it's the whole casing that the big ball bit sits in is crumbled on the deck and new parts , bearings top and bottom (I think he said ) have been fitted just caught it in time apparently , should be done by tomorrow , so even tho we'll be several £100s lighter , I guess it's the price you pay for not being a mechanic (and having a hobby like laning tsk!)

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i reckon theres quite a few of us on here that are not mechanics.
but with this forum to help. you can do a lot of jobs yourself.
save a few bob and have the satisfaction of knowing the job HAS been done.

All the oil in the transfer box and diffs and gear box have been drained and changed (the first time in the 8 years we've owned Betsy , no water in any where , so I'm guessing the breathers have worked? Mr muds pointed out this morning that he thinks I'm getting my bearings mixed up ....he thinks the knackerd bearings are the swivel housing bearings not wheel bearings :doh: I mean how many bloody sets of bearings do you need ..

Maybe he should drop me off in the middle of nowhere and see if I can find my way home .....see if I can get those bearings right

mudfever said:

All the oil in the transfer box and diffs and gear box have been drained and changed (the first time in the 8 years we've owned Betsy , no water in any where , so I'm guessing the breathers have worked? Mr muds pointed out this morning that he thinks I'm getting my bearings mixed up ....he thinks the knackerd bearings are the swivel housing bearings not wheel bearings :doh: I mean how many bloody sets of bearings do you need ..

Maybe he should drop me off in the middle of nowhere and see if I can find my way home .....see if I can get those bearings right

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8 years yearly is more what you should be doing ,depends how lucky you are and the amount of wading etc you do

xat44 said:

i reckon theres quite a few of us on here that are not mechanics.
but with this forum to help. you can do a lot of jobs yourself.
save a few bob and have the satisfaction of knowing the job HAS been done.

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I totally agree up to a point , mr muds may be an aviation mech , but really that doesn't mean he'd be confident to do wheel bearings on the 90 , we would both be worried about our own safety as anything wheel wise , to my mind anyway , could ultimately compromise our safety. Plus you need the correct tools and time , we both work full time , sometimes the last thing you want to do when you get home after a long day , is start taking your wheels apart.

jamesmartin said:

8 years yearly is more what you should be doing ,depends how lucky you are and the amount of wading etc you do

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I know , I know , stop scowling JM
We've only been doing the off road stuff since I did the ladies laning I last Sept tho and even then only really tame stuff , but yes the swivel housing failure is almost undoubtably wear and tear , so we are learning the hard way about on going maintenance . I'm happy that I've found a garage who can keep Betsy maintained for both on and off road stuff , he only uses OEM parts unless cheap and cheerful is requested and is happy to order things like timkin bearings if I want them.

mudfever said:

I know , I know , stop scowling JM
We've only been doing the off road stuff since I did the ladies laning I last Sept tho and even then only really tame stuff , but yes the swivel housing failure is almost undoubtably wear and tear , so we are learning the hard way about on going maintenance . I'm happy that I've found a garage who can keep Betsy maintained for both on and off road stuff , he only uses OEM parts unless cheap and cheerful is requested and is happy to order things like timkin bearings if I want them.

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yearly,is for non over roading vehicle ,its good if you can find someone you can trust and knows their stuff

Thor1950 said:

3rd member does understand But 3rd member directed a question to another member by name. And I would much rather have a answer from the person to whom question was directed to, not someone guessing what another member would say. It would be like Red opening a letter addressed to you and answering it and sending it back to sender

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Actually you didn't. You simply quoted him.

neiltce said:

If mud and water gets past the seals, so will the grease / oil leak out, so that's a non starter..

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No so and for many reasons, one is that oil and grease are heavier than water...

discomania said:

No so and for many reasons, one is that oil and grease are heavier than water...

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hmmmmm why do oil and grease float on water then

i will admit they have a higher viscosity but that isn't the same as weight, which is what you are saying by implying they are heavier than water.

+1 ^^^ water is heavier than oils (generally)

Morning peeps , well I think I need to clarify some points about my original whinge....
The wheel bearings were fine ...what had happened (this is in my non mech reasoning btw)at some point , quite a while ago water had got into the swivel housing , I take it through failed seals , anyway the water in there has been knackering the inside of the housing , hence the reason the housing case and bearings on that side needed replacing ...the water had very recently finally gone through to the axle and on it's way to the diff , so at least we caught it in time before too much damage was done ....new casing on the front left , new bearings , new seals and also new seals on the right side as they were worn , OEM parts , labour ( 9 hours @£42/hour ) plus VAT ...£720 ok a lot of money BUT having done nothing but oil/filter/ air filter and a bit of brake work in 9 years , I guess I can't complain. Nice guy at the garage , really knows his stuff , does re builds (we are watching the re birth of a really lovely LR he's doing ATM) so all in all I feel confident that he can keep Betsy on the road .....the worst part I suppose was the length of time (labour) it took , but I guess some jobs are just more time consuming than others...of course some of that time was taken up doing all the oils , plus he took off each wheel to check/grease bearings ...

redhand said:

+1 ^^^ water is heavier than oils (generally)

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Always wondered why the water trap was at the bottom

DiscoPol said:

hmmmmm why do oil and grease float on water then

i will admit they have a higher viscosity but that isn't the same as weight, which is what you are saying by implying they are heavier than water.

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Heavier by grade not in specific weight, since we were talking about things leaking past seals I didn't think someone would come along and change the parameters.

EP90 is a heavier than say ATF, and so is grease, so EP90 will not leak past a seal as readily as ATF or indeed water.

For discussions sake, it wouldn't matter a damn where the water and oil were sitting if say trapped in a swivel ball, the water would leak past the seal easier than the oil. Likewise if you were to fill the swivel ball with gear oil and diesel, they would settle out and the lighter oil, the diesel would escape more readily than the heavier oil.

I'll hold my hands up and say that I use Britpart wheel bearings but only as they are cheap so its easier to replace them every so often than spend more and probably still have to replace them as regularly anyway. In saying that, there's over 10K on a front one I replaced in March now and I've done quite abit of Offroading and wading with it and isn't showing signs of failure yet which I think is good going considering there's 10x15 modulars with 33x12.5 muds hanging off them all the time

Haven't bothered to change them recently unless they fail as I want to build up new axles with lockers for it anyway.