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Wheel Bearing Spindle Nut

J

jibbajibba56

CEG'er
Joined
Apr 21, 2010
Messages
35
Location
Texas
Well, I undertook some maintenance on my 00 CSVT. Among the items was front wheel bearings. Simple enough job using the guidance from sticky in the maintenance section. I got everything torqued back up nice and tight, no slop in the wheels when you grabbed them and did the push/pull test with the car up in the air. I have now had to re-torque the drivers side spindle nut 2x in two weeks. First time was right after first drive around the block, seemed the nut torqued out but maybe didn't pull the spline shaft all the way into the hub. Today I torqued it up again when I got home from work (took about a 1/4 turn to get back to 202 ft-lb). I checked the passenger side and it the torque wrench clicked right away when i got on it and i couldn't budge the nut. I am thinking that the driver side will walk a little bit in the early days as the bearing gets 'loaded' in due to that wheel spending most of its time in CCW rotation whereas the passenger side keeps torque well on that nut due to being in CW rotation most of the time. Anyone else experience this? BTW, I couldn't get the multidisk nut readily supplied but do have a more traditional solid locking nut that was listed as acceptable replacement. Any thoughts? Should I be doing a more traditional 5 step procedure to pre-load the bearings (torque it up to spec, spin the hub forward and backward, back it off 1/4 turn, spin the hub forward and backward, torque to spec)? As always, thanks in advance.
 
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I thought the multi-nut was a one-time use piece ? I was wondering about getting a replacement, but you couldn't find one on any online shop ?

thanks,

Mad Dog
 
You did torque the axle nut to 212 ft-lbs right? If so the hub might be bad and need replacing. Are you sure the bearing was pressed in straight?

I have heard a few things about the factory axle nut. Its a one time use to it can be reused a few times. Might be best to get a new one and see what happens.
 
Haynes must have lied with its 202 figure. Yeah the bearing went in okay and the hub looked good. For clarification, I did not reuse the multidisk nut. I bought new replacement locking nuts that were listed as acceptable alternative. The passenger side did get a new half shaft due to the threads getting marred up when I removed the knuckle/hub assembly. The end of the shaft dropped down and hit the lca ball joint and bent over a couple threads. Maybe I the bearing just didn't go in as well on that side and something happened. When I took the old bearings out it seemed way to easy to separate the outer bearing from the race. Both of the olds ones essentially blew apart with on strike of the BFH on the back side. These are essentially two bearings in a common race. I thought for sure these would be needle bearings based on the length (much like the ones in my VW). Either way I think I will put a mark on the nut and shaft to see if the nut is actually spinning off or if this is just losing the preload tension. I'll post an update. BTW in replaced the bearings and the snap rings so that they had a clean landing spot.
 
I don't recall if people had trouble with aftermarket axle nuts. I think most of those are supposed to be staked when tightened correctly. The OEM nuts do not require that.

Yes the old bearing normally fall apart upon removal.
 
Update: I wanted to wait a bit to update. I retorqued the nut to 212 before I took it in for alignment. I marked the nut and spindle so I could tell if the nut was creeping off. I checked it daily and all seems to be good. Still tight, no wobble in the wheel when I pick the car off the ground. I am guessing the hub may not have gotten seated all the way when pressed, maybe walked itself in under load. Either way, it all tight, rides nice and tight again thanks to new, non cracked and pitted (new h&r kit) and the wheel stays straight when I let go of the wheel (poor thing was pigeon toed and way of on caster). Also a plus, I don't have to turn my radio up to drown out the sound of the old worn bearings. Some days I think about getting a new car but then I see all the warranty horrors my coworkers go through after paying a bunch of money for a brand new Audi, BMW, Infiniti, etc. I'll keep my car that rides nice, is comfortable, and really hasn't cost me much in ownership. As always thanks for the help.
 
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