Rear wheel bearing welded itself to driveshaft

[simxs]

I've had a whining noise coming from somewhere in the rear of the drivetrain for a while now. I was worried it was the rear diff but I determined from some hard cornering that it was the left rear wheel bearing (since the noise got louder when that wheel was loaded by a right turn).

Finally got around to getting it replaced. However the shop couldn't separate the driveshaft from the bearing even with their 150 tonne press. Apparently the heat of the partially-failed bearing had caused it to weld itself to the driveshaft. Accordingly, this meant replacing the otherwise good driveshaft and housing (with parts from a wrecker) as well as fitting a new bearing :sad:

Attached is a pic of the 'one-piece' driveshaft/bearing :lol: This perhaps could have been prevented if I had changed the bearing as soon as there was a hint of noise. The car is much quieter underway now. I know the rear bearings are weak on these but apparently the right rear on mine is still ok. I guess the one on the kerb side has a harder time.

 

[taza]

Very common on Subaru's. We had this hqppwn to a forester when doing a gearbox swap.
Broke a 15tonne press at work.

Always anti-sieze all splines on drive shafts before installing them. A whole new hub is needed li I e in your case...

 

[Kevin]

Bugger! I know they had a very hard time getting a failed bearing off mine in Mildura a few years back.

 

[Ratbag]

That's a real bugger, Simon.

At least it didn't collapse in use and cause an accident.

I know when I did a bearing on my horse float many years ago, a group of the tapered roller bearings turned side-on to the direction of rotation, welding themselves to each other during the process, and were then re-shaped accordingly! I would have thought that a single roller bearing would be all but indestructible - not so ...

 

[simxs]

Thanks for the interest and comments guys.

Ratbag - The idea of it collapsing certainly did have me concerned. There was no play in the wheel (yet) but I thought based on the noise it was best to have it changed. I hope there were no equine passengers at the time of your incident!

 

[Ratbag]

^ Your comment is quite apposite, Simon.

We were driving home with the float empty, because nothing on this God's Earth would encourage the horse to get into the float that morning ... And both of us were very experienced at handling horses under these conditions, having done it many, many times before.

Perhaps the horse could smell that there was something wrong with the float?
The wheel bearing disintegrated only about 5 Kms from the paddock ...

The good thing about tandem axle trailers is that you can chuck the defective wheel in the back of the truck, and drive home on three wheels ... :biggrin: :lol: