[200q20v] New shocks in, now a wheel bearing is going, general suspension c omplaints

[Bernie Benz]

Brett,

Is this another case of the blind leading the blind?  Have you ever seen an
Audi wheel bearing, or looked at this section of your Bentley?  This wheel
bearing is a single piece, double row ball bearing.  No inner and outer
tapered roller bearings, to which you allude.  The bearing is not cheap,
IMO.  About $50 @ TPC.  Further, they can be disassembled, inspected and the
good one(s) relubed and reassembled.  BTDT.  It takes just about twice as
long to pull one strut as it does two.

Don't fix it if it ain't broke!

Bernie

> From: Brett Dikeman <brett at cloud9.net>
> Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 17:43:11 -0500
> To: "Forhan, Thomas" <Thomas.Forhan at mail.house.gov>, 200q20v at audifans.com
> Subject: Re: [200q20v] New shocks in, now a wheel bearing is going, general
> suspension c  omplaints
>
> At 3:13 PM -0500 12/12/01, Forhan, Thomas wrote:
>
>> The Avant has 137000 miles. I did not want to lower or suffer to much on the
>> terrible DC roads, so I just went with HDs and no spring changes. Should I
>> replace the factory springs? Is there a way to test the existing springs?
>
> Springs generally don't go bad, far as I know.  If they do, I have a
> set sitting in my attic you're welcome to make me an offer on :-)
> I've been trying to figure out what to do with them.
>
>> Would I be better off going down the road of replacing all the original
>> bushings?
>
> Possibly.  If they've never been done before, they're almost
> certainly toasted.  I had a suspension shop check over the bushings
> shortly after I bought my car, several were replaced.  Around 55k
> miles later(this summer) when I had my Bilsteins/H&Rs put in, I asked
> them to check out everything.  They found a small number of bad
> bushings, and cleaned/lubed the rest. Since so much else changed, its
> hard to say how much things improved just from that.
>
>> Now  the bearing started to go. Anyone got an idea what it costs to have
>> this done at a shop? Should I do the other side too as preventative
>> maintenance?
>
> Nah.  There's no advantage that I can see, you won't save anything
> except a second visit to the mechanic(now that I've said this, the
> other bearing will fail on the way home from the mechanic :-)
>
>
>> What bushing should I replace as part of this operation?
>
> Both inner and outer bearings, I'd say.  It's a -messy- job to do,
> and it doesn't take much longer at all to do the second if they've
> got a puller/press, and the bearings are very cheap.  Plus, what if
> both bearings are bad, and you only pull one?  Doh!
>
> B
> --
> ----
> "They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/
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