Why, Oh Why does my Tacoma love to eat wheel and axle bearings??

LOL... OK, so much for the clueless response. Even your garden variety moron knows that rear axle bearing are lubed by gear oil in the axle and differential not bearing grease. This stuff is usually good to go for just about ever but was replaced by the dealer with the bearings the first time...

 

Why for do they put this here funny seal in there scooter?



Garden variety moron indeed.

 

Seals are fine moron. And greasing seals is not the same as packing bearings as you stated... moron Bearings are failing for no apparent reason.

 

Thanks, anyway, guys. Trust me, if it was an obvious like abuse, an axle oil seal leak or something like that I wouldn't have even asked the question. Been there done that. And then someone tells me to "pack" a rear bearing with grease. Unbelievable. This forum is as useful (less) as ever for actual tech questions.

 

I was in the business of car repair for a no. of years before I retired... Saw a lot of wheel bearing failures in newer sealed bearings for no reason.. They were usually in American products not foreign cars.. Seems like foreign cars are now plagued with same non - quality bearings they are purchasing .. As most know if you go to parts store and just ask for bearings they will sell you cheap bearings because of price..Car makers are prolly using cheaper bearings..

 

You squids are some special fellers. Most Toyota wheel bearings are technically "sealed" and pre-lubricated with grease from Koyo (the dudes who make the bearings). What I have noticed is that the new bearings from Koyo just have a light coat of white grease on them, and as stated earlier I got a set with surface rust on them fresh from the Toyota dealer. That ain't right, so I took them apart (the seal pops off with very little force), greased them, and put it all back together. 5 years and tens of thousands of dirt miles later they are still fine.

Maybe I am a moron, but my wheel bearings sure do last a long time.

 

And he's got 37s

 

Last year had my driver side front bearing done.
Mechanic told me these are common failures on 4runners and Tacos.
Getting frame done now dealer told me the do couldn't alignment because pass side bearing was no good.
2005 2in spacer up front
Had 2 gen 1 tacos no bearing problems

 

I believe you can never have too much grease on any bearing. I think popping the shields off a sealed bearing and packing with high quality grease is not only cheap insurance, it's also shows ingenuity and a solid understanding of mechanical devices. A bearing that has developed even light surface rust is highly suspect of poor lubrication in my opinion.

Good call username. (not being sarcastic)

 

did the gen 1 tacos have the old school inner and outer tapered bearings? I had a 91 toyota pickup and it had that system. I think it's probably a stronger set up. The benefit of the newer hub units is that I guess they are kinda fool proof as far as installation goes. Prob a little quicker on the assembly line too.

 

Exactly ^^^^^^^

 

No offense but you are wrong, rear bearings are not lubricated by oil. They have grease in them, and when that grease leaks out they go dead.
Hence username advice is 100% correct. Swap them to new ones but before you install them pack them with Mobil 1 grease to the brink.

 

They are sealing hub from oil. Wierd but that's how Toyota did it.

 

All I know is if that seal fails your rear brakes don't work for shit and gear oil pukes out.

 

Wow impressive, I see new method of rust prevention

 

Hah, yeah it is that. I was waiting for the squid to pop back in with his infinite wisdom before saying this, but he must be scraping barnacles off his boat. He's sort of correct. Some rear end bearings are lubed with diff oil. Most full floaters work that way, like the Dana 60/70 (not all, some early axles had a seal). Toyota semi-float axles from the 7.5" on up to the 10.5" in the new tundra have "sealed" bearings. They are not meant to be serviceable, but my theory is that the manufacturer screwed up or got cheap and they are very much under lubricated leading to premature wear. Take a new one apart and you will understand exactly what I mean. I would estimate there is 2cc's of grease on an entire bearing, maybe less. Again, these were from the dealer not rock auto or china.

 

Those are just to keep grime and water away. Main seal is what username posted.
Oil seals work on simple principle, there is slight vacuum in diff, and that makes seal lip hug axle shaft. When truck is parked vacuum goes away and little oil gets on seal lip. So when you start driving rubber seal lip gets lubrication but as soon as vacuum comes back it seals again. That's why one way breathers on axles.
I got my crash course on Toyota seals when I rebuilded my solid axle and removed one way breather, I end up replacing seals in an attempt to fix oil in knuckles. Put back one way breather and no more problem.

 

That's why I never did breather mod. I learned my lesson by putting Marlin Crawlers kids through college by buying axle seals
I rather have good oil that can lubricate with some water in it.

 

Figured I'd add to this... truck is in the shop now for a new driver side rear wheel bearing. I'm at about 223,000 km. No gear oil leaking, just weird vibe in the whole truck at highway speeds. I'll post back with the repair cost... I'm suspecting a big one after reading up on the repair process.

Front wheel bearings are holding up so far, but at least the fix for those is a little more DIY-friendly with parts from the guys on here.

 

In regards to the breather mod, wouldn't a modded axle work in exactly the same way? If I understand correctly the design of the breather used for the mod is identical to the one that is directly screwed into the axle except is has a hose barb instead of male threads. Shouldn't the axle breath the same albeit somewhat remotely? Assuming no leaks in the hose and connections.