Greasing bearings through the ABS hole?

[Keith Browning]

I read this on the FTE forum and couldn't believe people are actually dicking around with this. Someone thought that it was necessary to regularly grease the sealed wheel bearing and hub assemblies in the front end of Super Duty trucks. You remove the ABS sensor and somehow make an adapter to feed grease into the bearing. I am okay with the general idea but I don't think this is really necessary - how many wheel bearing failures do we really see anymore?

[GregH]

I don't think regularly greasing sealed bearings would prolong their life. The old grease doesn't go anywhere, so you are mixing old and new grease.

 

As for bearings failures, I see them pretty regularly. I don't think I've seen many trucks over about 150,000 miles that haven't had at lease one bearing replaced....

[Keith Browning]

I think I have only replaced a handful myself including one this week - I made a separate post with pictures. I doubt grease was the main problem... stupidity was. I would Rather see people who are interested in the maintenance of their vehicle than be completely oblivious to it. Not to mention oblivious to the sights, sounds and smells of their breaking trucks.

 

Lookie ---> HERE!

[BrunoWilimek]

I personally think this is a very bad idea, as well as being totally unnecessary. I don't know if it would even work, as I assume there are internal seals to keep the grease on the bearings which would preclude getting the grease where it counts by injecting it in the ABS sensor hole. Another thing is, will the grease interfere with proper ABS operation. Obviously, the ABS system is different than older versions, case in point, the ABS system used on Explorers from 1995-2001. There was a TSB(98-14-08)that covered the cause of false ABS activation at very low speeds. I have replaced many front hubs for this concern and the only cause I have ever found is grease in the indicator teeth of the front sensors. Blowing the grease out with an air nozzle cures the concern for a while, until the grease gets in the teeth again. The TSB states in step 7. For front sensors, apply a conservative layer of...Grease...between the ABS sensor body and the machined pad on the bearing to prevent future corrosion. Be careful to keep the sensor opening and the sensor indicator free of grease. I have also replaced front hubs on Expeditions for the same reason. With the high cost of front hubs, I would not like to be the cause of ruining one for someone due to a misguided idea of preventive maintenance where none is required.

[Keith Browning]

I know I have pulled ABS sensors from front hubs on Super Duties and found grease on them and in the bore. Grease itself should have no affect on the ABS sensor because it will not interfere with the magnetic field or the sensor ring... unless there is a lot of metal in it but then I suspect the bearings wold be so loose that the gap is too large or the sensor and ring have collided.

 

[BrunoWilimek]

I know I have pulled ABS sensors from front hubs on Super Duties and found grease on them and in the bore. Grease itself should have no affect on the ABS sensor because it will not interfere with the magnetic field or the sensor ring... unless there is a lot of metal in it but then I suspect the bearings wold be so loose that the gap is too large or the sensor and ring have collided.

 

I can't speak for the Super duties, but as they may have different internals than the Explorer and Expedition ones. I know that I have replaced many Explorer hubs for the false ABS activation and have never found any play in the bearings. The ones I have removed the sensors from to inspect, I could see no damage to the teeth on the sensor ring, but always had pockets of grease between the teeth. I always save the hubs for future use on my own 1997 Explorer. I replaced the originals once under warranty on it for the ABS issue and one of the replacements lasted until 3 years ago, when the bearing got noisy, so I installed one of the used ones after blowing the grease out of the teeth. The other one lasted until earlier this year until it too got noisy. I also replaced it with a used one. There is still no play in the hubs, but now I am getting false ABS activation, but I can live with that as it only happens as I am almost stopped. Sorry for the longwinded rant, but I wanted you to know where I was coming from on this issue.