kauai_diver

Hey all,

While waiting for my April est delivery 997S I had to get my rear wheel bearings in my 328Ci MY2000 replaced.

I have a little over 80000 miles and curious if that is normal on a Porsche, or any car for that matter? I dont drive it that hard, once in a while I'll do a little spirited driving.

By the way you'll know when your bearings are getting bad when you hear a low baritone type ossiclating sound, kind of a wow-wow-wow.

-Kurt

OCBen

Thanks for the heads up Kurt, and for that nice baritone description.

80k miles seems abnormally low for wheel bearing life.

kauai_diver

Thats what I thought, wonder what made them go bad so soon.

Edgy01

I friend of mine just replaced her rear bearings on her Boxster,--the mechanic told her that they were defective. She had something like 36,000 miles on them. I think anything south of 90,000 miles is too soon. To keep them from being an issue you simply keep them well greased, protected, and adjusted with just enough play. I would expect higher premature failures when someone is running seriously oversized wheels and tires than their auto was designed and engineered for.

Dan

wambo

I had the (left) rear wheel bearing replaced on my 2001 Boxster S at around 26k miles. Clearly a factory defect. Had the sound effects as described above, which the dealer initially wrote off as tread noise. When it persisted, they finally realized it was a wheel bearing. Obviously, bearings should last closer to 100k pretty much no matter what you do. I may be wrong, but I think the ones on modern cars are sealed and require no maintenance. Is this incorrect?

-W

Edgy01

The rears should be sealed. The fronts are still a service item.

dan

MHC2S

I know on my old race car, an E30 M3 I replaced all 4 bearing every other year and packed them with RedLine bearing grease. Best wheelbearing grease in the world!!!!