Hi Guys!

Replacing front & rear brakes on my '02 4Runner with 194k on it. Fronts went smooth as expected with disc brakes!!

When I got to the right rear I found grease caked inside the hub behind the flange and of course on the inside of the drum.

After reading the awesome post by BigFish and a few other excellent posts on this forum, I assumed I was leaking from the inner seal, and thats all I needed to replace, since the bearing is spinning fine with no apparent noises.

I thought I was getting off easy only replacing the inner seal (Toyo OEM) and the O-ring; however, after removing the shaft, it seems their is a lot of play in the bearing......is this normal???

One thing I realized is that I did not see any gear oil spewing or leaking on the back side of the tire, like the pics that BigFish showed. I only had the grease build up on the hub in between the flange & the backplate.

Is my assumption correct that my problem may not have been the inner seal, which I just replaced? I just don't want to put it all back together, and find out I did not correct the problem.

Could the grease from the worn bearing be oozing out from the outer seal?

With 194k miles should I just figure its time to replace both sides....bearings, seals, retainers & skid control rotor and be done with the job???

Looking for input from anyone whos done it before and experienced these issues!

Thanks in advance!
Paul

 

You should have zero play in the bearing. Even the slightest amount of play will wear a new seal in a matter of days and you'll have gear oil all over the inside of your tire again.

It can be hard finding a machine shop that knows how to work with these axles, unless you want to pay a 300% mark up at the Toyota dealer. I found a Napa with a machine shop that did one axle for $80. I bought an aftermarket Timken-branded bearing, which turned out to me a US made SKF bearing, good stuff. Saved $15 over any online Toyota part retailer, too. I've heard some people can save the ABS rotor, but I could never find a shop that would, so that was another $60. Figure about $200/axle to do it right.

 

I've replaced the rear wheel bearing on an ABS rear axles and it's a big job. Without a hydraulic press, bearing puller and the Toyota factory tool you are asking for more work than you want.

The factory tool is $259. I made one from an old 4Runner rear axle and it worked great.

The outer seal really isn't a grease seal, it's more of a dust cover to keep junk out of the assembly and like the rear wheel bearing it rarely goes bad. Also, the only accurate way to tell if there is play in the rear wheel bearing is if there is play in the bearing while the axle assembly is still bolted to the rear axle. I could write an entire page about why that is so, but just take my word for it. If you need confirmation the dealership can measure bearing runout without taking anyting apart. It might cost a few bucks, but it might be worth it.

If there is no play in the bearing, I would just replace the inner axle seal.

Here's a suggestion. Axle seal replacements often fail because the new axle seal was seated incorrectly.

Try this old mechanics trick. Seat the axle seal. Coat it with a light coat of grease. Clean the axle assembly then insert if back into the axle housing, make sure it is inserted all the way.

Spin the wheel once or twice, then carefully remove the axle assembly. Look at the axle collar (that's the surface the rear axle seal rides on) there should be a grease line on that axle collar.

The grease line MUST be dead center on the axle collar. If it is, you have a properly seated axle seal that will last another 150,000 miles. If the seal is riding near the edge of the axle collar, pull the seal and start over again. They only cost 8 bucks, buy an extra one.

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Yep. I went through 2-3 of these damn things before I got it perfect. No way in hell I was going to jeopardize all that money that went into the bearing. Once a drop of super high detergent gear oil hits the bearing it washes all the grease out and ruins it.