Rear Wheel Bearings

[Ralph 67]

Heard a bit of a whining noise coming from drive train so checked it out today. Rear wheel bearings have quite a lot of play and bike has only 13179 miles and is 13 months old! Spoke to dealer and they are going to take a look this afternoon with regard to a warranty claim. I will let you know how I get on.

[Mike5100 2,061]

How do you check (I wear earplugs so wouldn't know if my bike was whining).

Is it just a matter of putting it on the centre stand and waggling the wheel top and bottom?

Mike

[Ralph 67]

I could hear whining so put it on centrestand and checked both front and rear for play at top and bottom and 3 and 9 o'clock. It wasn't a good result.

[noj 365]

13 months......just outside warranty??

[reedx 48]

Warranty is 2 years.

 

Colin

[Guest bonekicker]

Yes Keith as Mr Colin rightfully points out 2 year warranty.

[Guest motorboy]

How do you check (I wear earplugs so wouldn't know if my bike was whining).

Is it just a matter of putting it on the centre stand and waggling the wheel top and bottom?

Mike

If you ever owned a late model BMW or know someone who does they will show you real quit how to check rear bearing play other wise grab top and bottom of wheel and shack hear any thing like clunk-clunk or a grinding noise Honda uses 3 bearing in the rear end the out side one is the one that takes the torque of the chain and will the first to go Edited June 16, 2015 by motorboy

[Ralph 67]

Went to Honda dealer and they confirmed bearing failure. They are submitting a warranty claim to Honda so I'm waiting for the phone call to book it in.

[michael 324]

Wow. That's unusually low mileage for this kind of thing. I wonder if the seal was compromised allowing water, dirt et al to enter the bearing or it was merely a "bad," bearing from the get-go. 

 

Either way, warranty is a good thing.

[Ralph 67]

Wow. That's unusually low mileage for this kind of thing.

 

That's what I thought!

[Ralph 67]

Bike goes into dealer on Monday as Honda have authorised warranty work to be done. They will change all 3 rear wheel bearings. Job done

[embee 7,288]

There have been a number of similarly premature rear wheel bearing problems reported, though usually around 20-25k miles if I remember correctly.

 

The bearings used in the wheels are pretty robust items and should (!) be good for way longer than this. That bearing type is used in many bike wheels.

 

In my experience this sort of premature failure is very often (usually?) down to incorrect assembly, pressing through the bearing itself rather than on the outer race only when fitting into the housing. This can happen if the tooling used becomes worn or is incorrectly used, I came across exactly this issue with an idler pulley on a car engine in production which suddenly started having warranty claims after many years of being in production with no issues at all. The press tooling was worn.

 

Hopefully it'll all be sorted on your bike OK with no further issues, but it's worth everyone checking theirs since if it is an assembly issue it will be systematic and there will be plenty of others like it.

[Ralph 67]

I'm starting to think I may have a Friday afternoon, just before a bank holiday weekend bike! This is the 6th time, (if you include tyres and clocks) it's been in for replacement bits and I haven't

included the chain and sprockets in that

[shiggsy 529]

My bikes at about 23k, I had the rear wheel out to replace the tyre the other weekend and as usual took the opportunity to see how the bearings felt, the two sprocket side ones were fine but the exhaust side one didn't have quite the same feel of quality about it. I asked the bike shop if they could check the bearings when they changed the tyre see what they think and they picked out the same one as me, doesn't feel quite as smooth as the others.  Left it on for now see how it goes.

Edited June 19, 2015 by shiggsy

[Guest kerevizz]

mine has 27k miles.changed bearings twice.

[Ralph 67]

Now ben changed. Dealer showed me bearings. One was pretty rusty with orange residue coming from behind the seal. Don't know what is best to do for preventitive maintenance with sealed bearings short of picking off seals and packing with waterproof grease! Will keep an eye on chain tension as well. Don't want any piano wire settings 'cos that will cane the bearings.

[Guest Moodman1]

Just before first MOT checked and found play in rear wheel bearings 15900miles replaced them and passed MOT no problems. Now 600 miles later bike in for 16000mile service and play in bearings again. Dealer fitted another set and now on return home 93miles there is play in the bearings again. Taking bike back to Thunder road Cwmbran for sorting. Not impressed at this stage and want to know cause. Other bikes I have had completed from 50000 to 140000miles without any bearing failure. Any thoughts?

[embee 7,288]

A bit of a silly comment I know, but something's not right.

 

Are you sure all the spacers etc are in there? Particularly item 9. When the spindle is tightened does the wheel turn freely? Does the sprocket carrier move slightly relative to the wheel (moving the cush drive rubbers), i.e. it shouldn't be clamped up tight.?

Are the bearings going fully home so the wheel spacer tube 8 is just lightly nipped, or can you rattle the spacer round between the bearings? I'm just wondering if there is a lip or notch formed in one of the recesses so the new bearings aren't going in quite far enough.

Just guessing I'm afraid, close inspection ought to show what the problem is, even lower quality bearings should last a decent time.

[kharli 100]

I'm betting a lot of failures result from power washing, or any hot soapy wet stuff near that seal

[Tonyj 6,907]

Well has a recipient of the above failure , I'd say they are pony bearings because I've only ever had to change bearings and fork sills on my dirt bike

[glencoeman 129]

If you use a jet wash on your bike, it can cause premature wheel bearing failure as it washes the grease out if you direct the hose onto the bearing areas.

[sleepyguitarman 77]

Bearings just gone at 25K. Happy with that...

[Rev Ken 6,341]

Bearings just gone at 25K. Happy with that...

I too had to replace my rear bearings (CBF1000) at about the same mileage, but unlike you I was NOT happy! On my 'unreliable' old British bikes I've seen more than 100,000 miles without rear wheel bearing failures. Fortunately they aren't expensive, but shouldn't be necessary when your bike is barely run in.