Wheel bearing and seal replacement?

[trholcom]

Greetings all. Long time listener, first time caller.
I appreciate the posts and info about wheel removal.
I just removed the rear wheel to get a new tire put on (Heidenau Scout to Trail max Mission).

My question is: the service manual states to replace dust seals and wheel bearings (Pic included).

Do I need to do this on a 2012 with 15,000 miles?


Thank you!

 

[sheikyerbooty]

Wheel bearings at 15k? wouldnt have thought so. If all looks and feels good, grease em up and reassemble. possible issue on a 10 yr old bike could be perishing rubbers/ seals etc, but its all pretty well protected back there.

 

[RCinNC]

I'm not, as a rule, a "screw the service manual" sort of guy, but I would never replace a wheel bearing and seal unless the wheel bearing had gone bad. I definitely wouldn't pre-emptively replace a wheel bearing at 15,000 miles.

I hate to admit it, but my 2014 has 95,000 miles on it, and that dust seal (part #1) on mine is the original. I bought a new one some time ago, but still haven't bothered to replace it.

My front wheel bearings and the bearing in the hub clutch are also original. I did replace the rear wheel bearings at 61,000 miles.

 

[Gerard]

It says to replace dust seal and oil seal only. Not the bearing. If the seals are in good nick and there is no evidence of dirt ingress then i would happily use the old ones

 

[RCinNC]

I knew I must have been looking at that diagram wrong. After Gerard's post I went back and looked again, and yeah, the "new" icon is only pointing at the seal and not the wheel bearing.

I checked my records and found that I'd personally changed 12 front tires and 20 rear tires, and I've never changed a seal during a change.

 

[~TABASCO~]

@15K……. No

A good rule of thumb as a ‘precautionary measure’ would be to replace the rear non drive side wheel bearing every 40K or so. I’ve replace quite a few over the years. I’ve also replaced 5-6 that were actually dust & powder. The races broke as well. If this happens, and any one rides with a damaged bearing, it will tear up $1000-$3000 worth of parts. Been with a buddy when that happened before. That will seriously ruin your day, and certainly your trip.
Its cheep and easy, why stress “long term”?

 

[Cycledude]

Right side rear bearing failed on my previous 2013 Tenere at 45,000 miles. My opinion the reason it failed was because the axel always fit to tight into the bearing and needed to be driven out every time I changed a rear tire, after it failed I used a wire brush grinder to remove a coating from the axel so it wasn’t so difficult to remove the axel. My 2018 Tenere doesn’t have that problem. Since that experience I do carry a spare set of rear bearing’s just in case.

 

[RCinNC]

The non drive side on mine was the one that failed also.

I'd say that checking the bearings is another good reason to change your own tires ( or at least, remove them yourself to take to the shop). It gives me a chance about 3-4 times a year to actually rotate the bearings manually and see what they feel like. That's how I caught my bad bearing long before it became an issue. It was pretty obvious when I rotated it that it had the notchy feel of a bearing that was entering it's twilight years. When it was on the bike and I was riding, there was no sound or feel that would lead you to believe it was going bad.

I imagine some shops check that when they change a tire, and some don't.