Wheel Bearings shot at 3,700

[Greeny]

My rear wheel bearings are shot at 3,700 miles the machine is currently at the Honda dealership. The bearing have been greased with a quality grease at 1,200 miles and again at 2,900 miles. Would this in your opinions be normal bearing life mileage? Warranty issue seems a bit soon to me.

 

[Admin]

 

[TripleB]

My rear wheel bearings are shot at 3,700 miles the machine is currently at the Honda dealership. The bearing have been greased with a quality grease at 1,200 miles and again at 2,900 miles. Would this in your opinions be normal bearing life mileage? Warranty issue seems a bit soon to me.

I changed 1 front wheel bearing at 4000 miles. The other 1 has some play but both of my rears are tight. I bought a wheel bearing grease tool but I didn't use it until I had 3400 miles on my machine.. it was already too late for my fronts by then. I believe if I would have used it when I bought the tool(1300 miles), they woud have lasted a lot longer. Just neglect on my part.

 

[CID]

I wouldn't be happy with that mileage but I'm 3650 miles behind you. Lots of mud or water? I wonder how @hondabob has fared with his?

 

[Greeny]

A little mud a little water with a big smile! Had 8,000 miles on the RZR 900 I sold greased those bearings also. CID I took it in to have the shocks adjusted (tapping noise) Was told shocks are in good shape the noise I am hearing is from the shot bearings. Well we will see, love to ride in your neck of the woods sounds like you enjoy some long rides. Enjoy my Honda.

 

[FOOTS]

What size tires are you running? Also curious if you ride in mud and water a lot.


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[Greeny]

I have pretty much split the mileage between my stock tires and 15X30X10 tires I used this winter in Arizona. When I returned to Eastern Wa. I put the stock tires back on and greased the bearings. When home I ride forest service roads in the spring you blast through snow some mud puddles but not water for a extended period. If I need to get off my butt and grease more often I can do that I am curious how other owners bearings are holding up. Thanks for replying.

 

[bjniceguy]

be interested in what dealer / Honda says. When I was at my dealer he indicated the the bearings are sealed and could / should not be greased, Yes I familiar with the bearing greaser (even have one), but wounding now if my dealer was wrong or if Honda will come back that bearings should not be greased. I may be way off base but I could not find anything in manual except replacement.

 

[Greeny]

I should be getting a call from my dealership early next week they are going to let me know if warranty is going to cover the cost. I'll let you know what they tell me and ask that question maybe they will tell me I shouldn't have greased them?

 

[TripleB]

I should be getting a call from my dealership early next week they are going to let me know if warranty is going to cover the cost. I'll let you know what they tell me and ask that question maybe they will tell me I shouldn't have greased them?

My driver front was almost shot at 3400 miles without greasing them. I can't imagine it would have been worse with greasing them. I could have probably gotten a few more hundred miles out of it but I already had the bearing so I went ahead and changed it at 4000 miles so I wouldn't break on the trail.

 

[JTW]

Yeah.. they’re sealed bearings. But greasing them isn’t going to hurt them anymore than the water and dirt and s*** that will inevitably make its way in there. Just because Honda didn’t use a greasable bearing, doesn’t mean the sealed bearings are better for our applications.

 

[hondabob]

My wheel bearings and drive line is still as tight as new. I don't ride in deep water. I don't want my wheel bearings and drive shafts under water. My limit is about 6 inches and the owners manual says 10 inches max. I'm at 13,500 miles now.

 

[JTW]

My wheel bearings and drive line is still as tight as new. I don't ride in deep water. I don't want my wheel bearings and drive shafts under water. My limit is about 6 inches and the owners manual says 10 inches max. I'm at 13,500 miles now.

I think this pretty much tells you exactly what the problem is for those of us east of the Mississippi.. GREASE THE BEARINGS and often!

 

[PaulF]

A riding buddy had 500 on his and the rears were gone but he uses spacers and jumps a lot but never water or mud.

Mine are tight as new at 2000 miles, no spacers and very little jumping.

The best thing about these bearings are that they are standard size. If the Honda ones turn out to be crap, we can buy some quality (non Chinese) units from a known good manufacturer.

 

[TripleB]

My rear wheel bearings are shot at 3,700 miles the machine is currently at the Honda dealership. The bearing have been greased with a quality grease at 1,200 miles and again at 2,900 miles. Would this in your opinions be normal bearing life mileage? Warranty issue seems a bit soon to me.

This whole time I thought this was the pioneer 1000. Lol Sorry, disregard what I said.

 

[CID]

A riding buddy had 500 on his and the rears were gone but he uses spacers and jumps a lot but never water or mud.

Mine are tight as new at 2000 miles, no spacers and very little jumping.

The best thing about these bearings are that they are standard size. If the Honda ones turn out to be crap, we can buy some quality (non Chinese) units from a known good manufacturer.

This brings up a question - I'm looking to replace my wheels - does wheel offset have the same affect as spacers? To keep the track width even, front to rear, 6+1 front and 4+3 rear seems to be the offsets of choice for the Talon. Will this have the same affect as spacers? TIA

 

[PaulF]

This brings up a question - I'm looking to replace my wheels - does wheel offset have the same affect as spacers? To keep the track width even, front to rear, 6+1 front and 4+3 rear seems to be the offsets of choice for the Talon. Will this have the same affect as spacers? TIA

Basically yes. For instance, a +50 mm offset wheel with a 40 mm spacer (for an effective +10 mm offset) exerts the same leverage on the hub as a +10 mm offset wheel.

But be careful, X+Y back spacing for UTV wheels is not very accurate. For instance, a 6+1 labeled wheels range from 45 to 50 mm offset and 4+3 labeled wheels range from 0 to 15 mm offset so don't go by the X+Y number, use the real metric offsets to be more accurate.

Because the rear stock wheel and tire are wider, you will need less rear offset (to move the wheel outward) than stock to achieve the same width front and rear. The stock front offset (50 mm) is only 12 mm more than the rear (33 mm) and the front wheel is only 6.5" so to achieve the same overall width with 7" rims all the way around, you need the front wheels to have 40 mm more offset than the rear.

Last I checked, there are no wheel combinations on the market that give you this exact 40 mm difference. STI has a 50 mm difference and System 3 has a 30 mm difference.

To get the exact same overall width front and rear, you can use 45 or 50 mm wheels all the way around and 40 mm (approx. 1.5") spacer in the rear.

So, putting the same width wheels all the way around and matching the width front to rear will put slightly more stress on the rear bearings but probably not much to worry about.

However, if you want width for some reason like duning, putting 0 mm offset wheels and 1.5" spacers on the rear will most likely be too much for the bearings. That is what my riding buddy did causing the failed rear bearings in ~500 miles.

Also note that no matter what wheels you choose, you will be wider than stock because you are going from a 6.5" wheel to a 7" wheel and from an 8.7" wide to a 10" wide tire up front. Even with the same/similar front offset as stock, you are gaining width by having wider rims and tires.

 

[bionicman]

I greased mine at 300 mi they were dry like most typical OE builds...

passenger rear was suspect bearing race issue - TBD

 

[PaulF]

My wheel bearings and drive line is still as tight as new. I don't ride in deep water. I don't want my wheel bearings and drive shafts under water. My limit is about 6 inches and the owners manual says 10 inches max. I'm at 13,500 miles now.

Bob, do you repack/grease your wheel bearings? If so, how often?

 

[hondabob]

Never had a problem with wheel bearings except on my RZR. Got 13,500 on my Talon and had 19,000 on my Pioneer 1000 when I sold it.

 

[CID]

Never had a problem with wheel bearings except on my RZR. Got 13,500 on my Talon and had 19,000 on my Pioneer 1000 when I sold it.

Are you running aftermarket wheels? Wheel offsets or spacer size, F/R?