Hello:

I have a 2012 XF base - 5.0. I am on the third drivers rear wheel bearing in the last 3 years. The car only has about 65,000 miles so I don't drive it much but keep getting repeated bearing failures.

The first sign was when I had new tires installed and found the entire wheel rather loose. I replaced the bearing myself and all seemed good until about 18 months later. I checked the wheel and found it loose again. This time I replaced the bearing and purchased a new knuckle. there was minor evidence that the initial bearing failure had spun. I heated the knuckle/froze the bearing and it fell right in. I had the hub pressed in by a local machine shop. I torqued the shaft nut to the suggested 300 Nm (200 ft-lbs). All was good until I recently found a little play in the wheel again. Is there a trick to these things? I'm a mechanical engineer and have worked with/designed rotating equipment for most of my career. With only four real parts there (3 if you disregard the snap ring) I can't see anything causing this. I'm tempted to put a new bearing in with a new hub this time (all parts replaced) to see if that does anything. But the hub doesn't appear to have any damage (although it does take quite a lot of pressure to get it into the bearing).

Any thoughts for people smarter than I am?

 

Is the wheel pointing in the right direction?
If it’s scrubbing a wee bit, could this bring about premature bearing wear?

 

I had the alignment checked after the last replacement. They adjusted the passenger real wheel very little. But the rest were good.

 

Weird one!
What about the shocker?
Maybe the spring bouncing about undamped could cause it?
I’m guessing here…

 

make sure when fitting that no pressure is applied to the inner bearing race ie when pressing the hub in it must be supported, although I’m guessing you know this.
Use a good quality bearing

 

Is the flimsy cross brace still on the rear? Oddly is does affect rolling algnment