While I was pressing out my old wheel bearings and pressing in the new I found it odd there was no secondary sealing outside of the bearing itself.

I thought maybe there was a seal that turned to dust, but I couldn't find evidence of one.

I was wondering while the wheel bearings were so bad on my 84K mile car and now I don't wonder. Driving through one flooded intersection during a heavy rain looks like it could kill the wheel bearings.

Do the later cars get hubs seals separate from the bearings?

 

No. It's a bad design so they can sell more parts/service.

 

Actually sealed wheel bearings have longer lives than the tapered bearings used years ago. Where wheel bearings use to require repacking and new seals every 30,000 miles most wheel bearings these days will never require service throughout the life of the car. Some cars have poor engineering where too small bearings are used or loading factors (wide tires, suspension geometry, etc) exceed the capability of the bearings employed.

 

Jaguar issued an advisory to use the grease deflector ring. I know some people just toss them in the trash but they are supposed to help.

bob gauff

 

Thanks, Bob. My car is 4884, so it makes sense I wouldn't have one of these rings.

That would help on the nut side, but the front side still seems wide open.

During the next gully washer. I'll be sure to avoid the deep puddles.

And my 16 year old son definitely won't be driving it in the rain. Last month I cleaned out 1" of wet red clay from the airfilter box in his ZR2 blazer and the snorkel for this box was nearly 3 feet off the ground.