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Bearing Failure and Wheel Size?

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leon24

New member
Hey Guys,

First off, I live in NYC where the roads are notoriously bad with bumps and pot holes. I do try to avoid all bumps and pot holes when I can, but some are unavoidable.

With that said I have had 3 rear-wheel bearings fail and I only have 70k on my 2012 GTI. I had the drivers side rear fail at 60k, and then it failed just again at 70k. I also had to replace the passenger side rear recently at 70k. The front seem to me ok thankfully.

My question is, are the rough roads causing the damage to the bearings, and if so if I change my wheel set up will this help prolong the life of my bearings?

I am currently running 18 x 8.5 Miro 111 wheels with Hankook Ventus V12 evo2 tires. Would I be better off running say 17" or even 16" wheels and bigger tires to help with road shock and decrease wheel bearing damage? Or will it make minimal difference?

Really appreciate the info!
 
torga

torga

Autocross Champion
17" with a taller sidewall will do what you want it to. I think that going down to 16" would be too drastic.
 
M

MLue1

Drag Racing Champion
leon24 said:
Hey Guys,

First off, I live in NYC where the roads are notoriously bad with bumps and pot holes. I do try to avoid all bumps and pot holes when I can, but some are unavoidable.

With that said I have had 3 rear-wheel bearings fail and I only have 70k on my 2012 GTI. I had the drivers side rear fail at 60k, and then it failed just again at 70k. I also had to replace the passenger side rear recently at 70k. The front seem to me ok thankfully.

My question is, are the rough roads causing the damage to the bearings, and if so if I change my wheel set up will this help prolong the life of my bearings?

I am currently running 18 x 8.5 Miro 111 wheels with Hankook Ventus V12 evo2 tires. Would I be better off running say 17" or even 16" wheels and bigger tires to help with road shock and decrease wheel bearing damage? Or will it make minimal difference?

Really appreciate the info!
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In Toronto at this time of year we have some pretty big/deep pot holes so akin to NY, maybe. More sidewall height will help but in all my years running low profile tires I can't say I've ever damaged a wheel bearing without bending the wheel as well, you must be running the VW Detroit wheels.

IDK Replacing the same wheel bearing within 10K miles seem a bit quick to me, but rough roads are rough roads.

Is the shop using quality replacement bearings, ie. VW, FAG etc. or economy parts.

Good Luck
 
L

leon24

New member
torga said:
17" with a taller sidewall will do what you want it to. I think that going down to 16" would be too drastic.
Click to expand...

Right on. Do you think the set-up that I am running 18x8.5 Miro 111 could be the reason why I am having so much wheel bearing trouble? I'd love to keep the set up, but if 17" with more rubber will help a lot, I will downgrade without hesitation.
 
L

leon24

New member
MLue1 said:
In Toronto at this time of year we have some pretty big/deep pot holes so akin to NY, maybe. More sidewall height will help but in all my years running low profile tires I can't say I've ever damaged a wheel bearing without bending the wheel as well, you must be running the VW Detroit wheels.

IDK Replacing the same wheel bearing within 10K miles seem a bit quick to me, but rough roads are rough roads.

Is the shop using quality replacement bearings, ie. VW, FAG etc. or economy parts.

Good Luck
Click to expand...

So you feel my pot hole pain!

They said that the wheels are not damaged/bent at all. They also stated they can't be exact what caused the continued issue and that it could be my tire/wheel set-up.

I'm running 18x8.5 Miro 111 with Hankook Ventus V12 evo2.

The first time I got them fixed was at the dealer with OEM bearing, but it failed after 14 months, and it only had a 12 month warranty. This time around I took to a local shop and got both fixed with OEM and they come with 36 month warranty.

It's really interesting that the front bearings aren't affected.
 
torga

torga

Autocross Champion
leon24 said:
Right on. Do you think the set-up that I am running 18x8.5 Miro 111 could be the reason why I am having so much wheel bearing trouble? I'd love to keep the set up, but if 17" with more rubber will help a lot, I will downgrade without hesitation.
Click to expand...

It's hard to say without knowing your tire size.
 
torga

torga

Autocross Champion
leon24 said:
The tires are: Hankook Ventus V12 EVO2 225/40/18
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Not the thinnest rubber you could possibly have, but a 225/50/17 or 235/45/17 would certainly be more meat while maintaining the overall tire diameter of your current setup.
Unfortunately, all you can really do for this is give your tires a bit more give, make sure your alignment is spot on and do your best to avoid potholes.
 
L

leon24

New member
torga said:
Not the thinnest rubber you could possibly have, but a 225/50/17 or 235/45/17 would certainly be more meat while maintaining the overall tire diameter of your current setup.
Unfortunately, all you can really do for this is give your tires a bit more give, make sure your alignment is spot on and do your best to avoid potholes.
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Thanks man! Do you think going to the 17" wheels with more rubber will make a huge difference or will it be negligible?
 
GolNat

GolNat

Autocross Champion
I did notice a difference in ride quality going from 18's to 17's. I run a 225/45/17 now. It was not a huge difference though.

Did you just recently get those wheels? Were the first 60k miles on the OEM wheels?
 
L

leon24

New member
GolNat said:
I did notice a difference in ride quality going from 18's to 17's. I run a 225/45/17 now. It was not a huge difference though.

Did you just recently get those wheels? Were the first 60k miles on the OEM wheels?
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Hmmm, if it's not a huge difference, maybe I will just keep the same set-up and cross my fingers hahaa?

I've been running the same set-up for most of the life of the car. I was in WI for the first 20ish K and everything since then has been cross country road tripping and NYC city driving for the past 4 years.
 
GolNat

GolNat

Autocross Champion
No it didn't change it to a Caddy and I am fortunate to have decent roads around me so I have yet to hit a pot hole with either wheel size. Maybe a larger hit would be more noticeable but I would have to drive to NJ to test that out :)

Since it is only the back maybe something else is worn and causing the issue. All 4 wheels have the same wheel/tire combo and they all experience the same road conditions so the fronts would be failing if it was related to that I would think.

Has it been aligned recently? Maybe something is out of spec.
 
W

Wascally Wabbit1

Drag Racing Champion
Get an alignment done. I doubt it's your wheel setup and likely something is bent or worn. An alignment would tell you if this is the case. I bent something in the rear on my TDI when I slid into a curb in the snow. The only way you could tell was when trying to do an alignment they just couldn't get it into spec. They replaced basically the entire rear drivers side (suspension, control arm, bearing, brake, wheel) as they couldn't figure it out. They did an alignment after each part until they could get the alignment right. In the end it was likely a couple different parts that were bent.
 
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L

leon24

New member
GolNat said:
No it didn't change it to a Caddy and I am fortunate to have decent roads around me so I have yet to hit a pot hole with either wheel size. Maybe a larger hit would be more noticeable but I would have to drive to NJ to test that out :)

Since it is only the back maybe something else is worn and causing the issue. All 4 wheels have the same wheel/tire combo and they all experience the same road conditions so the fronts would be failing if it was related to that I would think.

Has it been aligned recently? Maybe something is out of spec.
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Yeah the roads in NJ can be pretty bad as well! I literally feel like I am looking out more for potholes and bumps in the road than other cars in NY sometimes.

Thats a good point about the front and back wheels. I did get an alignment a while back and they didn't notice anything too crazy from what I remember. It may be time to get another one and check that off of the list of culprits that could have causes the issue.

Wascally Wabbit said:
Get an alignment done. I doubt it's your wheel setup and likely something is bent or worn. An alignment would tell you if this is the case. I bent something in the rear on my TDI when I slid into a curb in the snow. The only way you could tell was when trying to do an alignment they just couldn't get it into spec. They replaced basically the entire rear drivers side (suspension, control arm, bearing, brake, wheel) as they couldn't figure it out. They did an alignment after each part until they could get the alignment right. In the end it was likely a couple different parts that were bent.
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Really interesting about the alignment and trial and error to fix it. I think you are right, it's probably time to get an alignment as I feel it's been a couple of years since I got one.

The pot holes and bumps around here are crazy, especially on the highway! I will hit a pot or bump in the road at 60 and will here it and feel it all throughout the car. I always think SHIT. But the recent shop confirmed that there is no wheels that are bent/ damaged.
 
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