Howdy to all,
Can someone please advise on the correct/appropriate lubricating grease
that should be used on this centre bearing ? (sealed unit)
I figure mine must be 9 years old now.... and rather than replace the bearing itself - I would try to recharge the lubrication in the existing. (needle injector)

Help to identify the correct grease thats required here - will be much appreciated.



Cheers,

 

nudged.....

 

I'm wondering the same thing, looking to do mine this weekend. It's been unseasonably warm here in Western NY, but it seems that any time the temp. dips below 35F I get the moaning noise for the first couple stops in the morning.

Would be nice to get rid of that!

 

I think I just heard that same noise for the first time today.

Out of curiosity, anyone know if replacement bearings or aftermarket bearings are stronger than the stockers?

 

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...e2/#post653134

 

I should have taken a picture. First unbolt the hanger bearing and let the driveshaft drop down so I could rotate the bearing and hanger on the driveshaft. Then very carefully insert the needle under the rubber lip of the seal by the inside race, the seal can be rolled off the inner race making plenty of room to insert the needle without damage to the seal. I was able to inject three pumps without any grease squirting out of the bearing. And thats probably enough, don't want to over grease.

 

Hi Jesse,
Thanks for the added post..... but tell me, what provisions did you make - to re-align the drive shaft assembly after greasing a loose bearing ?
I mean, I assume the housing has some play in its possible re-fix position?

I'm concerned any misalignment there - gives rise to oscillation, vibration and noise.

Would it be better to keep the housing attached to the underside of the car - and to therefore inject the lubricant in situ.

I'm thinking 'Castrol HTB' would be an optimal choice for the Grease, as used and recommended for packing the Wheel Bearings.

Cheers,

 

I thought it would be much harder to work the needle under the seal with it bolted up. I never thought about potential alignment problems. The bearing outer race was tight in the rubber of the center bearing holder. I just bolted it back up pretty much where it was. There is no vibration, no noise. The driveshaft is dead silent and extremely smooth, like you-don't-even-know-there's-a-driveshaft-on-the-car silent and smooth.

 

I used Amsoil heavy duty synthetic lithium complex grease. I don't know what their current equivalent of that is.

 

Hmm. I called the local shop, and they said that it's a common issue and they had pinpointed with 100% certainty the cause to be the carrier bearing. However, they then said that they've spent tens of hours trying to fix the issue by greasing them, swapping them for OEM bearings, swapping them for bearings with varying radial clearances (in case of thermal expansion) and testing them without the rubber covers on. They also said they have cut open new OEM bearings and inspected them with a microscope to see if there's any small internal shape or anything that might be the cause, but didn't find anything. EDIT: He also said that swapping the transfer case, rear diff or the propshaft haven't helped at all. They usually make the whine go away for at most a month, then it returns.

He told me that while they honestly have no idea what causes the sound, he said he suspects it's got something to do with the rear differential and resonance as their best-working solution has been changing the rear differential oil and adding some specific additive to it.
I'm going in to get it done next week, as having the rear differential oil changed has been on my to-do list ever since I got the car.

EDIT:
This is so weird. I started the car at home, drove 8km to a shop to return a faulty ceiling fan, and it made worrying and annoying noises all the way there. However, it made none of those noises on the way back! I then had to go to the shop again almost an hour later, and again it made noise all the way there. However, nothing on the way back. Whaaaaat...?

My own theory is that the carrier bearing gets warmer due to friction and the higher rotating speed on the highway, but because it's horribly cold outside right now, the airflow keeps the surface cool. When I stop the car for something like 20 minutes, the lack of airflow allows the whole bearing to warm up -> no noise on the way back. During the hour before returning to the shop, it had cooled sufficiently to start whining again?

 

Since I live in CA, here are no low temps to talk about my own experience with that problem, but I've seen some threads on a Russian Jag Forum where people were complaining about a humming noise coming from the central bearing when the ambient temp goes bellow ~ -10C. As far as I remember they did not find a cure for this problem but to wait for the Spring..

 

It seems to me greasing from the front is hit and miss, there is no way to know if the end of the needle is in the actual bearing or just in the rubber surrounding it. That would explain why it sometimes works and other times doesn't.

I've removed the seals on many sealed bearings to grease them. If you look at the picture I posted the seal is the black part. The seal can be popped off with a sharp knife blade without damage. That couldn't be done on the X center bearing so the next best thing was to try and insert the needle under the seal. I inserted the needle almost inline with the seal/race line, saw the rubber seal roll off the inner race, the needle went into the bearing cavity a good 1/4 - 1/2 inch. Greasing the bearing from the rear left no doubt the needle was under the actual bearing seal and the grease went straight into the bearing itself. And it killed the harmonic type cold temp center bearing noise DEAD.

 

To me there's no doubt the noise has a harmonic component, or excites a harmonic in some other part of the car. On our X it seemed to be the same pitch at different speeds like 45 and 75, and changing the speed just 10mph would make it go away.

I wonder if the factory grease is too thick. Plus most of the sealed bearings have surprisingly little grease in them. I've checked new ones. A small amount of thick cold grease would just sit off to the sides of the rollers. When I turned the center bearing before greasing it that is what it felt like, like the rollers were hitting hard lumps of grease. So it's more like metal on metal which could end up exciting a harmonic type noise at a critical RPM.

 

Jesse, thanks for the all the detailed info. I'm also getting this same annoying sound from 25-35 mph mostly when I'm decelerating and coming to a stop. For some reason, I was unable to open the pics you have posted. I'm taking my car into the dealership tomorrow AM for another issue so I was going to have them attempt greasing this bearing for me while its there. Can you PM or email me gmmilord@gmail.com the pics so I can describe it best to the mechanic. Thanks buddy.

 

Sealed bearing, google image search. You can easily see what part on the side of the bearing is the seal;

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...HsbfqgG3sIDYAg

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...853/#post93886

Post #14 shows how it is greased from the front. Now forget about the front, the following is how I greased it from the back. If the center bearing is unbolted and the driveshaft is allowed to hang down enough to rotate the hanger/bearing on the drive shaft, you can easily see where the rubber bearing seal meets the inner bearing race. The inner race is stationary with the driveshaft, the seal slides on the inner race, that's where the rubber of the seal meets the metal of the inner bearing race. That is where I carefully worked the needle in. I got the needle at O'Reily. It has an angle cut tip, you don't want to jab it though the bearing seal but instead carefully lift the seal lip off the inner race using the needle. The seal on my X was flexible enough there to allow the needle to be worked in between the seal and the inner race.

 

Just an update on our center bearing. It has made a small howl, about four times, at 15-20 mph, when the outside temp is <-10F or so, and when the bearing is cold. Other than that it's been dead silent.