Replacing Rear Arm Bearings

[frog]

Seems citroen decided to use dust instead of grease in the rear arms of my recently acquired 16 Valve..







What are peoples thoughts on this kit and Timken Bearings?
http://www.eurocarcare.net/rear-suspens ... 19159.html

[toddao]

That's what the bearings were like on my yellow break - ancient relics.

Timken used to be good I had to track down some Timken wheel bearings for an original Mini Cooper for my neighbour and they were very good quality - made in UK- and very expensive.
These days though, you never can tell which brand has what made where and to what specs. Seeing as they'll be pulverised to dust in a few months anyway!

I think the Citroen ones were either 'SKF' or 'RUV' but I reckon these days they're made in Asia too.
I just bought a steering rod with two ball joints on either end for my Merc bus. I had to buy it from Mercedes ( it's not available anywhere else) and it was expensive but I ordered at 17.30 and it was there next day 09.00 - a part for a forty year old van!
Very good quality - 'Made in Germany' is still a good guarantee of quality.

There is a parts service here in Germany that gives you a choice of different qualities whenever you order anything, telling you exactly where it's made. I think that's also a good idea in the era of uncertainty.

[Defender110]

There is nothing wrong with Timken bearings they are top quality but that link you have posted has a big red cross against availability?

[frog]

That's okay, the bearings are already on their way. I might have got the last 4 kits (Doing two cars).
Good to hear the Timken bearings still have a good name.

Now to get those peskey bearing outer-rings out.

[BX Meteor]

uee a MIG welder: read the post by Linegeist (Bob) in this thread, posted Wed Dec 08, 2010 5:44 pm.
I don't have a MIG welder, took the arms off my car to a friend who had a MIG welder.

[BX Meteor]

Crikey the trailing arms on a Saxo or 106 look a bastard to do compared with a BX

http://www.ironpumacustoms.co.uk/mech/1 ... /index.htm

It just goes to show that the front-strut / rear-trailing-arm suspension layout of the BX is Peugeot-ish, and, non-hydraulic suspensions suffer the same problems.

[Defender110]

They are actually very similar to do and no harder, you just have to knock the torsion bars out which isn't complicated. what did suprise me when I did my son's saxo is how Citroen decided to downgrade the bearings to simple little needle roller bearings given the failure rate of the stronger bearings on the BX.

[mat_fenwick]

Small cars in general aren't engineered to last as long as larger ones, simply because they're often used as 'shopping trolleys', and hence are less likely to clock up massive mileages.

Given that Citroen probably designed the BX lifespan to be 10 years or so, at an average mileage of 12k a year I would guess that relatively few rear arms fail before that time? It's perhaps only because we are continuing to use them beyond their designed lifespan that we see such problems as weak points.

[JayW]

It's also surprising that the C5 uses EXACTLY the same bearings as the BX... and that's a damned heavier car!

Although, unlike the BX, the C5 lot doesn't come as a kit but as individual components. (But it is easier to do)

[Dollywobbler]

I suppose this is called progress? The rear suspension arms on my 2CV are enormous, with huge bearings. They haven't needed replacing in 169,000 miles...

Mind you - the arms weigh a lot more!

[mat_fenwick]

It's also surprising that the C5 uses EXACTLY the same bearings as the BX... and that's a damned heavier car!

Does that say a lot about how long Citroen expected the C5 to last?

[kbami8txd]

Is there any way of re greasing the bearings in situ-? e.g. fitting grease nipples somewhere ??????????

[Defender110]

Yes I have fitted grease nipples to my TZD but it isn't straight forward. You need to get grease through into the middle of the spacer tube and fill this with grease which spreads to the outer bearings. If you just drill the outer drop arm and fit a nipple the grease just fills the arm and does not get to the bearings. To solve this problem I drilled straight through the drop arm casing in the centre of the arm and then carried on through the spacer tube. I then tapped the outer drop arm to allow a grease nipple to be screwed in. Before fitting the nipple i fitted a small tube cut to the right length to allow the tube to be trapped between the tightened nipple and the spacer tube which allows the grease to travel through the tube into the spacer instead of leaking straight off into the hollow arm.

[Jaba]

I always fill the plastic tube with a mixture of grease and gearbox oil to hopefully keep the bearings lubed and longer lasting.
Seems to have worked so far after 11 years on the GTi.

[themildbunch]

When I did mine on the estate, I used as much marine grease as I could get in - this stuff: Mobile XHP

It's resistance to washout makes sense in the rear arm position. Nice shade of blue too!