Tyre recommendation (a.k.a. rear arm bearings again)

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 4:54 pm

Rear arm bearings I'm afraid, not too bad a job but still a few hours per side. Does it creak when you compress the rear suspension? It may not have got to that stage yet. The bearing kits are readily avialable over here, or at least were, and did cost about £35 per side in 2006/2007.
Your dust shield also looks crooked, check the 3 M6(?) screws are all tight, or it may have taken a knock. As a bit of an aside, I've had a stick on balance weight on the inside of the wheel catch on the dust shield before...

Looking on the bright side, the underneath of your car looks very tidy!

TB2 · Post by **TB2** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 5:32 pm

bummer

I wanted to take in on my vacation on Friday. I wonder if I can fix it until then...

How do these rear arm bearings look like? (edit:) which one of these is it?

For some reason, I can only find bearings for the front available, none for the back....

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:18 pm

Erm, none of them. I wonder if the swift rims are wider than your other rims? & because the rear arm bearings are knackered there is less room inside the wheel arch due to the lean of the tyre, hence the grinding. A quick solution would be to re-fit your old rims back on, until you can get around to doing the rear arm bearings.

DavidRutherford · Post by **DavidRutherford** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:24 pm

Indeed... the picture you've posted is of the front suspension only.

The rear arm bearings are exactly that... bearings, not bushes. As mentioned, they are a bit of a job, but not too bad. You will need decent tools though.

Just hope that the arms themselves aren't too badly damaged. They can be "recovered" with the use of fine filing and some filling if there is damage, but that's a tedious job.

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:30 pm

David, what sort of filling can you use on the rear arms if they are chewed up?

DavidRutherford · Post by **DavidRutherford** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:34 pm

The area that gets destroyed by the bearing rollers falling out and then machining their way into the cast arm is only a sealing area rather than a load bearing area, so if any burrs are filed out, and the damaged area filled with an epoxy resin (or similar) then the arm will be perfectly useable again.

I've done this with car body filler before, and it worked just fine.

TB2 · Post by **TB2** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:58 pm

-.- Why now of all times? I was planing on going on a 3800km journey starting on Friday. I guess it's a bad idea putting distance plates on the rims to make some room and drive off like that?

Bearings... I can't seem to find them. There are rear wheel bearings, but that's not right.

I'm going to call a dealer tomorrow, but I doubt they'll have the parts readily available.

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:20 pm

Handy tip about the body filler

TB2, get your old rims fitted with your new rubber, & its sorted for your journey. The car will be ok with knackered bearings & the tyres wont snag on the inside of the wheel arch. Ok, its a pain to have to pay to get the tyres swapped over again, but its a lot quicker & cheaper, than getting the rear arm bearings sorted out at short notice.

TB2 · Post by **TB2** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:30 pm

I've just repainted the grinded off areas, gonna put some undercoating on it tomorrow.

Well. This got me quite frustrated. ... The old rims are GTI rims, I don't think they are any more narrow than the Swift2 ones. Switching tyres again? Well... maybe. I'll think about it. What if it doesn't work

Waste of money I guess. Looked at the howto, seems to be quite a job. (Also, wow, a japanese guy writing howtos for a BX? "Sugoi!") I'll call the dealer tomorrow, ask him how much it is to do the job himself, or if he has a kit for me. I doubt it. It's odd that I can't find a kit in the local shops...

First, I'll have a beer now.

---
Carl

kiwi · Post by **kiwi** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:52 pm

retrodriver wrote:I run Federal SS595s on the front of my Grande Punto, apparently a very good tyre in Australia and certainly I am keen on them, cheap too!

Yea but what you got on your BX? Anyways bit expensive to get a set from Australia.

kiwi · Post by **kiwi** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 11:01 pm

Can I ask what the differance is between swift2 rims and ordinary BX rims?

If they are wider and what size Tyre is being put on them? Like has been said if the wheel bearings are worn even just a little bit the larger the rim you fit the more chance of encountering this problem. Although I think you found that anyways.

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 11:09 pm

Arent normal steel rims size 5j & i guess the swifts are at least 5.5j's, thats all the difference that you would need to encourage the tyre rubbing.

TB2 · Post by **TB2** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 11:16 pm

If I remember it correctly they're 6J. But aren't the GTI rims 6J as well? The same tyres that fit on the GTI fit on the Swift2 rims. In any case, I guess I'll refit the tyres as Mulley suggested. What a PITA.

Oh by the way, that japanese site is quite awesome. If you run it through a translator, there's a lot of good stuff with lots and lots of pictures.

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_ur ... =Translate

It might not cover as much as tramontana, but it's really in-depth!

edit: Oh and I think I found it. It's listed in the wrong section, but I think this is it, right?

Vanny · Post by **Vanny** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 11:28 pm

Valvers run on 6j, from time to time my valver runs on 6.5j rims without a problem when the arms are good. I suggest that the issue is more likely to be the offset of the wheel (centre line of the width of the tyre in relation to the mounting face), in which case a spacer might be the way to go. Still it does look like you might have worn rear arm bearings. a picture of the car on the ground in regular height mode (with engine running) would give a MUCH better appreciation for the bearing condition.

In the case of knackered arms, if you have access to a submerged arc welding machine you can add metal to the inner race and then have the whole lot machined back out to a perfect finish. Easier to use body filler by the sounds of things though!

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 11:59 pm

Even different brands of tyres (of the same nominal size) may be different. I'm on 6Js on my estate, I gave the wheelarch outer lip a little more clearance, and had to repeat the job when I changed brand of tyre...