elgato

I was reading on the w211 forum and some people are re-greasing their rear S/C bearings. They have found that almost all the grease is gone when they open up the S/C. Has anyone done this to their C32? Anyone have a blower mess up because of bad rear bearings?

Khan 55

It may be irrelevant to some extent but on the Toyota 4agze manual, they don't mention anything under there however when you are stripping it to overhaul it or set the shim on the pulley clearance, then there is mention of packing the rear with grease. Apparently people mentioned here, the best to use is some white type of grease that is used on air craft bearings but it is insanely expensive and can only be bought in a big sized tub that would last generations to come lol.

elgato

Yeah I was reading that some guys found a tube of quality stuff for $400. Never heard of this on the C32 and was just curious. I'm assuming the w211 E55 has a larger blower and more rotational mass which could cause more heat.

latemodel21

guys are finding these bearings going dry with as few as 90,000 miles on the car. Some have failed (generally with higher mileage). I inspected mine on my SL55 at about 93,000 and they were not showing a signs of damage, but were nearly dry.

it seems likely that (assuming they use the same bearing) the V6amg SC rear bearings would have a longer life, but I will take a look at the rears on my SLK32 next time I have the blower off (when the IC fails, seems like a good time to check the rear bearings).

the lubricant that SC rebuilders use for this rear bearing is Rheotemp 500 made by NYE . You can buy a 100gram tube for less than $80 and that is good for repacking more than 40 bearings. Or you can find it in a 10gram tube on ebay for less than $30.

These bearings need no more than a 25 to 30% fill (70 to 75% air space after packing).

Cheers,
Chris

elgato

Let us know what you find. And I would like to know how much of a tear down is needed to grease the bearings since the shop I take my car to won't do it .

Thanks

latemodel21

I will, however, it may be some time before I tear into a V6 version as one of my SLK32s is about to be sold (so that opportunity will hopefully not present itself) and the SLK32 I am keeping only has 30,000 miles on it (and I replaced the Intercooler less than 5,000 miles ago) so it is unlikely I'll have that off anytime soon.

Cheers,
Chris

PS I have tons of leftover Rheotemp500 if someone else wants to re-grease their bearings

elgato

Haha I guess you go to my post before I edited it. How much of a tear down is required to grease the bearings? And your intercooler already went out? Wow you must have some pressureg ping through it. Not to jinx myself but mine is still good at 130k. Are you using a Johnson pump?

latemodel21

The previous owner lived in 2 different extrem-ish climates (pennsylvania and airzona) and drove the car infrequently. I mention this as the pressure differential (manifold vs cooling system) would be the greatest in these circumstances (and would be a factor prior to divorcing the Heat-exchanger from the radiator ... which I did shortly after getting the car), so this added fatigue to the IC core may be a factor in the short life of this intercooler. I, then, picked up this SLK32 in 2011 with only 16,000 miles and drove it very little until after I put a 62mm SC pulley on it (bumping manifold pressure to 20 Psig). After a couple of thousand miles the IC started leaking alot (sucking water into the intake when cruising under vacuum and probably leaking manifold pressure into the Heat-exchanger system when under boost) ... I presume it was mostly the added boost and bad luck. I Bought a brand new replacement IC from mercedes for $700



Johnson pump on my car... never (flows less than a bosch 010 ) I have an 010 bosch pump on my SLK32 (the 010 is a plug n play replacement for the original 002 bosch pump that came on the car) and a CWA50 (higher flowing pierberg pump) on my SL55.

the teardown required for greasing the rear bearings is the same as removing the intercooler (for which there will be "book time" numbers available) PLUS after that you need to separate the SC gearbox (see the 2 pics I posted in this E55 thread/posting)
https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...ml#post6624860

to answer your question in THAT thread, there is no air-flow through the rear bearings (that would prematurely remove the grease from the rear bearings). The throttlebody snout has a double cone cast into it that essentially seals the rear bearings from the incoming air-flow/path.

Cheers,
Chris