Welcome to post number one for me on this forum. I have been reading it for some time, but now that an issue has come up, I decided to register and start posting.

Here is my issue. I have an 05 E320 (RWD). 52000 miles...just out of warranty. Myself and a few other independent tire shops have determined that my front drivers side wheel bearing is shot. (I have a small hum that beats to the revolution of the wheel. After we raised the car, we found that there is a small amount of play in the wheel.) So here is the deal; Napa, Checker and a few other online places show the car having a wheel bearing assembly, that has a bearing with a seal. But they also show at the same time, an inside and outside bearing . They show a list item for a single seal, but do have part numbers or prices for this seal. Mercedes says that you cant just replace the bearing, that I have to buy the whole hub assembly for $257. I dont doubt that replacing the who assembly would fix things, but I dont think that I really need to go to this extreme. The question I have is what the hell part do I need? Do I really have to go buy the whole dang assembly, or can I just replace the bearings, and if so, what bearings do I need? From what I can see by taking the wheel off, is that there is a dust cap and that basically tells me that it is setup so that you can pull the cap, remove the nut and change out bearings without the need to replace the entire thing. Someone please ease my confusion.

 

Ok,, you have my interest,, We have an 03 E500 with same bearings. If they are the sealed hub / cannister type the hub / bearing assembly should be replaced as one unit. But if it has taper roller bearings they can be repacked. So I am interested in what you find. I will check around.

 

Ok I have done some serious research on it. It appears that ALLDATA and Mercede show the same info...the hub and bearing should be replaced as one unit. The car does not have independent inner and outer bearings that are easily replaced. I do believe that NAPA's bearing kit would work as I believe that unit is the actual bearing part for the hub assembly, the problem with that is you would have to own a hydrolic press to remove the old and replace the new and praying that you get it perfect. The good news is that I have a press, the bad news is that NAPA has that part in their computer, but does not actually carry it or even can get it yet. It appears for the time being that going through the dealer is the only way to get this part. Sucks that I have to spend 257 dollars to get an entire assembly when in all actuallity, the part that is bad is only around 34 bucks.

 

Do you have the factory part number? If you can get it we can shop around for a supplier.

 

Odd, £150 here:
http://www.mercedes-benz-parts.co.uk...com_virtuemart

Would expect the same figure for the US price even with the current dollar value.

 

OK...MAJOR UPDATE

Since I figured I needed to do the job, I went ahead to an independent shop I know to order the part. (Since I know the owner I decided to let him have the list markup instead of mercedes, to whom I know no one). We open the box up and sure enough there is the hub, I pull the hub out of the box to inspect and what do I find...two bearnings, an inner and an outter. The outter, is just laying there alone nothing holding it in, the inner, was put in place and then the seal was put on. I reached in and touched the inner bearing and low and behold it is not pressed in place either. In other words, from what I can see, all the independent parts shops are correct, I can just replace the bearings. The only part that it difficult to find, is the seal, but I do believe I can get that seperately from MB without having to buy the entire hub. It looks like MB is trying to avoid selling $40 in parts by trying to sell the whole unit. I think they are trying to sell the whole unit as a "sealed" unit" when it really is not. When the bearings come in tomorrow, I will compare them to the hub assembly ones and let all of you know.

 

At least EPC did not seem to show the seal separately, it would then be difficult to get this from MB. If you can find the manufacturer, perhaps you can get it from another source.

 

Can you post the seal bearing numbers? We can probably find these parts through a bearing supplier. It is important where the bearings are made due to the quality of steel.

Are these bearings pack with grease or do they have to be hand packed?

 

OK so get this...
I get the parts from NAPA and the outside bearing is right on the money, however the inside bearing looks like it fits, but there is an inside curve on the bearing that allows it to fit up closer on the spindle than the new bearing. I checked the bearing numbers. The new bearing is a SKF 32008 X/Q. The old bearing is a 32008 X/QVB458. Almost the same, but slightly different. I had my parts guy call all around to try to find this sucker. No luck. So I called an independent bearing company. He was interested and decided to call SKF about this since he is one of their distributors. They told him that this bearing is almost unique to mercedes. They would sell them to me but here is the kicker...they do not know of anyone who sells them independently in america, and international shipping from Sweden costs about 200 USD for 7-10 day, or about 30 USD for a 4-5 week boat ride. The seal did not have a part number on it, but I did find out that you can buy the seal independent of the assembly. Good thing too, because I found out that the seal, yes the seal is actually also part of the ABS and ESP sensor. If you notice the wire on the other side of the spindle, it actually terminates on a magnetic sensor right beside the spindle. The seal top is actually magnatized at what looks like 12,3,6, and 9. So without the MB brand seal, or in my case, the right bearing that allows the seal to get close enough to the sensor, the car will start to freak out about ABS and ESP issues. Once I put the old bearing back in, the car started to work correctly again. What really made me mad was that I drove the car around the block with the new bearing in it (did not notice the hub was about 1/8" off till my ABS went nuts) and the noise was still there. This tells me that corner is not the problem. Even though it was giving all the signs and symptoms, noise SOUNDED like it was coming from there and when I raised it, I had a little play. So one of my mechanic friends has a neat little toy that allows him to listen to all four wheels independently. (Set of headphones and a 4 microphone setup made specifically for this job). I will have him verify what wheel it really is coming from and then if it is front, a call to Sweden I will make and wait the 5 weeks for my bearings to come in.

 

Thanks for the update.. Please publish your part #'s.

For the bearing that would not fit correctly can you post photo?

I have worked with bearing for 30+ years as a customer of SKF and some will accept a slight mod even though brg co's won't agree. I would like to see the exact spot that won't fit.

Unfortunate you have to have SKF order from Sweden.

I did find 4 "kits" for this part number. I "think" the abs part is included in the kit. See the attachment. There are actually 4 bearing kits for this same part number. So knowing which one is a bit difficult without asking the skf rep directly.

I don't understand the seal part affecting the ABS? Does it have 4 magnets in it? or 4 coils?


Thanks for the update.

 

Ok so here are the pics. The seal appears to have 4 magnets in it, even though I cant see them. However when I run a screwdriver around it, there are 4 distinct spots that it magnatizes to.

Bearing from car, sorry bad pic but it says 32008 X/QVB458:

Other side of bearing from car, note the curve on the inside of the bearing.

Bearing from Parts Store, bearing number 32008 X/Q. Note no curve.

Compare between the two. Both have the same inner radius even though it does not look like it. That tappering curve fools the eye. Look at above pic for better view.:

Seal that goes on the inside of Hub:

Sensor for ABS and ESP that reads the seal turning (Dot just right of the spindle) Sorry about focus...my camera sucks:


I have a pic of the small bearing too, but there is nothing special to it. Also, since I can only have 6 attachments at a time, I cant put it in. But for those that wish to know, it's part number is LM 12749/QVQQ7. If I recall correctly, the parts store bearing is an LM 12749/QV. It works no prob, I cant find a single difference between the two.

 

Great job on the pic and details. The radius on the bearing that would not fit has a ground surface. This is variable by the brg mfg. My guess is that you could have a bearing from the parts store precision ground to the same dimensions and not hurt the bearing. ( I know the brg co. will not agree to this as it would go through the surface hardness of the bearing surface) but it will leave enough to make this work. The down side is the cost of precision maching at $100/hr (cheap side) would prevent you from hiring this out and you would have to do it yourself on a lathe or other tool with a high speed grinder attachment.

I find it suprising that the US supplier of brg's can't get this in the US.

Keep us in formed on how this turns out.

The seal is also a suprise. Never saw anyone use a SEAL for traction control. Most use a starwheel design that is part of the wheel hub. Don't know why anyone would use the seal. Doesn't seem like a good choice to me, but granted it does work.

 

Any update Ryan??

 

Here is the update...sorry for the long delay...got married, bought a house so I have been WAYYY to busy to be on here.


It turns out that it is actually the tires. It seems like a previous dealer or owner put "new" tires on it. Howeve they put Douglas brand (Goodyear made, but sold only in Wal-Mart stores so you know they are cheap) on it. After me having the tires balanced AGAIN, I saw the tire on the machine and saw the tread going up and down even though the wheel is perfectly stationary. So I have a set of "new" tires which really are new from their tread depth, but are not round which is causing all of my issues. After I recoupe the cost of the wedding and house, I will get new tires for her and hope that all works itself out.

 

I highly recommend Michelins on the E Mercedes.

 

How can you tell if the bearings are bad or if the stiff suspension is the cause of the noise when driving slow? I hear that you should lift the car and spin the wheels to see if there is any play. What "play" am I looking for? Resistance? How can you tell if its not the breaks causing some resistance? my rotors have lots of grooves in it...

 

im getting mine replaced tomorrow.. my indy mech diagnosed the bearing issue by raising the car ..grabbing the front tires and pushing and pulling it to see if there is a sounds while it moves and there was soo he then decided i needed new hub assembly on both sides....also he decided to test the inner tie rod by putting presure in them by putting a pipe under and testing the play and there was a sqqueek...so im gettin one of those too
.ext warranty covers this

 

Ok now at 120,000 miles It is time for new front rotors. I thought I would pull the hubs/repack and reuse the bearings based on them being conventional taper rollers exclusive of the radius on the inner.

Any part numbers for the seal? I saw lots of MB seals at online sites and they state w/magnets (2) but is it 2 or 4? also did you ever get a part number. Also did you find a supplier of the bearings? What grease was used in the hub..?

My + in the FSS just showed up this week and I suspect I still have a yr of driving based on my last inspection of the pad thickness using MB min thickness as the change point and not the wear sensor.

 

EPCnet shows a Seal Ring A 025 997 16 47, with a note that ABS pickup is part of the seal ring.

For grease the StarService CD lists the following:

Fuchs Renolit LX-PEP-2 (Fuchs Petrolub AG, Mannheim, Germany)
Hytex EP 2 (ChevronTexas Technology, Ghent, Gent/Zwijnaarde, Belgium)
MB 265.1 Hochtemlperatur-Wälzlagerfett 001 989 2351 (Daimler/Chrysler AG, Stuttgart, Germany)
Starplex 2 (ChevronTexas Technology...)

Probably easiest to get it at the dealer, but you can also take a look at http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w124...e-sources.html

 

I found through the link autohauze has the grease. Did you get the inner bearing from MB? or were you able to find it from SKF?

 

Haven't found a source. Fortunately it's not an immediate need. I'll probably have to end up bowing to MB and getting the whole hub when the time comes.