Wheel Bearing Grease

[RichardNew]

This is all about wheel bearing grease. This was an article I did a few months back for Vintage Motorsport magazine. Grease is cheap so why not get the best? One thing to keep in mind is that you can use wheel bearing grease for chassis lube but you can’t use chassis to grease your wheel bearings. Enjoy.



Richard Newton
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[tadd]

Thanks for the link. Learned something today. Wish there was more technical info though.

So my question is can CV joint grease be used for wheel bearings?

t

[RichardNew]

That's a good question. I never really thought about. On the other hand a CV joint is a bearing.

Richard Newton

[KTL]

Originally Posted by tadd

So my question is can CV joint grease be used for wheel bearings?

t

Typically yes. A CV joint-specific grease is an EP grease. EP grease is going to provide you extra protection (coincidentally that's not what EP stands for- extreme pressure) in your wheel bearings where EP is not necessarily a mandate. Some of the cheap parts store wheel bearing greases are not EP rated.

Grease is something that can make you go bonkers trying to figure out the best to use. Obviously the easy thing to do is err on the side of caution and use an overkill grease for your basic applications.

[GaryR]

Now if we can only get this to go epic like the oil thread... Me, I use M1 Red Synthetic for wheel bearings and my Polybronze bushings. I have a Mil Spec secret sauce someone here sent me that is for the CV's..

[Redbarnman]

Very little grease is needed (it does not help when people use terms like 'pack the bearings') as too much and it will leak out over the hubs. Follow the manual and use just the recommended amount and nothing extra to 'make sure'. I don't really understand how bearing grease works as after driving for a while none of it seems to be retained on the bearing race - it's all round the outside where it's been thrown out by the centrifugal force. On a (fairly low powered) vintage race car I once had we used oil on the bearings and when jacked up the wheel would spin for 5 minutes. They lasted years without trouble. Reducing friction is an alternative to more power.

[Charles Freeborn]

Armed with this new knowledge I skipped on out to the garage to look at my Lucas Red 'n Tacky. Meets or exceeds all specs, plus it's a pretty color.... Used it in my steering rack too.
-C

[RichardNew]

I remember back in the day we used automatic transmission fluid for wheel bearing lube in Formula Vees. They were only 30 minute races and we thought it made us faster. Sure.

Richard Newton