Adding grease to front bearings under ABS sensor

[Scooby]

I was re-reading one of Jelag's posts and thought that I would use a needle fitting to add some synthetic grease to the wheelbearings while I have the front rotors off. I removed the ABS sensor and found some bright green stuff!



My questions are:

1) What is the bright green stuff and do I need to add this back since I wiped some of it off the sensor?

2) Where do I add the grease with the needle fitting? To the space between the teeth and the engine side or to the space between with teeth and the outside or both?

3) What if i get some grease on the teeth themselves - will this throw off the ABS sensor?



Thanks in advance for your help!



-Sebastiaan

 

[SierraRam]

As far as I knoew the front unit wheel bearings were not serviceable.

 

[GaryOwen]

I think some have removed the ABS sensor retaining bolt, then carefully drilled down through the bolt hole with a 1/8" bit. Must be careful not to damage threads. Use grease needle to insert grease. Replace bolt.

 

[jelag]

If you remove the sensor retaining bolt, and the sensor you can get a grease needle into the space between the two bearings..... I actually read about this process here in this board... and wanted to know more... .

We've had this apart on some of our trucks... . you can pull this assembly, press apart the bearings, clean and inspect them, repack them and press them back together... .

We did this to see if by putting the grease needle into where the sensor is, you get a good supply of grease into the bearings... . and you do... . so now when we have the brakes apart we add some grease.....

BTW - we add a pump of grease, pull the needle, turn the hub 1/8 of a turn and repeat the process. For us, we do this at 75-80K and than again at 150K... . remember these were greased for life... . at some point you'll have enough grease that it will have to come out...

Almost every brand of grease is a different color, green, blue etc... . we like a high temp, high film strength grease that is a full synthetic grease... . the one we use is the same one we use on truck clutch release bearings... .

I actually hate the stuff... if you get it on clothing you might as well pitch the clothing as I've never found anything to get it off... . but it has a great film strength and that's whats needed... .

Scooby I hope this answers your question... I saw your email but didn't get it open yet... It's been hectic for sure... . we lost an employee to Liver failure this past week, he had been part of our team at the shop for 20 years or so... . and has been on a transplant list for a year... . and my wife and I have been out of town... actually we still are... but she's in the bathroom fixing her hair so I have a few minutes to write.....

I hope this answers the questions about this...

 

[Scooby]

Jim,

Thank you for the response - I'm sorry for your loss - knowing someone like that for so long makes them a member of the family.



As a quick follow-up question - so the green stuff that is in there IS the grease? I was just going to use some synthetic wheel bearing grease, is that OK to mix with the green stuff?



So if I understand correctly, one could then place the grease anywhere - even on the the teeth directly without fear of fouling up the ABS sensor?



Thanks again!

 

[steved]

Jim,

Thank you for the response - I'm sorry for your loss - knowing someone like that for so long makes them a member of the family.



As a quick follow-up question - so the green stuff that is in there IS the grease? I was just going to use some synthetic wheel bearing grease, is that OK to mix with the green stuff?



So if I understand correctly, one could then place the grease anywhere - even on the the teeth directly without fear of fouling up the ABS sensor?



Thanks again!

Wipe the sensor clean, the green stuff is likely grease...



Theoretically you should not mix greases, but I have never actually witnessed a failure from it. We mixed grease on dad's truck's bearing 170k ago... those bearings have 270k currently.



The grease will not affect the sensor readings...

 

[foolkiller]

good info folks

 

[jelag]

The sensor is a "hall effect" sensor and sees the teeth as they move past the sensor... . the teeth make and break a small magnetic field... . as they do so they send a slight voltage back up the wire to the computer and it can count the clicks... One wheel with fewer clicks than the rest is skidding and the brakes are released on this wheel... .

Anyway, the green stuff should be a grease... . and a good synthetic should do the job...