The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[Wandering Willy]

On the General Technical Forum, Bushburywolf has added a link to the Toyota Europe Technical support web site (very useful - many thanks). Out of interest, I had a look at the maintenance schedule for the 100 series and was surprised to see that the wheel bearings should be greased every 20,000 km (12 months or about 12,000 miles).

When I got my car last summer, I had to tighten one of the front wheel bearings so know that it is not a 5 minute job to get at them. While I was checking it, I noticed that the grease in the bearing was discoloured. This normally doesn't happen unless the bearing is over-filled when the churning action of the bearing can cause the grease to overheat. The grease then starts to decompose which turns it black - eventually. Not wanting to dismantle the front hub, I scooped out as much of the old grease as possible and replaced it with new.

If the bearings are supposed to be re-greased every year, what is the best technique for doing so? Has anyone got any quick, clean, easy way of clearing out the old grease and putting in new?

I can imagine fitting a grease nipple somewhere on the hub and pumping in new grease to force out the old but that would leave the bearing horribly overfilled leading to the grease suffering the sort of overheating and breakdown I mentioned. Is the only option to dismantle the hub to clean out the old grease before putting in new?

Any advice gratefully received.

Willy

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