[vishy76]

Hi all. I own a Volkswagen Jetta TDI and sent it to the service centre complaining of two major issues:

- A rumbling sound from the rear which was intermittent and came and went depending on road quality and speed. It was almost non existent on smooth tarmac at 90+ Km/hr.

- A droning noise at 1500 rpm coming from the engine bay.

For issue 1, the S.A said that bent rims were responsible for the noise but it didn't end there. He further claimed that the rear wheel bearings had gone bad
due to the wobble produced by the rims. Both rear wheel bearings would have to be replaced for Rs. 11K. (I did get that done eventually).

For issue 2, the GB mount had gone kaput mostly due to an external impact and was replaced for 9.7K.

Ended up paying Rs. 23K in total for both jobs which was fine. Post repairs:

- Road noise has decreased from the rear significantly although that irritating rumble is still there

- Droning noise has gone too

My questions:

- Can bent rims cause worn bearings? Haven't heard of this practically although sounds alright in theory. Have come across many bhpians who encountered bent rims but not bad wheel bearings. Could it be because I ignored the problem for too long?

- How many KM can one drive on bent rims without damaging the wheel bearings? I ask since I still haven't found the time to get my rims fixed. My dad isn't agreeing to do so atleast until he finds the time which will take a week or so and another 100+ km of driving.

Thanks in advance,
Ananth

[aerohit]

Depends on how old run your car is. Bearing can fail if your car driven on bad roads. A bent rim would have caused vibration, symptoms of bad alignment and tyre wear. I have not seen bearing damage due to bent rim, depends on how bent it was.

Also, if you have upsized or movified your wheel rim/tyre then expect bearing to fail sooner.

Of course poor quality bearing itself can also lead to failure.

[Jeroen]

The short answer is it causes additional wear and tear. But it would be difficult to predict how soon, or how much quicker a bearing would fail.

A bend rim will vibrate and that means additional forces on the bearing. Just normal driving puts considerable forces on the wheel bearing as it is. Cornering, braking, potholes etc. It is designed to cope with it all. A bent rim will just add some additional wear and tear into the equation.

So a bent rim will put additional wear and tear on all the suspension components. Shocks, rubbers, etc.

Nobody can predict or say with any degree of certainty how quickly it would lead to bearing failure. Obviously, if the bearings were pretty worn to start with makes a different. Than again, it is almost impossible to assess the condition of wheel bearings in terms of how much mileage is left.

Wheel bearings failure are caused primarily by fatigue. Fatigue is a function from how often a part was subjected to a certain stress.

Jeroen
Jeroen.

Jeroen

[scorpian]

Bent rims will run out of balance and induce load on the bearings causing accelerated wear and tear.
Not only does it produce the drone like sound but will also affect the whole feel of drive with excessive vibrations.
Best is to replace them rather then wait for it go worse and damage related components.

[shipnil]

You did not mention the running of your car, assuming you haven't replaced the bearings ever. Depending on the running too, they would have been close to their end of life.

As already highlighted by few members, I too believe the bent rim would increase wear of the bearings. So this would have reduced the life of bearings.

BTW, the rim straightening on a machine is a 15 minute job, assuming these are steel rims. I had got one of my rim straightened few years back. But if it is an alloy rim, I do not know.

[gkveda]

Depends on how much deformation has happened to the alloy wheel. If the deformation has changed the circular shape of the wheel to oval or eliptical, then, every rotation will vary the pressure on the bearing sinusoidally. So bearing will naturally get more wear and tear and prone to damage.

[VijayAnand1]

A bent rim not only causes uneven wear and tear on the tire, it can also throw the vehicle camber characteristics off scale. Yes, wheel bearings, ball joints can easily wear off with a bent rim. This wear accelerates faster with load and high speeds and on the age of the vehicle's suspension components. The wheel is dynamically balanced. When a vehicle wobbles as it moves, the bearings are what makes the wheel turn, so this on and off lateral pressure will ruin the fine tolerances of the bearings, and hence replacement. Add in more weight, speed coupled with crappy roads, the bearing is given a tortured death.

Cheers!
VJ

[aerohit]

Bangalore has highest rate of bearing failure due to poor roads.