[ZookPenguin]

Hi all,

I’m new to Zooks (I’ve had Toyotas and Daihatsus before). I’ve just bought a stock MY13 Jimny with 35k on the clock. I’m just going through the first shake down (changing oils etc), and I find that the front hubs are running hot - almost too hot to hold a hand on after a 30 minute urban drive. Rear hubs, and at the front the diff, axle housing, birfield area are all warm (being summer) but not hot – it’s just the front hubs that are hot. When driving the front area is quiet, and the vacuum hubs work and 4WD engages fine. Front wheel bearings, methinks.

I’ve ordered the Jimny wheel bearing socket so I can check/replace the front bearings, but delivery is late and I couldn’t wait so I took it to the Suzuki dealer mechanics yesterday. They reckon the bearings are fine, and it’s just heat from braking that is heating the hubs. I drove it home yesterday, and within 15 mins the hubs were hot again.

Does this sound normal in your experience? Anyone else with a Jimny have hot front hubs?

Thanks,
Penguin (")>

[krat]

Perfectly normal. Had the same issue with my Vitara. The heat from the front disc brakes was transferring to the hubs. Just check that the discs arn't binding on the pads. Even a bit of rubbing will transfer heat because of the friction. See if you can do a section of driving without touching the brakes and compare the results.

[ZookPenguin]

Thanks krat, good tip, I'll give that a go.
(")>

[alien]

My Sierra does the same. If it were wheel bearings, you probably wouldn't notice the extra heat. Only way to check that is to lift a wheel and feel for play/wobble. Having had a wheel bearing fail on me once and seize up while driving, I definitely recommend reading the factory manual to torque them up correctly. The effect of it seizing was equal to someone just locking up the front left wheel, while I was doing 60km/hr!

[markmo]

alien wrote:

My Sierra does the same. If it were wheel bearings, you probably wouldn't notice the extra heat. Only way to check that is to lift a wheel and feel for play/wobble. Having had a wheel bearing fail on me once and seize up while driving, I definitely recommend reading the factory manual to torque them up correctly. The effect of it seizing was equal to someone just locking up the front left wheel, while I was doing 60km/hr!

Jimny are different style bearing, manual says 220NM iirc. I usually just ugguh dugguh them for a few seconds.

[sideways]

alien wrote:

My Sierra does the same. If it were wheel bearings, you probably wouldn't notice the extra heat. Only way to check that is to lift a wheel and feel for play/wobble. Having had a wheel bearing fail on me once and seize up while driving, I definitely recommend reading the factory manual to torque them up correctly. The effect of it seizing was equal to someone just locking up the front left wheel, while I was doing 60km/hr!

I fixed a rear wheel bearing on a farmers landcruiser years ago. The axle had broken the cap off leaving the wheel bearing exposed to the elements and he had just kept driving it in 4wd. It had burnt all the paint off the hub and even a bit off the inside of the wheel. The axle was a molten mess fusion welded inside the spindle, we couldn't get it out and obviously the spindle was trashed too. There was just about nothing left of the wheel bearing and all that was really keeping the wheel on was the brake caliper. He hadn't stopped driving it but he said if you went down the road it would billow white smoke out for ages afterwards, fine around the paddocks though.

We swapped in another diff. Later we cut the old diff in half so we could get the centre out when he broke it again.

You'd notice the heat from that, there would have been some other tell tale signs too though.