So how long do they last?

Mine has 255K kilometers (160K miles?), never heard noise from the wheel bearings... the driver's side was a tad loose and I hand tightened it to get rid of the wheel play... tight and still no noise.

I was contemplating ordering replacements, and installign them... but if the originals still have plenty of life (assuming I just do a repack) then I'll save my $$$.

Advice?

Greg Mustang
Montreal - Ottawa
Canada

In the last year, both of the front wheel bearings needed replacement in my '87 245. Details are as follows:

*Drivers side: 210,000 miles on original bearing. Failed due to water/rust after inner grease seal failed. (rust on races caused a grinding sound when turning right)
*Passengers side: 220,000 miles on original bearings. Failed due to age/wear and was replaced when it started to make a grinding noise when turning left. However, regular repackings of the bearing could have extended its life much further.

Repacking your existing bearings is well worth your time. Use a top quality Synthetic grease (like Mobil 1 or Valvoline Synthetic) and you'll get a lot of good miles out of them. Have a new grease seal standing by when you repack them and check the castle nut for excessive (deep) scoring. Read the following post for repack/replacement information (wheel bearing replacement), but disregard the 40 ft-lbs initial seating torque value, -it should be 20 ft-lbs. Spend as much time as you need to get the final tightening sequence correct as this a very critical step. Grasp the tire at the top and Push & pull to find just about 1/32 to 1/16 of play (barely noticable by feel) before inserting the cotter pin into the castle nut and spindle.

Your '89 will have an SKF inner bearing and a KOYO outer bearing in each hub as original factory equipment. Both the SKF and Koyo bearings are available at NAPA for dirt-cheap prices and they also sell an SKF outer bearing should you perfer that choice (they original equipment on early 240s before they switched to a Koyo outer bearing).

God bless,
Fitz Fitzgerald.
--
'87 Blue 245, NA 232K

I agree with the recommendations to keep them until they give you trouble. If you clean and repack them periodically, they could easily last the life of the car. And if you don't replace them with Volvo bearings, you could be replacing them with bearings that have a shorter life span than the remaining life span of your existing bearings! Bearings give you enough warning (grinding sounds that change when you are in turns, and when you spin the wheel around while jacked up), that you don't need to be too concerned. I disagree with the poster who said you were "on borrowed time." 160K miles is not abnormal. They could easily last another 160K.

If you look after them they last forever. Re-pack the cap with grease once in a long while, tighten the nut to take up all but a tiny bit of play, and leave them alone.
Mine are on 292,000 miles.

Ditto on the lifespan of non-volvo bearings. There are some really junk bearings on the market, mostly from China.
All of the chain stores (autozone,advance,etc) sell them and IMO it is a waste of time and money to install them. If you cannot get OE bearings, go to a bearing store and insist on Made in SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN CHINA parts.
I have compared Chinese bearings and GOOD bearings under high magnification and the surface of the made in china bearings look like the surface of the moon compared to those made elsewhere.
Later,rcs

If they run silent, leave'm.

MY jeep, axles have better then 300K. They've been repacked but that's because I was making Mods where the Hub was off anyway.

Truck 274K on it. Repacked once...again, the Hubs were off.

Volvo 238K on it. Repacked once, I was trying to find the occasional grinding sound that everyone complains about..but no one knows why.

If you are pulling the Hubs..inspect, clean and repack, otherwise wait for them to give you trouble. IF they ever will.

My 2 cents
--
'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwr and two motorcycles: it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me

Wheel bearings are sort of an "on condition" replacement item, i.e. you don't normally replace them until they give trouble. Having said that, you're probably on borrowed time. It comes down to convenience... I've usually done mine in advance of problems, when I had the rotors off for brake work, for example.

With proper lubrication and preload, roller bearing life is a function of load and revolutions. At the extremes, grandma who never drives over rough roads and who never corners or brakes above 0.1 g might have bearings last into the next millenium, whereas Darrel Waltrip might need bearings halfway thru the Daytona 500... you get the idea.

There's no set lifespan for the bearings. Clean them well and inspect them, and if the bearings and races look good, pack them, replace the seals, and reinstall.

I replaced the right front bearings in my 91 a couple of weeks ago. I'd had bearing noise from that corner since I bought the car, and finally decided to fix the problem. Both bearings at AutoZone cost me $9, but when I inspected my old ones, only the inner was bad. I went ahead and replaced them both, it just wasn't worth saving the $4 to me. When I was younger, there was a time or 2 that I was so broke that I installed used bearings.
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1991 245, 61k miles, looking for a 5 speed 92-93 245 cheap.