What is the best grease for wheel bearings?

Choosing the best grease for wheel bearings

How to grease your vehicle's wheel bearings and which lubricant should be used? SKF has some tips for you on how to take care of your bearings. Incorrect lubrication is the main cause of bearing failure. Insufficient lubrication, degraded grease, and using the wrong kind of lubricant account for 36% of all bearing failures. Every precaution is taken to prevent an early bearing failure, so you must choose the right grease to ensure correct functionality.

What is bearing grease?

SKF considers that grease is essential to the well-functioning of any bearing arrangement. Grease can be described as ‘thickened oil’. Rolling bearing grease is usually manufactured by using a base of oil in a thickener, and some other additives. By varying these ingredients, it’s possible to produce several different kinds of greases, useful for many different applications. Grease generally is made of a mix of soap emulsified with mineral or vegetable oil. It’s mainly a lubricant that can show properties of a semi-solid structure and that after going through some stresses, it can flow like a liquid. But its most important feature is that it provides a corrosion inhibition and a lubricant factor. When deciding which grease to use, you should always consider the viscosity of the oil, its consistency, the thickener and what field application it’s designed for.

The grease is made of a mix of soap emulsified with mineral or vegetable oil and its most important feature is that it provides a corrosion inhibition and a lubricant factor.

Grease for wheel bearings

Grease is applied to systems that can be oiled and where that same oil doesn’t remain in position. They also serve as sealants to prevent water leaks. Grease lubrication on bearings provides remarkable friction qualities thanks to its high consistency. When choosing the proper grease for a bearing mechanism, be aware that picking a normal or universal “for every use” grease can strike a toll in the end. It can do more harm than good if we don’t choose wisely the correct lubricant for our wheel bearings. And since bearings work in many operating conditions, we need to match the lubricant perfectly with the application. SKF offers special wheel bearing grease with extreme pressure performance, which is thermally stable within its operating temperature range and up to 220 °C (428 °F) for intermittent operation, which makes it suitable in all wheel bearings.

Benefits:

• Excellent lubrication at peak temperatures up to 220 °C (428 °F) for short periods 
• Protection of wheel bearings operating under severe conditions 
• Effective lubrication in wet conditions 
• Good water and corrosion resistance 
• Excellent lubrication under high loads and low speeds 

How to grease wheel bearings

Do you need to apply grease on wheel bearings? SKF can give you some tips on how to do it correctly. When greasing bearings, the grease should be distributed evenly in the free space between the rolling elements and bearing rings. The bearings should be turned by hand until all internal surfaces are covered. For larger bearings, e.g. truck wheel bearings, we offer a bearing grease packer. The use of the lubricator can ensure that the grease is evenly distributed in the bearing between the rolling elements, cage and raceways.

What is the best grease for wheel bearings?

If you are seeking the best grease for wheel bearings, then swing by and explore the SKF collection. SKF has many lubricants and greases to offer for every field application, so make sure you get the right product to ensure the best performance and viability of your bearings. Choosing properly can make bearings withstand better time and use.

Since the automobile was invented, SKF has been at the front of the race when it comes to major advances in wheel hub technology. We supply wheel bearings to most car companies, and nowadays there’s at least 90 million cars working with our bearings. SKF is at the forefront of major advances in wheel hub technology since the invention of the automobile. We supply wheel bearings to most of the world's automotive OEMs, and today more than 90 million cars run on our bearings. SKF's automotive aftermarket benefits greatly from the company's OE expertise, and our range covers 98% of the European vehicle fleet.