Front Wheel Hubs Warm After Drive

[Humblej]

After a 20 mile drive I touched the front wheel hub cap and hub and was surprised that it was warm. Felt the other front hub and it was warm too. Never noticed this before, are warm hubs normal after a drive?

[TRDxB2]

Wood or wire wheels? Tires get hot while driving so....

[George House]

Warm hubs are, indeed, normal after a 20 mile drive in July/August in south Texas......but I wouldn’t think ‘normal’ recently in Michigan. Surely (Shirley ) you’ve unscrewed the front hubcaps to assess the bearing grease condition...

[otrcman]

When traveling, I try to remind myself at each stop to lightly touch each tire (and hub cap if accessible) to check temperatures. When I first started doing this I was surprised to realize that the tires on the sunny side of your vehicle will be slightly warmer than the shady side. I wouldn't have thought that a spinning tire would warm up simply due to sunshine, but you really can tell the difference.

Dick

[Rich P. Bingham]

Pretty normal, but you can't go wrong checking your wheel bearings.
"Hotter than the hubs of hell" is an old saying from horse-drawn days !

[Alan Long]

Everybody’s opinion of “normal” could vary.
Having both sides the same temperature indicates they are running at the expected temperatures, both too tight or both have the incorrect grease!
Safest option is to clean and re pack the bearings with new, correct grease and adjust correctly. I suspect that you don’t have a problem. Next time your around a bunch of T’s check out their Hubs when they stop!
Alan In Western Australia

[speedytinc]

Jack up one wheel @ a time. They should roll freely. No friction to slow down. When they come to a stop, there should not be a hint of sudden stop. If there is, your bearings are too tight. If they roll freely, its normal.

[Jerry VanOoteghem]

Hubs warm after a drive = bearings too tight. Back off a 1/4 turn & try again.

[Allan]

The bearings must not be too tight or they will overheat and early failure will occur. If there is to be an error in setting the bearings, let it be on the loose side rather than tight. A little play is OK. I set mine so I can feel that little play when I wobble the wheel from top to bottom. You do need a wooden wedge between the spindle body and the axle to take king pin bushing wear out of the equation. When checking for the play, it should be there AFTER you have snugged up the axle nut. Play in evidence before doing up the nut will likely be taken out , before the nut is tight on the spindle, and you can have a tight bearing as a result. If you can feel no play, you are right on the threshold off tight bearings.

Allan from down under.

[TBones12]

I had the exact same problem. Did what the guys above said and it is fine now.

[MWalker]

As John K. said, your wheels should turn on their own when jacked up. If they don't, your bearings are too tight. It's a delicate balance between too tight and having play in the bearing.

[TWrenn]

I keep my bearings well greased, and after lots of "trial and error" I got the bearings snugged up apparently just perfect, 'cause I can literally drive 80 miles +, I often check them when getting home, and they are almost COLD to the touch. That's fine with me!

[Humblej]

OK, good, that's the info I needed. I will repack the bearings and give it a test run.

[Scott_Conger]

Jeff

what often happens is that the wheel is adjusted properly with the threaded bearing, and then the tabbed washer and lock nut are installed. Very often, the loading presented by the castle (lock) nut will push the threaded bearing "in" on its threads just enough to put a slight drag on the wheel and this is all it takes to make the thing run warm. It is a bit of a balancing act to assemble things "a little loose" and then run up the castle nut tight and once you do, everything is just fine, with none of the previous "looseness" to be found. I'm happy when the wheel will seek it's natural heavy spot when rotated and comes to a stop. If it does that and there is little to no detectable looseness, you've hit the sweet spot.

These cars are uncomplicated , but simple they are not.

[TWrenn]

What Scott just said! Pretty much what I figured out to do in the past. Amazing how that innocent castle nut can put undue pressure on the bearings. Today I just did a 66 mile tour with a friend, felt the hub as soon as I got home and it felt like what I would say was the "ambient temperature". Perfect in my book.

[Allan]

What the castle nut does is take out any play in the threads in the bearing. If you adjust the bearing to take out the play, and then do up the nut, you will be adding load to the bearing. There must be some play before the nut is run up.Then the nut will take out the play, to a greater or lesser extent.

Allan from down under.

[Humblej]

Thanks for all the responses. I inspected the races and bearings and they look fine. Repacked the bearings and put it all back together with new National Oil Seals 204002 dust seal from the local auto parts store. I did find that tightening up the nut affected the tightness of the bearing, so had to play around with a looser fit of the outer bearing to compensate for the nut. Went for a test drive and hubs are cool. Success.