Weird rear wheel bearing circlip issue

Has anyone had the snap ring that sits between the ABS sensor ring and the bearing retainer come loose and destroy their ABS sensor? Happened to me 80mi from home, at first I thought my carrier bearing or ujoint went out. Then I thought it was an issue with my drum breaks and finally after much frustration I pulled the sensor and found it completely destroyed and the jeaslus clip looking bent and sticking out towards the tone ring.
Just curious if anyone else has experienced it as I couldn't find anything searching.

 

I'll get pics when I pull the sensor again tomorrow when I drop it off at the shop. Unfortunately I don't have a press or the free time to do it myself right now.

 

Your saying this circlip somehow dislodged and expanded beyond the diameter of the ABS ring to hit the ABS sensor installed in the axle housing ... like snapped in half and flew into it or something?



It is not still here when viewed through the sensor mounting hole?

 

Yes that's exactly what happened. I'm not new to cars or working on them but I've never seen this happen before. I've owned the truck since 2021 and have put just over 30k trouble free miles on it, the previous owner had bought it new and had all the maintenance records since new too. All done at two local Toyota dealers. I can't think of a reason for this to happen except for either a poor quality circlip or improper installation when a wheel bearing was replaced.
I'll try to get it pulled this weekend when I'm back from work and get a bunch of pictures added.

 

Dealer maintenance is the problem. Beyond warranty do it yourself or find a reliable independent shop.

 

If the previous owner had the service was done at two dealers, the service records should be in the Toyota website. Have you registered and checked the service history?

 

Toyota.com/owners

 

Even if (and maybe especially if) a shop is doing the swap, consider this and and grease/sharpie testing the seal fit on the inner retainer like photo above before concluding retainer placement is correct.

Looking forward to the pics of what's in there, factory bearing or if it was swapped with aftermarket. Read once someone used an aftermarket bearing and snap ring wouldn't fit back into groove. If left outside the groove stretched, maybe stressed to breaking?

Turns out SKF appears to be the same Nachi bearing as OE that should look like this:



Also found National's bearing and 2 retainer kit at Advance for $86.99 contains a Nachi bearing but with 20% sale and $5 speedperks for net of about $65.



Research concluded Toyota seals were best option though. IIRC bearing, retainers, snap ring, dust seal, oring, and oil seal, was like $197 retail from Toyota.

But IIRC bearing and two retainers from Serra Toyota was $83.87 during 25% off online pricing sale with free shipping, so only like $105 total with snapring, dust seal, oring, and oil seal.

 

Who's ready for pictures.

 

It looks like my wheel bearing completely grenaded itself. Here's what my poor ABS sensor looks like now.

 

I have a new bearing set and I'm on my way to the machine shop to have them press everything on for me.

 

Wow. Was there any warning such as rear bearing noise before this happened?

 

Tone ring and new retainers too? Do they understand the delth for the inner retainer?

 

None it just started all of a sudden on the freeway.

 

Was it an aftermarket bearing?

 

Yeah made sure they understood that.

 

I'm not sure but I'm only the second owner of the truck and I have all the service records but can't find any rear bearings replaced. This could be the original bearing with 305k miles on it.

 

The previous owner had it registered to his company. That's probably why he always had it serviced at a dealer. I haven't looked at what the company actually did but the truck itself is in very good shape with the interior and exterior being almost new bedore my trail pinstripes. Even the bed which is line-xed doesn't look like it had much use.

 

Wow that's crazy. I wonder if the last guy that did the work try to press everything apart with the snap ring still installed and reused it after he figured out what he was doing wrong?

On a side note ... it was cheaper to buy the press, special tools, and parts and do it yourself than have the dealership do it.

 

Well if he did he at least got the tone ring in the right spot. Unfortunately I don't have the room for a press at the moment so I just pulled the axle shaft and took it to a machine shop.

 

I'm just gonna reiterate how important that is.

Hell, the dealership won't even press em if you just bring the axles. They want the whole truck.

 

Well I'm annoyed, finally got the axle back in... ish. I gave the Toyota factory specs to the machine shop and this still happened. So I'll pull it tomorrow and take it back Monday and find out how good their customer service is. On the plus side I'm getting to drive my MR2 more now.

 

I really don't understand why they messed this up, I told him where the clip bearing and tone ring need to be, he even said they had done Tacoma and Tundra axles before too. Definitely frustrating.

 

Sorry to hear.

Worth a read/study for next time:

Here's the link referenced:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/recent-axle-seal-tips-hints-and-prayers.92986/#post-2345610

If you're insisting they do it over can show them the pics from that post of what it should look like and the measurements. Then when you go get the axle back (or your money back to repurchase the retainers and do the work over elsewhere or yourself) the axle can be inspected upon pickup for rough measurements/placement, and then can be test fit using the sharpie/grease test to check placement of the inner retainer for the new seal.

If they install at say 3mm or 4mm and that's too shallow based on the test fit, then can plan to push it down more, but if they overshoot at 6mm or 7mm even it may be too deep.

 

Most shops just press it till they stop. My assumption is they don't understand anything unless it's a chevy 350 small block.

I ended up being the Toyota axle press tool and using my buddies 20 ton press to just do it myself.

 

I like this guy's approach to getting the right measurement for the tone ring and retainer...by using the steel pipe instead of the press he's able to control precisely where they end up. It looks so easy that I'm fantasizing about doing it myself!

 

After pressing on, was able to use a 12" pipe for the final adjustment, but measured way more precisely than a tape measure like in that video, using caliper and then feeler gauges for precise width measuring the distance from the inner axle bearing machined retainer mating surface. Installed short of spec, grease tested, measured desired additonal distance and tapped it to the desired location, grease testing again to verify seal on retainer and also inner retainer clearance from axle housing. Also used a washer with some black tape on the ID to help not groove the machined axle surface from the pipe and protect the retainer face.

 

Yeah that's a great video, one day I'll have the space for a press in my garage. Unfortunately even with a seal press the rear seal got a bit mangled so now I'm waiting on a couple more to come in. Another member mentioned in a write up to use 600 and 1500 grit sand paper to smooth out the housing to make getting the seal in easier so I'll start on that tomorrow morning. Thinking about freezing the seal to see if some shrinkage will help fit it in there