Dealership didn't do their job???

[Bill]

For the past 3 years of RW ownership, I have been faithful about going back to the dealership where we purchased her for the annual inspection & various maintenance, ie. wheel bearings re-packed.

At the end of this season, we hired a local RV Repair Technician (Stan) to assist me in re-packing the wheel bearings.

We got as far as one wheel being taken off when Stan asks, "when was the last time the wheel bearings were re-packed?" They were done less than a year ago with now approximately 8,500 miles on them... After further inspection, he is certain the Wheels have Never been taken off, let alone bearings re-packed...The grease appeared old (Black) with scores or nicks in a couple bearings.. The brake pads need to be replaced as well (a little over 20,000 total miles on them)... Stan states, it resembles that of a 10 year old camper...

The dealership charged me close to $600.00 for the two previous visits for re-packing the wheel bearings. And now after e-mailing them the photos of the wheel issue they have not returned my calls...

Perhaps, a case of Lesson Learned...???? Or Any other advise from my fellow RW owners ???...

[Dave&Ginny]

I'm sorry to hear you have problems. I've known people that worked in car dealerships that did the same thing. It probably wasn't the dealer as much as the worker doing as little as possible. I almost always do everything myself.

I had a deal where I dropped my truck off for new tires and when I got it back, I had to replace some bent wheels. The guy working there had asked me about 6 months earlier if I ever wanted to sell my wheels because his dad had some bad ones on his truck. I think I know what happened but I can't prove it.

[Bill]

Thanks Dave!! You are right, and between this Forum and YouTube, I will be doing future maintenance and repairs myself!

What did you think of the photos?? Did they appear (to you) that re-packing was never done...?

Thanks again!!

[Dave&Ginny]

It's really hard to tell from looking at the photos A lot of wheel bearing grease with "Molly" is black. I use a red grease myself. As for the nicks in the bearings.....as has been noted on the forum in the past, Lippert is using cheep china bearings. These bearings seem to be soft and chip easy.

You can usually tell by the texture and smell of the grease how worn it is. Worn grease will smell burnt and be very broken down or runny. Where bearings that haven't been used much for years will have grease that's more like tar.

[atom ant]

Actually the grease looks pretty good to me. It is very black grease they use.

[lwg]

I can honestly agree with Atom. That grease doesn't look that bad assuming its the standard Moly Grease.

[Bill]

Okay Great! Thanks Brad, Dave & lwg!! I really appreciate your thoughts!!

The dealership did (finally) get back to me stating they saw "normal wear..."

When finishing the re-packing this Saturday I will thoroughly check the grease in the remaining wheels and hopefully, regain faith in the dealership...

Although, like I said earlier, I will learn & do my own future maintenance...

Thanks again for your help!!

[NW Snowbirds]

As long as you are going to repack the grease you might consider replacing the cheap Lippert Chinese wheel bearings with Timken "Made in the USA" tapered roller bearings. You can buy a complete set on Amazon along with new Dexter double lip grease seals for about $120 and not have to worry about a failure as several on this forum have experienced. I am in the process of doing so at this time. My friend's Redwood had a wobbly wheel as a result of a bearing failure after only 10,000 miles.