Have you had a wheel lock up due to a catastrophic bearing failure?
In over 45 years of driving I have not.
In the 30+ years I was in the auto repair business I witnessed one case of a failed bearing-because the mechanic adjusted the bearing too tight and the bearing failed while the customer was driving home.
Re-packing the bearings when replacing a rotor is fairly standard. But the OP wasn't having the rotors replaced.

My 300D had a bad wheel bearing when I bought it. It was 10 years old and had 43k miles on it. The life expectancy of the wheel bearing grease had clearly been exceeded.

Repacking the wheel bearings when the rotors are changed could be as often as 10,000 miles to 100,000 miles depending on driving habits.

I repack mine about every 20,000 miles or maybe sooner sometimes.
I figure my life rides on those little bitty bearings, and I do like to check them.

The cost of new bearings and grease seals is not all that much, and a repack is very simple to do. I have one grease gun with just wheel bearing grease and a bearing packer that pushes the grease through the bearing.

DIY and it just the cost of grease and seals plus your time, plus you can clean and check other stuff the $100.00 per hr shop monkey won`t do.


The closest I ever came to losing a wheel because of a wheel bearing, was back about 1970. we were driving a Ford F-600 truck. the three of went down to watsonville to have breakfast, there was a place to get it for 99¢.
we were hauling butt back to Santa cruz to get back to where we were suppose to be working (about 20 miles), before our forman came out to check on us.

started to smell the odor of hot breaks, so pulled over. the L/F wheel was at the end of the spindle at a 45deg angle ready to fall off.. never felt anything in the steering to indicate a problem, but I was 25 and an expert back then.

Charlie

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there were three HP ratings on the OM616...

1) Not much power
2) Even less power
3) Not nearly enough power!! 240D w/auto

Anyone that thinks a 240D is slow drives too fast.

80 240D Naturally Exasperated, 4-Spd 388k DD 150mph spedo 3:58 Diff

We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works

Then someone likely packed the bearing with the wrong grease or misadjusted it.

Only seen one case of bearing failure? In my ten years of exprience of mercedes repair,I have had: 3-4 123's, 2 210,s , 1 140 and 1 107 car.I know thats not a lot compaired to the hundreds of cars I have worked on,but dont make it sounds like it never happens.ou mush have worked at a light duty shop or something.
And yes, I have had 2 catastrophic wheel bearings happen to me personally (not m.b.'s though)
310 bucks Is not too far off at dealership prices- I am sure they are 100 bucks an hour. They charged 2.8 hours to just replace the disks- Plus removing the hub, replacing the seals and packing the bearings . Its simple work, but it does take time and know how to do. Just depends if you want to get your hands dirty

Most cases of wheel bearing failure are do to improper service methods or the wrong grease being used.
I have changed bad wheel bearings, but none had failed; which is the paranoia being posted by others.

Did you come to that conclusion on the basis of your single observation? Or are you quoting the results of a study that has at least some basis in good science?

Both.
On what do you bias your opinion?

A bad wheel bearing not taken care of Will result in failure. For real man! The 140 I repaired had 90 k on it and the bearing seized on to the spindle and had to be cut off with a tourch. It was the original owner and had never had them touched. (original grease still in the other side- what was left of it).
Most people, and it appears that you Chas have the "Americanized" mentality when it comes to mantinance. Use it and throw it away. Well these cars were designed to be maintained and to last for very long periods of time. Its disgusting to me the way average people treat there cars and especially M.B.'s .
I am not meaning to be disrespectfull to you sir, but I am thankfull I never had someone like you working on my car.

I have have NEVER seen some ones car break down from being over maintained. LOL

I never claimed a bad wheel bearing should be not repaired.
I have seen cars breakdown, even ruined, from being mismaintained. And apparently so have you. Certainly a Benz will go 90K without a wheel bearing problem.
What is the factory recommended service interval for wheel bearings? Look it up in your owners manual.
As far as me working on your car, I likely would tell you I wasn't interested. But surely in a more colorful way.

A service interval isnt relivent and it is not what this post is about. A mercedes benz tech looked at his car and found the wheel bearings in need of attention. They dont show a service interval for motor mounts do they? No . Interval for say- bushings -brakes- heck for even tires? Yet I have had to repair, replace hundreds of these items. The point I am tring to hit home is that when there is a problem, it should not be ignored because there isnt a service interval for it.
And for the record, the thing about working on my car is a loaded statment -as I dont think I have had any one in my entire life work on one of my cars.
Again sir, I was not intending to be disrespectful, just differences of opinion

Tell us, Chas, during your 30 years of unspecified involvement in "the auto repair business," did you limit your service to only those procedures and service intervals that happened to be specified in an owner's manual?

So it seems the consensus is to repack my wheel bearings. So I need to do my brake pads this weekend and that seems like the time to do it. So I've searched and can't find much on how to do it. Can anyone describe the process. Do I need any special tools?

Thanks

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1987 300TD 309, xxx 2.8.2014 10,000 mile OCI


Be careful of the toes you step on today, as they may be connected to the ass you have to kiss tomorrow. anonymous

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I think earlier on this thread someone mentioned they were driving with a suspect wheel bearing. Not a good ideal to let it go to a later time as you mentioned months away. You can land up damaging your spindal.

I haven't had a wheel lock up but I've had 2 wheel bearings fail, both times I was going nowhere fast...

I dunno what that says about anything but I'm a lot more interested in the condition of the bearings now...

BTW the 150gram tubes of grease from Mercedes are ALMOST enough to do 3 wheels... Supposed to be 60 grams per wheel. If you're messy like me its a perfect amount for 2 wheels. This is a very easy job.

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Sadly Benz-less