Quote:
Originally Posted by jbg
George,
Was this aftermarket pilot bearing purposefully designed without the seal? Or did the seal deform or break down causing the failure?
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Two types of pilot bearings exist for the D24/T (as well as Audi engines of similar vintage which share the same setup): the original "good" type which has shorter needles and incorporates a grease seal, and the aftermarket-style "bad" type which has longer needles but no seal (and also, as far as I can tell, uses a plastic cage in some cases).
There has been some discussion of this in J.D.'s clutch thread here:
http://www.d24t.com/showthread.php?p=6854#post6854
And also here:
http://d24t.com/showthread.php?t=1047
The bearing that exploded here was the second type.
Unfortunately it seems every pilot bearing you can get from an aftermarket source is the crappy cheapo kind with no seal, which is pretty much guaranteed trouble. AFAIK INA is the only maker of the high-quality OE type bearing, and they're not widely available from *auto parts* stores -- you can only find the other type in the aftermarket. Volvo used to sell the good bearing (a reboxed INA part) but discontinued it.
However, the INA bearing is still available at this time from bearing wholesalers -- just takes a little more digging than calling up your FLAPS. I ordered a dozen of them from Whisler Bearing in CO to distribute the cost a bit and still have 8 or 9 left that I have been meaning to send out to those who signed up for one in the above thread months ago. Need to do that here soon.
Fortunately, since your car has the ZF autobox rather than a standard trans IIRC, you won't have to worry about any of this.
