E30 Zone

Hello all, have fitted another centre bearing, it's was fine for 10 miles but started making scratching dry noises, sprayed it with wd40 type lube and was fine for a few miles but noise has come back. Am thinking a thicker spray grease like white grease would be better?? Anyone had this issue before! Don't fancy swapping it out again!

did you pre load the bearing?

if not then try this first, with the bearing housing in a finger tight position, slide the bearing housing about 5mm toward the gearbox and tighten in this position.

Also WD40 is not really a lubruicant as such, in fact it acts as a degeasing agent, so spraying WD40 on a bearing is only a short term fix as it stop noise for a while but also washes grease away ultimately shortening the life of the bearing.

Thanks mrlee but I have an update, I've today noticed that the factory grease is oozing from the casing, also the rear of the bearing case is loose in the housing! So I/and Richard off of BBB think its toast! So that's a grand total of 80 miles from a brand new part! Thanks GSF! Genuine item next please.

There are decent aftermarket parts out there, just don`t buy cheapest, they could be made in China.

Easiest way to ruin a brand new bearing is to damage one of the grease seals when you fit it, pushing it inwards so that it fouls the ball cage.

Hi just reading up as my centre bearing has given up. From what ive read looks like what was said above about sliding bearing forward to gearbox or on a m3 its backwards might not be true as im just looking at google ha. Where did you buy the bearing from? Anyone recommend a good place for aftermarket parts?

It's better just to buy it already inserted into the carrier, so there won't be any hassle fitting it.

I've got Febi one (Febi part no 02823), plenty on ebay for £25-30, but that's for a facelift...Older E30's might have a different part number.

Mine has actually broke away from the carrier so will be needing whole thing. Will check ebay and see what stores are so not getting a chinese copy