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Over greasing a bearing will cause the rollers or balls to slide along the race instead of turning, and the grease will actually churn. This churning action will eventually bleed the base oil from the grease and all that will be left to lubricate the bearing is a thickener system with little or no lubricating properties. The heat generated from the churning and insufficient lubricating oil will begin to harden the grease (see Fig. 1). This will prevent any new grease added to the bearing from reaching the rolling elements. The end result is bearing failure and equipment downtime. Ironically, an attempt to sufficiently lubricate a bearing by giving it several extra pumps from a grease gun will eventually result in its failure due to under lubrication.
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