Discoloured bearing (baitcaster reel)

[jack2964]

I have this fairly new reel (bought in Oct 2014) and have been very pleased with its performance. I opened it up to give a clean and lube as it started to get a bit noisy on cast and retrieve and am a little surprised to see the spool bearing on the detachable plate side discoloured. Initially I thought it was just dirt but vigorous rubbing with a cotton tip made no difference.

Anyway I cleaned it up and did several test casts and am happy the noise is gone but the question remains; has the bearing suffered some kind of damage. If so what could have caused it as I fear new bearings would suffer the same fate if the underlying cause isn't fixed.

Reel is a Shimano Aldebaran BFS XG. Thanks for all input.

[Gonsalviz]

I'd reckon as with any other bearing, if it rolls smoothly through full rotations, it is fine.

The real test is if it casts well.

[ChongBoy]

The guys at Bungsamram fishing park BKK do a great service very cheap.

As post 2 says, if it sounds good now it should be ok. I don't think discoloured bearings is an issue if there is no gunk on them.

[jack2964]

I'll continue to use it and see how it goes. As for now it casts just as well as when I first got it.