Automotive wheel bearing grease helps to reduce stresses and prevent wear of wheel bearings. But it is easily contaminated by water and other contaminants. Previously, our research group reported the change of grease physical properties such as dropping point, work penetration and oxidation work stability, water washout characteristics, leakage tendency, oil separation, evaporation loss and rust protection by water contamination. In this paper, we analyzed the physical characteristics of grease such as lubricity, viscosity and total acid number to investigate the mechanism of thickener decomposition. In water contaminated grease, the total acid number and wear scar were increased, the viscosity was decreased due to the decomposition of lithium complex thickener.