A bad bearing USUALLY makes a horrible grinding noise at certain speeds.

If you have access to a hoist, shake the front wheel back and forth and see if the bearing/hub assembly is still tight (obviously the vehicle will have to be off the ground).

As far as removing the old bearing goes, a trick I've used in the past instead of lodging a screw driver in the rotor and have it wedge against the caliper is to have someone sit in the car and apply the brake. This will keep the rotor from moving, and allow you to remove the axle nut without harming the rotor or caliper.

 

Do you need a shock/spring compress tool for this job?

 

no you do not

 

when i do these i leave the knuckle on the car and use a air hammer on the back side to push it out

 

I took the steering kunckles off the car to press them out.

It might be possible to do with them on the car, but I don't know how much clearance you have.

You removed the axle, correct?

 

Done this twice the past 2 months. Had a noise when I turned right, so I replaced the driver's side, but that wasn't the one making the noise. Replaced the passenger side and I can hear my exhaust again.

I would not take off the knuckle

-wheel off, car jacked up
-pb blast or WD-40 2 caliper bolts and 4 hub bolts and axle nut
-remove cotter pin, loosen axle nut, have someone apply brake is the best option. 32 mm and breaker bar
-tie a wire or something to the spring on top half to hang the caliper on, I used stiff wire
-take off plastic shield 10 mm for clearance of ratchet
-unbolt caliper turn the wheel to get better access 19mm and hang on wire out of way
-remove the thin metal shield 10mm I think
-unbolt front 2 wheel hub bolts
-turn steering wheel the other way and ubolt the other 2 hub bolts 17mm
-to remove the hub I used a fairly sharp chisel and a hammer
like this

It took some work

repeat for other side

Not hard mechanically, just takes some muscle

 

Hey nice write up:-). My back passenger side one is bad. Is it the same process to do the back?
Thanks Dave.

 

Good info thanks

 

subscribed

 

Just reviving... There is a trick I was told by a guy who does repairs for em here: If the bearing is stuck, just bolt the wheel on and lower the car enough that some of the weight goes back on the bearing. Now without the bolts it should loosen.

Or at least that is how it supposed to work. Have a noise as if my rear left bearing is ready to be buried... so will try that. When I did the front it took me two hrs of hammering and chiseling before I got it out... said i'd never want to do this again.

 

I just wanted to say that my car, with 110k miles on it, was an absolute disaster.
I won't even get into the details because it hurts to even recollect, but I used every specialty
tool known to man and my axle refused to release from the hub. Almost trashed a $600 axle.

 

Anyone got a line on a good part for the front hub? I am needing to replace mine before it freezes.

 

I just went through the dealership. Got it at wholesale price. Front was roughly 110 and rear was roughly 150.

 

Just swapped out a bad wheel hub assembly today for a new OEM unit. I got the new OEM hub from STM. I used the following instructions and they worked well:


And as 600RR said, I would not remove the knuckle. I used a flat head screw driver and a pickle fork to break the old hub free from knuckle. I also used liberal applications of PB blaster.

 

Good Thread!