Wheel bearing(s)

[FyreDaug]

Depending on how much work is involved in changing these bearings, is whether or not I'll do them. The driver side one grinds and makes noises or whatever.

I somehow lost my haynes manual and Im poor atm, so could anyone scan their chiltons/haynes manual on how to change them for me?

I hope they can be done without removing too much, if its gonna be alot of work, ,I'll just get the front end aligned (since someone cut me off, he agreed to pay for alignment after curb, no physical damage) done and sell it like that under the condition that they are aware that the bearing needs replacing.

If I cant do it myself (lack of time) how many hours labor should it be? (So I can let the guuy who buuys it know, I always let people know any problems with my cars when I sell em)

[shepherd79]

you have to take the whole knucke out and press the old bearing out. you will have to take it to a mashine shop and let them press out the old one and press in a new one.
unless you have a few top presser at home, you can't do it at home.

PS. this is not cheap repair too.

[lostforawhile]

I have a set of knuckles that i pressed the bearings out of,i just haven't got the money for new bearings yet. it's not that hard to remove the knuckle if you have the proper tools, I would take it somewhere and have them press the bearings in the knuckle. it's a lot cheaper to bring someone the knuckle and have the bearing changed then to bring the entire car and have them take it apart. I used a 50 ton press,and that is a big ass press,and they still didn't want to come out,you have to press the hub out of the bearing center,then press out the bearing.. it's a real bitch to do your self,i had to make a tool that welded on the bearing so i could put a plate on eithier side to hold it in position. when that bearing came out of there it sounded like a gunshot,it hit the concrete floor and bounced about three feet in the air. it's also a dangerous job, those tons of force aren't anything to play with. if you were going to keep the car I would say replace the wheel studs while you are at it,you have to go through this again to replace a busted one on the front,they are cheap,and while you've got the knuckle out repace the lower ball joints.here is the tool i was talking about part of the bearing is stilll welded to it http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b205/moultriemanicmechanic/wheelbearings001.jpg

[Oldblueaccord]

I have a set of knuckles that i pressed the bearings out of,i just haven't got the money for new bearings yet. it's not that hard to remove the knuckle if you have the proper tools, I would take it somewhere and have them press the bearings in the knuckle. it's a lot cheaper to bring someone the knuckle and have the bearing changed then to bring the entire car and have them take it apart. I used a 50 ton press,and that is a big ass press,and they still didn't want to come out,you have to press the hub out of the bearing center,then press out the bearing.. it's a real bitch to do your self,i had to make a tool that welded on the bearing so i could put a plate on eithier side to hold it in position. when that bearing came out of there it sounded like a gunshot,it hit the concrete floor and bounced about three feet in the air. it's also a dangerous job, those tons of force aren't anything to play with. if you were going to keep the car I would say replace the wheel studs while you are at it,you have to go through this again to replace a busted one on the front,they are cheap,and while you've got the knuckle out repace the lower ball joints.

I'd agree with all this. I just did mine it was about 250$ for both sides bearings ,lower ball joints and labor pressing. I got a used set of knuckles at a junkyard had all the stuff done to them then swaped it all out. It just was a time saver for me not having the car down and all. The bearings were a little hard to find here none of the 3 dealers had em and ordering them would take a week. The big deal is getting the bignut off the CV shaft. If you can do that then the rest is a piece of cake. Should be able to do it in about 2 hours per side easy. I only used a pickle fork on the tierod end. The upper ball joint I just hit the flat part of the arm and they pop apart. It saves the boots.

I think the big nut gets torqued to 135 ft lbs but i would look that up. I recommend a library if you cant pony up for a book. Just photo copy what you need.


wp

[lostforawhile]

whoops meant to edit,well here is the bearing itself minus the center part which is still welded to the tool. http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b205/moultriemanicmechanic/wheelbearings002.jpgoh, i got a pitman arm puller at advance or autozone or something,it was cheap and it remove any ball joint on the car easy with no damage.one more thing, any of the places like summit or jegs carry really good wheel studs like arp, they are worth the money,they are much tougher then the factory ones and are cheap insurance. our wheel studs are just a standard metric size,nothing special.

[lostforawhile]

someone should make this a sticky,it might be a good one for someone replacing their wheel bearings

[FyreDaug]

Shit. I dont wanna sell a car that needs a wheel bearing. I replaced radius rods the other day (since the bushings were bad, and it hit a curb wasnt sure if it was bent or not, had on parts car anyways) and it fixed some of the noise. But that sucks, I dont wanna spend money on bearings.

I'll just get the 4 wheel alignment done and tell them to do it regardless of the bearing. I'm not paying for it, and its godda make a little bit of a difference atleast. Maybe compensate a little.

Ah well.

[shepherd79]

if your wheel bearing is making noice, it won't take too long untill it will break.

[Blkblurr]

You can buy the bearing raceway tool from Harbor freight for about $10

[lostforawhile]

you still need a really big press to get it out and if you don't know what you are doing it's very dangerous. this is a big bearing that is really in there tight, it's probably corroded to the spindle and is really hard to remove. I used a 50 ton press and it didn't want to come out. it's better to take the spindles out and take them to someone to have the bearings pressed out and in. I had the advantage of a machine shop and it was still a big job to remove them.

[Blkblurr]

you still need a really big press to get it out and if you don't know what you are doing it's very dangerous. this is a big bearing that is really in there tight, it's probably corroded to the spindle and is really hard to remove. I used a 50 ton press and it didn't want to come out. it's better to take the spindles out and take them to someone to have the bearings pressed out and in. I had the advantage of a machine shop and it was still a big job to remove them.
I agree with you on this. I have a press at work that I used. I also had steel pieces I used to back up the bearings during pressing them apart and back together. The bad part for me was after all that work, the old bearings were still good as new. The growling noise turned out to be a bad cv joint on a shaft I replaced about a year before.

[FyreDaug]

if your wheel bearing is making noice, it won't take too long untill it will break.

Well every other suspension component has been replaced and the wheel does have a little lateral movement I figured it was wheel bearing. I havent really heard one before, but it sounds about right. Its fairly loud and has been the whole time.

Ive been driving it like this for about 30000km and I havent noticed any change in its amount of play, noise or dragging or anything like that.

So when it does "break" what exactly happens?

[Blkblurr]

Your wheel will most likely lock up and get hot. It could then destroy your hub and cause your wheel to wobble a great deal. Then it will most likely destroy your axle end.