No removal of *any* exhaust or suspension parts.

You do need to push the axle stub out of the hub though before you can double u-joint around the outer CV joint.

Best way on e53 to confirm which bearing is to put on a different width wheel. Eg if you have 255s put the 235 spare on the suspect wheel.

The next best way is figure 8 in a big parking lot and have someone ride along side each corner during both left and right curve. (I use my Segway, most people would use a bicycle)

The reason option one works so well is that there are two races in the bearing and the center of lift on 255/235 flips from one set of races to the opposite (also why a bearing can be silent until you go thru a corner that pushes the wheel to the opposite races)

Example: in my case my bearing was silent until i put on my spare then it went immediately to full growl.

The 255s push up on the outer race and down on the inner race. The 235s push up on the inner race and down on the outer race.

In the 4-5 e35 bearings I've replaced this test was 100% effective to rule out any other corner.

Often without load on the wheel the bearing will be silent. Think of it like this: not only is the weight only pulling down it's 16 to 21x more force when the car is on the bearing vs. holding the weight of the tire.

Spray the hub splines the day before just to make sure it's a breeze to push out the axle even if they are fairly new.

If front, leave all ball joints and control arms attached just remove the two bolts for theb strut tower to get the hub far enough away to get the spline out.

When putting the spline back in leave the bolts out of the strut tower until you get the axle back in.

I learned this the hard way spent 90 minutes trying to get the axle in and when I loosened the bolts the rubber boot on the outer joint acted like a spring and shot the axle right through.

You can confirm your alignment is still good with some landscaping string and drill bits.

Wrap string at the centerline of the tires you can go all the way around the car. You may have to cheat down from center if body work gets in the way.

Then take a 3/32 drill bit and put under the string on the front edge at fattest part of the sidewall. At BMW spec for toe that should make the string just barely touch the sidewall at the rear of the tire. Lots of people use less toe. Spec will slowly wear out theb outer edges. (front and back spec the same so it's normal the back string won't touch the front of the back tires).

Even if you don't keep the rear hub, I would pull it off with slide hammer so you have more access example to slot the bolt tips to turn them out with flat blade screwdriver.

Option 3 to find especially if rear wheel is to use an FFT sound program to take a snapshot of the sound profile. There should be a distinct difference in the one corner.

–awr–

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2011 E70 • N55 (me)
2012 E70 • N63 (wife)