2002 X5 Rear wheel bearing R&R

[jdsilvaca]

Has anyone replaced their rear wheel bearing? I haven't found any threads on here yet. If so, please let me know. I am going to attempt this job tonight. My left rear wheel bearing is bad. I have almost 150K miles on my X5.

Thanks.

Jason

[tomgtv]

I do most of my own work with friends on my 2001 X5, 254,000 miles. I've just about rebuilt every part on it.

My left wheel bearing went out 3/4 years ago, had an Indy do it for $200 or so.

Last Feb my right wheel bearing sounded funny, confirmed by indy shop who have a guy who has worked at the X5 factory and on BMW's for 34 years.

So..........bought the bearing for $100, super quality beefy bearing in a big honker housing..........got a good old boy shade tree Texas mechanic and said lets get into it. Well we got about 30% into it with torches and sockets and called it quits.

Took it to Indy shop.......it took them 3 hours to do it! You have to take almost the entire suspension apart. You need weird special long torx wrenches nobody sells.....most bolts were frozen........torch a go go.

In the end it runs great and by the book labor wise shouldn't be over $150 plus cost of bearing.

If you do it DIY and succeed you are a hero! Better have lifts and couple of guys and tools and know the weird sequence you have to do to take it out and reinstall correctly.

my $.02, your mileage may vary.........

[jdsilvaca]

Cool, thanks for the feedback. I do have a lift and a press at my disposal, so that should help. I hope that my hub is ok, and only the bearing needs to be replaced. Will find out tonight.

[tomgtv]

The bearings come in a hub as one unit, very high quality. Buy the 4 Torx bolts because the ones in there can/will get screwed up. You have to put the Torx bolts from inside the hub towards the outside of the car. You need a long skinny socket with the right torx female socket on it. I found a 12pt socket from Sears that worked OK.
The big problem the indy shop ran into was the wishbone control arms for the suspension were frozen because of age and that my car is near salt....and on occasion I dipped it in salt water with my jetski trailer......don't tell anyone!

You do have to press the bearing assembly off of the short drive shaft, and press it back on.

Take pictures and create a DIY cause I haven't seen one anywhere.

Good luck!

[jdsilvaca]

I will work on a DIY, I didn't have time to stop and take pictures last night, time was not on my side. Job was completed. Those torx bolts on the inside of the hub were a real pain to get out. They take a torx E14 to remove them. I had to lower the driver side exhaust and remove the axle to make room, and even then it was a pain, but I got it done. The bearing was shot. My hub was still in good condtion, so that saved me about 100 bucks. Having a press makes the job easier. If you don't have one, you can use a three jaw puller and a bearing splitter to pull it apart while the hub and bearing are still on the car.

When it comes time to do the other side I will make the time to take pictures and post a proper DIY, until then just keep the questions coming and I will try to answer them as best I can. If anyone else has done this job and knows of an eaiser way to remove the 4 torx bolts, let me know. The bolts holding the axle to the rear diff are torx E12. My local BMW dealer had extra bolts in stock and I had some on hand for this job. The four hub bolts were replaced.