Front Wheel Bearing R&R

[davintosh]

Sorry to say, but that sounds an awful lot like bearings to me. I could be wrong...

[TriX5]

I did this job last January. Cut a groove in the bearing race and snap it with a drift. Not a big problem if you can handle a mechanics hammer. However I bought a press to get the assembly apart and back together. Maybe doable without a press but I would not want to try.

I never thought about change the hub carrier. It is very sturdy and I can't think of any good reason to swap unless damaged.

Good luck.

[Skyline]

The TIS says the drive flange needs to be replaced. Can someone tell me the logic behind that???

[davintosh]

Originally Posted by Skyline

The TIS says the drive flange needs to be replaced. Can someone tell me the logic behind that???

I think it has to do with the way the bearing comes apart when the drive flange is removed from the axle; the inner race is stuck on it. I don't see any reason why you can't just remove the race as outlined above, clean it up & reuse it.

On other cars -- e28 and e32 come to mind -- the hub, bearing & ABS tone ring are all integrated; the bearing goes out and you replace the whole works as one part. They're pretty spendy to replace.

[Ricky Bobby]

i'm pretty sure when driving above 40 last night and hearing the noise, i took a right handed turn and the noise went away temporarily, if it disappears while turning its most likely a wheel bearing right?

If so, here's a diagram:



If I replace the bearing with the hub assembly and parts (5,6,7,8,9) would it be theoretically an easier job than removing the bearing from the old hub?

Looks like new hub and other pieces are about 100 bucks per side, might be worth it to replace those if it means I can do the job at home. Not too much money to pay the indy right now.

[davintosh]

Getting the bearing race off of the hub flange isn't that big a deal; I've posted about this elsewhere, mentioning the fancy bearing splitter method I brought up above ^^^, and others say they usually just take a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel to that inner bearing race. Cut most of the way through it, but not into the hub, then hit the crack with a chisel & hammer, and it splits the rest of the way open. Drive something in to wedge the crack open further, and it just falls off.

Once you've got the new bearing in place and the hub back in the bearing, I understand getting the axle back into the splines on the hub can be a chore, but you can make a tool for not a lot of money to help grab the threads on the axle and pull it back towards you; instructions are in that thread I linked to above.



Or, I've made one of my own, and you can sure borrow it once I'm done with it, probably in the next couple of weeks.

[Ricky Bobby]

my symptoms sound like it though right? let me know how your job goes, if you could post up a thread with pics that would probably be most helpful

Any thoughts on what I posted above, if its an easier job to do if you replace the whole bearing/hub assembly at once? is that possibly to just undo the hub and extract the assembly as one and reinstall as one assembly? does that make sense or am I confusing myself?


The only thing I'm thinking could be a problem would be worn subframe bushings, but you just replaced yours and I don't think the subframe bushings were causing you any vibrations or humming types of noises at speed were they?

[davintosh]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

my symptoms sound like it though right? let me know how your job goes, if you could post up a thread with pics that would probably be most helpful

Any thoughts on what I posted above, if its an easier job to do if you replace the whole bearing/hub assembly at once? is that possibly to just undo the hub and extract the assembly as one and reinstall as one assembly? does that make sense or am I confusing myself?


The only thing I'm thinking could be a problem would be worn subframe bushings, but you just replaced yours and I don't think the subframe bushings were causing you any vibrations or humming types of noises at speed were they?

The symptoms you described a couple of posts back sure sound like wheel bearings. My subframe bushings were shot, and I really didn't notice the wheel bearing hum until after I replaced the bushings; no correlation there at all.

Replacing the whole hub assembly might be slightly easier, but only a little. The big chore in the front wheel bearing is getting the bearing out of the wheel carrier, and I don't think you want to replace that. Here's a YouTube video that shows how to remove bearings like those on the front of the X5. The video is on an e36 3-series, but the bearing & wheel carriers are similar. Also, with the e53 it may be easier to just remove the wheel carrier to get access to the back of the bearing to press it out rather than removing the axle as was done in the video on the e36. The wheel bearing press kit can usually be borrowed from an auto parts store too.

[Ricky Bobby]

hey davin,

getting the cajones to tackle this myself, so from what I gather, I need a slide hammer set, a bearing press kit from harbor freight, and a 3 jaw puller for the bearings?

The bearing press kit from HF looks like it works great to get the bearing out of the hub carrier and the new bearing on, leaving the hub carrier on the car. The slide hammer is to get the hub/bearing assembly out of the carrier, and the 3 jaw puller can be used to "push" the axle inward to get it disconnected from the hub before using the slide hammer to hammer out the hub assembly?

Do i have the order of operations correct here? And theoretically, if I disconnect the lower control arm and/or strut, I should have enough room to leave the axle hanging, and can do the outer boots on it while its off right?

Thanks for any input, been doing a lot of research here and if I can do this myself with 150 worth of tools (which I would probably sell or rent out afterwards) and buy my parts, its much better than paying an indy 750 or so.

[davintosh]

Ricky: Thus far I only know what I've read about the job, and what I know from other jobs that I think are similar. I know the slide hammer is the BMW-recommended tool for getting the bearing separated and the hub off, but I've read that other people have had trouble with that method. The video I linked above used a bearing separator and three wheel lug bolts to pull the hub off a little at a time; that seems to me to be a great idea.

I hadn't really given the CV boots much thought because the previous owner had replaced them a couple of years back... I guess I ought to have a look at them & see if I need to order some boots before I dive into this.

I'm hoping to get at least one of the front bearings done on Christmas Eve (day off & wife is working, so I know I'll have several uninterrupted hours to work on it.) I'll let you know how it goes for me.