Front Wheel Bearing R&R

[Ricky Bobby]

When my truck was in the air getting my exhaust tips welded last night I gave a look under the car and the CV boots are supple, and very minor cracks in the folds, really nothing to worry about and i'm sure they have some life in them. definitely just going to reboot when the time comes, when and if i do my bearings.

i'll be waiting to hear how it goes with you before I tackle this project, other than that I was very impressed under my car, all items in the rear suspension look good, rear airbags have been replaced in the last few years so they are newer, no oil leaks, coolant leaks, etc.

I'll brush up on that video and see what bearing puller tool he used, I know slide hammers are like 70 at harbor freight and the bearing press tool he uses for install is 100, good thing i'm on harbor freight's coupon list

[Ricky Bobby]

hey davin you get a chance to tackle those bearings yet?

my buddy who is a tech at lexus balanced my wheels for me yesterday and he confirmed my right front wheel bearing is loose and failing, as I suspected.

Just any input from someone who did these fronts themselves so I can get my truck aligned in one shot. Can I rent a bearing press kit/bearing separator kit from any of the auto parts stores? I know buying the tools from harbor freight its doable and the vids of the guy on the 325 doing the rear its inspiring. didnt know if these tools are available for rent though, if so thats great.

it looks like the slide hammer is the bmw recommended tool to get the hub out, but yet in the youtube vids it looks easier with the guy using the lug bolts and the bearing separator as a backing plate?

Also whats the best way to pop the axle inwards to get it off the knuckle so i can use the bearing press kit, and subsequently replace my outer cv boots at the same time? 3 jaw puller?

[davintosh]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

hey davin you get a chance to tackle those bearings yet?

my buddy who is a tech at lexus balanced my wheels for me yesterday and he confirmed my right front wheel bearing is loose and failing, as I suspected.

Just any input from someone who did these fronts themselves so I can get my truck aligned in one shot. Can I rent a bearing press kit/bearing separator kit from any of the auto parts stores? I know buying the tools from harbor freight its doable and the vids of the guy on the 325 doing the rear its inspiring. didnt know if these tools are available for rent though, if so thats great.

it looks like the slide hammer is the bmw recommended tool to get the hub out, but yet in the youtube vids it looks easier with the guy using the lug bolts and the bearing separator as a backing plate?

Also whats the best way to pop the axle inwards to get it off the knuckle so i can use the bearing press kit, and subsequently replace my outer cv boots at the same time? 3 jaw puller?

Sorry; haven't done this yet. I've been dealing with a bulging disk in my lower back, and have been avoiding crawling around on cold garage floors.

I have been spending some time trying to scrounge up the tools for the job though. I've found that the auto parts stores around here don't have the wheel bearing adapter kits that I've seen used in these jobs. I'm thinking of just pulling the wheel carriers out entirely and using my 12 ton press for the job, but the adapter kit might still be nice to have if only for the cups and plates for pushing the old bearings out and the new ones in. Same goes for the bearing separators; none available on the local loaner programs, so I may end up buying one. $150 or so for the bearing kit and the separator.

And then I'm thinking a new set of shocks might be in order, as long as I'm in there... rears might be original from the looks of them, and the fronts as well. There goes another few hundred $$$. Then the parking brake is weak, so might as well replace the shoes... Project creep is creeping.
--
Dave

[Ricky Bobby]

Hey Davin you are welcome to purchase my tools from my when I am done with this job, since I don't suspect I will be doing the rear bearings for quite some time at my mileage, I think the front got beat up on city roads though.

I would try to rent the bearing press kits from the auto parts stores, but if they don't have it I will pony up the 80 bucks for the HF kit, obviously you are welcome to buy it from me to keep after my job is done.

I literally am just at odds coming up with a definitive list of tools I need, as well as the definitive list of things that need to come apart.

I for one hate to take apart more than I have to, and if I look at that "rear wheel DIY the easy way" post he basically does the wheel bearings with the whole suspension connected, save for the rotor and caliper.

What do I need to take apart besides rotor and caliper to be able to get the bearing press cups enough room to use for the removal/reinstall?

The guy in the 528i post says he just pushes the axle inward out of the hub with the 3 jaw puller, OK I get that, then I can go the youtube way and use the bearing separator as a backing plate w/lug bolts to pop the hub out of there. If its good I would just replace the dust shield, separate inner race off hub and press out outer race from the knuckle.

Use press tools to press new bearing in, lock in with circlip, and use press tool to reinstall hub. Then draw in axle. I get the order of events but am I missing something here?

Basically I think the HF press kit, 3 jaw puller, large bearing separator and then whatever tool I need to get the race apart from the hub is all I need? Oh btw if using the backing plate/lug bolt method we may want to get 3 longer bolts, our stock ones are only like 3/4" long and i dont think long enough to drive the hub out.



I just got a quote from an indy for 860 for both front bearings so I am most definitely tackling myself.

[davintosh]

One thing you might be overlooking is the axle; the splined end of it will be in the way of the bearing removal tool once the hub is out of the way. In the video of the rear axle being done, the guy just removed the half-shaft to get it out of the way. I'm not sure what all is involved in removing the front half-shafts on the e53, but I don't think it's quite as easy as the rear. I remember reading somewhere that you can just remove one of the mounting points of the lower control arm so the steering knuckle can swing a little more freely; can't find that reference right now though. But the steering knuckle has just five fasteners holding it to the car; two bolts on the strut, the ball joint on the tie rod, the ball joint on the tension strut, and the ball joint on the wishbone. Using the right tool*, you can get the ball joints off without damaging the boots, and provided you don't change the length of the tie rod, the alignment should still be really close when it's all put back together. FWIW, the instructions in the Bentley manual go the same route, pulling the entire steering knuckle off to replace the bearings.

As for getting the race off of the hub, I'm just planning to use a Dremel cutoff tool to get most of the way through it, then a cold chisel in the cut and a few hammer taps to get it to split the rest of the way. Far easier than mucking around with cutting a couple of slots in it and using a puller and bearing splitter to pull it off.

Your steps look like they're in the right order, but I might have to read through them again later with a fresher set of eyes (tired right now.) Do you have a Bentley manual? It's not always the end-all authority on the best way to do a job, but it helps a lot.

* I've had great results using the lever type ball joint tool that comes in the loaner kit from Advance Auto.



Later!
--
Dave

also, would be very interested in buying your tool kit when you're done with it. I don't want to pay the dealer or the indy whatever they'd want for doing this job either.

[Ricky Bobby]

Yeah I definitely am thinking about how to get enough clearance to get the half shaft out of the way, but still leave it attached to the car in a couple points so that its easier to press in and out.

If those are the 5 mounting points, I did read the CV boot thread and according to a BMW tech if you want a lot of clearance without messing with ball joints, disconnect the wishbone control arm at the engine side, and leave connected to the knuckle. I think I'll disconnect that, and the 2 bolts on the strut, and just support the weight with a jack stand.

I'm hoping disconnecting those 3 bolts will give me the clearance I need to keep the half shaft in the differential, like I said I will most likely replace the outer boots if its all out anyway ya know.

[davintosh]

While reading your last post I thought to check another DIY thread regarding front CV boot replacement; amacman was able to get full access to the boot by just removing the two M16 nuts & bolts from the strut (#2 & 3), which allows the wheel carrier (#4) to swing free. That might be the way to do it; saves a lot of trouble messing with the ball joints.



In case you haven't seen this thread, it's got some useful info in it.

[Ricky Bobby]

Looks like unbolting the strut gives a large amount of room and once you get the axle pushed inwards a bit to free it from the hub, you can swing the whole wheel carrier down and get the axle out of the way. Or alternatively, unbolting the control arms at the frame and leaving the strut attached.

From there I would replace one strut bolt just to keep the assembly rigid while pressing, and go at it to get the hub out and the bearing pressed out.

I may end up just renting a slide hammer instead of buying one, as well as the jaw pullers, but definitely buying the bearing press discs, and I also need to get myself a dremel with a wire wheel, I'm sure my hubs need some de-rusting action and it will do double duty to help cut off the inner races!

[Ricky Bobby]

Just wanted to bump this post as I thought my information might help others along the way:

I started this job Sunday afternoon, and will be working on it over the next few nights and over this coming weekend hopefully to finish up.

I rented a Slide hammer from Advance Auto, bought bearing press disc kit from Harbor Freight and Circlip pliers, and am ready to go.

The axle nut was surprisingly easy to get off, I was spraying the nut with PB blaster each night for a week however. All I did was take my 2 foot breaker bar with my jack handle slipped over it, and she loosened with some force.

NOTE: you don't have to put the wheel back on the ground or put the wheel back on to loosen the axle nut! I put a chock on the rear wheel, put the car in gear, and slipped a socket extension rod in between the vanes of the rotor so it was "chocked" against the caliper, and when I went to loosen the axle nut with the wheel off and the corner in the air, nothing moved whatsoever. Hope that saves some people a step. I also chiseled out the detents of the axle nut with the wheel on the car before lifting and supporting frame with jack stand.

Caliper, rotor, and wheel sensor come out easily, clean wheel sensor with QD Electronic cleaner and regrease with dielectric.

I have not pushed the axle out of hub yet, since the original slide hammer I rented from Pep Boys came with the wrong flange, this flange:


DOES NOT fit over the hub, hub is too large in diameter. So I got slide hammer kit from Advance Auto, looks like this:



Tested the fit over the hub last night, the shallower flange on the right just clears with room to thread 3 wheel lugs into their respective holes, so it can be used with the slide hammer to get the axle out, or the threaded pushing rod attachment to use for "pushing" the axle out of the hub.

However, since I rented 2 slide hammers, I may experiment with using BOTH 5 lb. slide hammer weights together as one, I'm thinking of using some redneck ingenuity tonight and if I can't get the hub hammered out easily with one hammer, I may double them up with zip ties and make it a 10 LB BRUTAL HAMMER!

Will update this posting as I go, oh and by the way if your outer CV boots haven't been tended to you may want to replace them when the axle is out of the hub, you can do that repair with the inner end still attached to the car. I bought $25 from Pelican Parts of 2 GKN Loebro OEM boot kits (which come with new axle nuts in them!), and 9 dollars from Advance Auto for Autocraft CV boot pliers for ear clamps. I heard they are cheap and break but Advance sells with lifetime warranty so if they break I'll get another set.

I am only disconnecting the strut for this repair to allow clearance to swing axle out of the way and get my bearing press kit behind the wheel carrier. All control arms are in place.

Bought this tool to press out the old bearing and press in the new:



Make sure you get a deadblow hammer to hammer the rotor off, wire brushes to clean rust off of everything, a nice big bottle of antiseize, plenty of PB Blaster, all your right sockets, extensions, wrenches, and breaker bars, and the other must have, a Dremel! Need wire wheels for the bad rust on the hubs, and cutoff wheels for the inner race that will inevitably get stuck to the hub on removal, which you need to cut most of the way through then whack with a hammer/chisel to get the race off the hub.


And yes, I know there are other methods out there for my entire process but I don't currently have air tools and was trying to do this cost efficiently. If all goes well, I will reuse my hubs. I bought new bearings, retaining rings, axle nuts and dust caps for about 120 bucks. Like I said, the axle boot kits came with new axle nuts, so I actually have 4 new axle nuts now lol. If for some reason I destroy my hubs on removal or run into another problem I will get new ones from the dealer, wanted to try to reuse the hubs first, however.


Oh, and the only other casualty so far is one of my hub centric rings. I had the cheap plastic ones, it wouldn't come off the hub, so I had to cut it off. Got a set of metal ones coming in the mail from Ebay now, I'll replace on all 4 wheels when they come in.


Will update with progress...

[ArmyX5]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Just wanted to bump this post as I thought my information might help others along the way:



Oh, and the only other casualty so far is one of my hub centric rings. I had the cheap plastic ones, it wouldn't come off the hub, so I had to cut it off. Got a set of metal ones coming in the mail from Ebay now, I'll replace on all 4 wheels when they come in.


Will update with progress...

I did this job about 6 months ago and had a couple of casualties,(wheel bearings) . Make sure you press the new wheel bearing on the correct ring. I destroyed the new bearing when I pressed it in and didn't noticed it until everything was put together and my X5 front wheels started shaking. Good Luck