Front Wheel Bearing R&R

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by X5SND

Bummer! If you're gettin wheel shakes, that's definitive of something a miss in the front for sure! I suppose that the optimistic way to look at it is that hopefully it'll be one of those 2 birds, 1 stone deals--- Both wheel bearings will have been changed, and *hopefully* resolve all your vibration issues as well! Personally when it comes to things suspension/drive line related I like to do both sides; so I'd probably do the other bearing for 2 reasons...1) you already did the right side, 2) Given the state of the one you already did, this one may not be far behind....especially if the symptoms you remedied on the right are now present on the left. I know you're a busy man, but its a job that could be easily knocked off on a nice weekend...t'is the season

As far as the bushings for the rear....I was actually surprised at my rear subframe bushings (and LCA bushings as well actually) when we pulled them out. They weren't that bad -- still intact; no where near what some of the nightmare pics on this site show. That being said however, you could tell right away that while there wasn't any visible catastrophic failure, the rubber had become ROCK hard over the years. Within the first couple seconds of getting on the road you could immediately tell the difference. There was much less road vibration/noise transferred to the cabin than before....brought the 'luxury' back to the ride if you will.

Thanks for the words S, will definitely be doing the left side too, will be much quicker now that I know what I'm doing. Plus I took the time to dremel off the rust off the hub on the right side, replaced the dust cover, etc, and really cleaned it all off well. I'm also going to replace hub rings with aluminum on the other 3 wheels (already did on right front) and make sure lug nuts are set to 101 ft lbs.

Exactly what I am thinking as well about the subframe bushings, the rubber just dries out completely, and with 10 years on my X and seeing salty winters like you do, I believe mine could use changing as well

Tis the season is right, got my spark plugs changed over the weekend and noticeably smoother startups and idle were gained right away! Now I have to do lower intake boot for preventative maintenance of a leak, chase down my ABS/DSC/BRAKE trifecta (might be ABS module or wheel sensor I have to do testing), and then after that I can finally paint my calipers with G2 caliper paint and get my cluster pixels repaired.

I told you I had tons to do before my headlight project can begin, haha

[ArmyX5]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Yes you are the expert Spencer since you just did your rear end suspension!

Thanks for the inputs, yes at my mileage I'm not feeling the looseness that loose tie rods would give, the X doesn't wander much or need constant correction either. I put on my 168s with Proxes STII's in July of last year and probably put about 2k on them max, shortly after I got my wheels I redid the front suspension, and since I needed to do my wheel bearing I didn't get aligned after that, and basically parked the car until I did my bearing so I wouldn't wear the still basically new tires unevenly.

And I know you have almost double the mileage I do, but you wouldn't believe it unless you drove this car a week ago and drove it last night with silence! The vibes and the wum-wum-wum sound as soon as I hit 40 mph and continued no matter how fast above I went, was ridiculous! Made the car undrivable.

I assume the right front bearing went bad before I bought the car, when the air struts were old (before I replaced with Arnotts) and the previous owner drove over a nasty pothole or something when the front was "slammed" and maybe gave excessive wear to that side and I really didn't notice when I first bought it but over the last year WOW did it get loud. Only reason I can tell for 100% certainty that 95% of my vibes/humming noises came from 1 wheel bearing, right front. And yes, still at 69k miles as of today!



I'm assuming some rear end suspension parts are showing signs of wear, bushings deteriorating, etc, as my whole front suspension parts replacement made the car completely different than it was when I bought in Dec. 2011. Worn subframe bushings transfer vibes at all?

EDIT: S, Sorry but after a highway drive this AM I will say that my vibrations also get transferred into the steering wheel, although not terrible, it is noticed. Since the vibes are noticeably reduced from replacing my right front wheel bearing, I am doing the left front for good measure, as I suspect the left one is not far behind, and these vibes I'm feeling from a bearing that has play in it will eventually turn into a roar like the right side had.

My buddy who balanced my wheels and is Master tech at Lexus said he would recheck the wheels for me if I wanted him too but they all checked out and balanced out fine. I will shake the tires tonight as I need to put the other 3 metal hub rings on my wheels anyway, just check for play in the rears, and look for play on left bearing in front.

He also told me vibes I'm feeling might be slight but if there is play in the existing original bearing in the front that its possible that would transfer the vibes in the drivetrain, and since the right front side is tight it is making the left side having slight looseness more apparent. He said bearings go over time so I might drive with slight vibrations now but in a few months it might end up making ridiculous noise like the right one did.


Thoughts?

Hey Ricky,

I also have the little vibration on the steering wheel after replacing all my front suspension parts. The only thing that I have not done is getting a 4 wheels alignment. I have been trying to figure it out where exactly it is coming from because it only happen when I am braking at a very slow speed. The vehicle don't vibrate, it is straight thru the steering wheel. Brake rotors and pad are almost new and they were working fine until I put my summer tire set on. I am taking to the dealer next week to see if a 4 wheel alignment will do the trick.

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by ArmyX5

Hey Ricky,

I also have the little vibration on the steering wheel after replacing all my front suspension parts. The only thing that I have not done is getting a 4 wheels alignment. I have been trying to figure it out where exactly it is coming from because it only happen when I am braking at a very slow speed. The vehicle don't vibrate, it is straight thru the steering wheel. Brake rotors and pad are almost new and they were working fine until I put my summer tire set on. I am taking to the dealer next week to see if a 4 wheel alignment will do the trick.

usually you get the vibrations when braking from the thrust arm bushings but i'm assuming you replaced those and torqued the bushing with the wheels on the ground? My vibes are slight as well and like I said I still have to do the other side wheel bearing, hoping when I complete that I will have 2 new "tight" bearings and get a 4 wheel alignment and that should cure it.

Other than that my buddy at Lexus is going to re-check my wheel balanace if I still get vibes after the alignment.

[X5SND]

Jesus, you weren' kidding! On a side note, where did you snag Aluminum hub rings from?

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by X5SND

Jesus, you weren' kidding! On a side note, where did you snag Aluminum hub rings from?

Hub Centric Rings 74 1mm to 72 56mm Metal Hubrings | eBay

Bought from this seller last week

[davintosh]

This doesn't pertain to the front wheel bearing, but thought I'd stick it here anyway. My son & I tore into the right-rear corner of the X5 this weekend to replace the wheel bearing and several other parts. It took us a couple of hours on Friday night and most of the day yesterday to remove & replace the bearing, ball joint, integral link, forward susp. link, wishbone, and parking brake shoes. Heck of a job. The only glitch came in with the wheel bearing; we finally got the inner race off of the wheel hub around noon yesterday (woohoo!) then took a break. My son went back out to the garage a few minutes ahead of me, and when I got there he had the new bearing pressed onto the hub already, but had it on backwards. Doh.

We hoped that since it had just gone on we might get lucky and get it off without tearing it up, but no dice. We'll chalk that one up as a lesson in following diagrams and thinking harder about taking steps that can't be reversed. $60. Good thing that was the first side we did, so we had another bearing in the box ready to go; it just means I'll have to order a replacement and we won't be able to finish the job this weekend like we had hoped. He'll just have to come back next weekend to help with the other side, which doesn't bother his mom a bit. After doing the one side, I'm confident the other side will go a lot faster.

Putting things back together went pretty smoothly. I can tell already that the rear wheel has lost it's negative camber and the fat-lady-in-heels look on that side. Haven't driven it enough to figure out if that was the bearing that was causing all the road howl or not.

I was kinda following in the steps of this guy's writeup for replacing a rear bearing the"Easy-Way!", but I sure didn't see a way to get at the bolts holding the wheel bearing without taking the wheel carrier off. But with all the other parts we were replacing, getting the wheel carrier free (almost) was not a big deal at all; the only thing we couldn't get loose was the parking brake cable, but that was easy to work around, so NBD. The fact that the rear wheel bearing bolts to the wheel carrier is the big difference between the procedures for the front & rear bearings; no need for a slide hammer or anything else to yank the hub loose.

Oh, and I decided to fab up a new tool to pull the splined axle into the hub (like this one except with a piece of iron pipe instead of a socket); I made one earlier and lent it to Ricky Bobby, but my welding job didn't hold up to the torque required to slide the axle through. My son has actually been trained on how to use a welder like the little MIG unit I have (I've only done stick welding, and that was many, many moons ago), so I had him do the welding. Well, this one didn't hold up either. It got the axle slid out a ways before giving up the ghost, but we ended up just using a slim dowel against the inside of the axle near the boot to tap it out far enough for the new nut to grab some threads. Before fitting the hub with the new bearing back on the carrier, we also spent some quality time with some penetrant and a wire brush cleaning up the splines on the axle and the hub, then applied some anti-sieze compound; I think that made a difference in getting the thing to slide into position easily. The axle sure didn't slide out of the hub easily.

[Ricky Bobby]

Dave, glad to hear your son was able to help you out, I'm sure it wasn't an easy job on the rear of the car, and I'm glad you're tackling the rear while I am finishing the front!

I am due to finish my other front bearing job with the outer cv boot on the front next weekend, I still have your socket and adapter to send back to you as well.

Also interested in your rear suspension parts replacement, did you order all OEM parts for the most part for replacement? The guide link and wishbone look pretty self explanatory to replace for the most part, could even do those on the car. The wishbone has a bunch of wiring running up it though which I think needs to be moved. The only thing which looks tough is the integral link/ball joint assembly, although could be done on the car, wondering what you used for pressing the ball joint out and back in? I know BMW sells a special tool for it (or did you tell me you purchased the special tool)? With the special tool, I'm sure if one was to leave the wheel carrier in place (i.e. if you were not replacing the bearings) you could probably replace each part one by one leaving the wheel carrier in situ, correct?

I'm not planning on tackling anything in the rear for at least a year to buy myself some time after my repair rounds this past year, just wanted your thoughts on that (if you want to keep on topic you can PM me!). Only thing I may need to do is get your subframe bushing tool and do those bushings, as I won't need alignment afterwards and I can get one of the rear suspension "trouble areas" out of the way.


EDIT: Dave, I bought two impact sockets from Harbor freight and am going to get them MIG welded with two axle nuts ground down (I had two extras, my CV boot kits each came with a new nut) and I will try to go easier on the "tool" when I do my left side, I'm hoping to have both intact and ready to send back to you after I'm done! I probably wouldn't have broken it originally, I think I put a quarter turn too much torque on it on the right side, but you know what they say the first side is the toughest because I'm learning what works and what doesn't!

[davintosh]

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Dave, glad to hear your son was able to help you out, I'm sure it wasn't an easy job on the rear of the car, and I'm glad you're tackling the rear while I am finishing the front!

I am due to finish my other front bearing job with the outer cv boot on the front next weekend, I still have your socket and adapter to send back to you as well.

It was a bear of a job, and I know it would've taken me a lot longer to do on my own, so I was glad he was along for the ride too! No hurry on the socket & adapter (forgot I sent you that; we were looking for that adapter, but made do without it just fine! )

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Also interested in your rear suspension parts replacement, did you order all OEM parts for the most part for replacement?

I ordered Lemfoerder replacements for all the suspension bits, and FAG bearings from BluntTech.com. I've never had a problem with Lemfoerder on my other cars, so I'm sure these will last a good long while.

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

The guide link and wishbone look pretty self explanatory to replace for the most part, could even do those on the car. The wishbone has a bunch of wiring running up it though which I think needs to be moved.

The wiring & stuff on the wishbone isn't much of an issue other than the skinny little bolt that holds the whole shebang onto the wishbone; it's about two inches long and about 1/8" around. Nicely corroded nut, so the thing twisted the hex socket in the plastic when we tried to undo it. It did come off intact after we soaked it with PB Blaster & Liquid Wrench.

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

The only thing which looks tough is the integral link/ball joint assembly, although could be done on the car, wondering what you used for pressing the ball joint out and back in? I know BMW sells a special tool for it (or did you tell me you purchased the special tool)? With the special tool, I'm sure if one was to leave the wheel carrier in place (i.e. if you were not replacing the bearings) you could probably replace each part one by one leaving the wheel carrier in situ, correct?

I did buy the tool from another member here, and it works a treat on the ball joint. I'll be renting that out at some point also, and should have it available when you're ready for the job. Here's an excellent video from BavAuto explaining the job: BMW DIY Video – Rear Suspension Lower Ball-Joint Bushing Removal-Replace E39 E38 Others | Bavarian Autosport Blog
We ran into one little snag reinstalling the new bushing though, and I'm not sure if we used the wrong cup for pulling it in or what; the cup we used had a lip around the edge that braced against the aluminum wheel carrier, and the lip wasn't deep enough to allow the ball joint to seat completely. It took us a couple of minutes to figure out what was up, then we just switched to a different cup and it was done. It's a pretty easy job with the tool. And the integral link is pretty straightforward.

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

I'm not planning on tackling anything in the rear for at least a year to buy myself some time after my repair rounds this past year, just wanted your thoughts on that (if you want to keep on topic you can PM me!). Only thing I may need to do is get your subframe bushing tool and do those bushings, as I won't need alignment afterwards and I can get one of the rear suspension "trouble areas" out of the way.

Let me know when you're ready! I may just rename this thread to cover front and rear bearings, as the jobs of replacing them are pretty similar in some respects.

Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

EDIT: Dave, I bought two impact sockets from Harbor freight and am going to get them MIG welded with two axle nuts ground down (I had two extras, my CV boot kits each came with a new nut) and I will try to go easier on the "tool" when I do my left side, I'm hoping to have both intact and ready to send back to you after I'm done! I probably wouldn't have broken it originally, I think I put a quarter turn too much torque on it on the right side, but you know what they say the first side is the toughest because I'm learning what works and what doesn't!

You know, I was really surprised it took as much torque as it did to draw that axle back into the hub. We spent a little time cleaning up the splines on both sides and put some anti-sieze on it, but once I got it to a point where I thought I could thread on the new nut, it had pulled itself back into the hub when I removed the tool. The CV joint has a little "spring" to it and didn't seem to want to stay extended. It still doesn't make much sense that it took that much effort to draw it out, yet just the pull of the CV joint was enough to slide it back.

[ArmyX5]

Hey Bobby, Don't forget to get that wheel alignment once you finish all your repairs. I decided to take the X5 to the dealer for a professional 4 wheels alignment and balance, and it was the best $129 investment in my truck, ever The vibration is gone, and the rear wheels don't look like they are about to take a seat. I was so happy when the service tech told me that it was only $129 for the alignment, but it didn't last long. I love that they do a courtesy inspection every time I take the truck in for any minor adjustment so that I can work on anything they find. Today, I almost had a heart attack. They told me that my spark plugs needed to be change and they were charging me $275 to take out 6 spark plugs(screws) and put 6 new one in I told him that I will pay for the spark plugs and put them in myself. I didn't realize that the damn spark plugs cost $23 each, still I saved $150 and it only took me 1/2 hour. Now I am ready for the long road trip to Cal and Washington St.

[Ricky Bobby]

Originally Posted by ArmyX5

Hey Bobby, Don't forget to get that wheel alignment once you finish all your repairs. I decided to take the X5 to the dealer for a professional 4 wheels alignment and balance, and it was the best $129 investment in my truck, ever The vibration is gone, and the rear wheels don't look like they are about to take a seat. I was so happy when the service tech told me that it was only $129 for the alignment, but it didn't last long. I love that they do a courtesy inspection every time I take the truck in for any minor adjustment so that I can work on anything they find. Today, I almost had a heart attack. They told me that my spark plugs needed to be change and they were charging me $275 to take out 6 spark plugs(screws) and put 6 new one in I told him that I will pay for the spark plugs and put them in myself. I didn't realize that the damn spark plugs cost $23 each, still I saved $150 and it only took me 1/2 hour. Now I am ready for the long road trip to Cal and Washington St.

Oh yeah the spark plugs were so easy! I just did mine with fresh NGK's 2 weeks ago, car runs so much better!

I'm finishing up the left side tomorrow, going to get alignment and balance this week later on! $129 for alignment AND balance? From the dealer? That is so friggin cheap man! Or was that just for alignment?