Freaking wheel bearing job #2
 

Ok at least THIS time SO FAR I haven't mushroomed the axle.

I removed it all from the vehicle. So I have the front hub in my 20 ton press with the drivers side axle dangle down from it.

This thing wont move. I don't have any pb blaster or anything so Im trying soaking it in wd40 but Im not feeling very confident that's going to do any good. I sooo don't want to buy another axle just to change the wheel bearing.

I have never had so much trouble taking cv axles out of anything as I have this X5.

That Happened to me on an E36 M3 I ended up soaking it up with WD40 letting it sit overnight and then heating it up next day, and it came out. I had to put a new axle.

I got the axle out finally. Soaked it in wd40 for an hour and then hit it with a hammer on the side with full pressure on it from the press. Popped loose.

Now Im trying to press the hub out of the wheel bearing and its being a pain. The problem this time is the shape of the drivers sides hub. It has no good way to pin it into the press. The shape of the passenger side hub made it a breeze to press out the old hub.

Ok I got the hub out and then went to pull off the bearing piece that always sticks to the hub. It wouldn't come off. Was chipping where the bearing splitter was on it in place of pulling the bearing piece off the hub. Grrrrrr.

So I decided it was time to go NUCLEAR.

After the dust settled the final score was :

BMW Wheel bearing 0

Dremel Tool 1


Bearing piece is off the hub :)

Now I cant get the c-clip out. Partly because my snap ring pliers are junk and partly because Im DEAD TIRED now.

Great persistent effort Crowz :thumbup: :thumbup:

How many miles on those axles? My philosophy is if I'm touching something with near 100K or over 100K miles, I want to save the effort of tearing into it again to touch it again when it fails, so I consider that the 100K part doesn't owe me anything. :dunno:

Just this year during my front and rear suspension overhauls I put AutoZone lifetime axles at all four positions. But that's just me ;)

Mike

I just bought my X5 recently so I have no idea how many miles are on these axles. The passenger side is new since I destroyed it trying to hammer it out recently :)

The drivers side seems fine and the boots look good so Im not replacing it yet but if I lived closer to autozone I would of changed it out for the heck of it.

Fixing to get back out there to take another go at the c clip on the wheel bearing next.

Yeah,

Angle Grinder (with diamond blade + wear goggles!) will work.
One just needs to be careful about cutting too far damaging the axle itself.

I did the REAR bearing on my 1998 528i, the trick is to either:
1. Cutting horizontal grooves on the inner race so the tool has a place to grab.
2. Dremel vs Angle Grinder.

I wrote the DIY below...

DIY: 1998 528i REAR Bearing the Easy Way! - Bimmerfest - BMW Forums

The problem I ran into was the bearing chipping this time when I tried to use the bearing separator on it. I have never had that happen before. That part is usually a breeze.

The dremel will be my tool of choice from now on if I run into a stuborn one as I did zero damage to the hub and it went thru the bearing piece that was stuck on the hub like a hot knife thru butter.

Once I went at it with the dremel and cut the bearing at the 12 and 6 position clock wise it literally just fell off. I saved the old bearing piece and will shoot a pic of it later.

Well I thought I was home free.

Was putting everything back together and as I was tightening the axle nut it stripped. Just got off the phone with autozone. New axle will be in tomorrow.

Good freaking grief......

Good grief indeed....

I guess axles are cheap enough over there it's less hassle to replace the entire axle but if it's only the outer CV stub that's damaged, you could have just gone with something like this...

http://spare-parts.co.nz/media/catal...10-x5-p200.jpg

| Spare Auto Parts New Zealand [1910-X5] - OUTER CV JOINT 27X65X30

Actually very cheap surprisingly. Front cv axles are $75 for a new complete cv axle with a lifetime warranty.

I really tried to save this one after mushrooming the passenger side one a few weeks back. Just wasn't in the cards. Well at least both front axles will be new now and have a lifetime warranty.

$75... ? :wow:

Living in the colonies.... :banghead:

Yeah at $75 each side for the fronts with a limited lifetime warranty, I just change them if they are in the 100K zone.

http://contentinfo.autozone.com/znet...0510N/image/4/

Duralast Gold CV Axle 10510N - Read Reviews on Duralast Gold #10510N

When my passenger side outer boot began to bleed grease at ~103K miles, I tore down the whole front end to replace all the ball joints, bushings, arms and CV axles. Now I can look forward to trouble free front end components for quite a few miles.


Mike

Jeez, my drivers side was $125 plus $20 shipping. :(

Drove 60 miles round trip to get the cv axle, an axle puller and an axle press.

The press didn't fit to great but it did force the bad cv axle end out of the hub.

The puller is supposed to pull the axle from the transmission or in our case the front diff.

Yeah right.

Way to small to fit the axle.....

The axle came out fine when I pulled it out to press it out the first time. Now I cant get it back out to put the new axle in.

Grrrrrr.

In the house cooling off before something gets broke at this rate.

The last of the old cv axle is out. Got a good 8 feet of hang time before it hit the ground. That sucker was stuck in there good.

Now the new cv is installed in the diff but I cant get the outer part into the hub. But Im not going to force anything.

Ive been going at it with a metal bristle toothbrush I have for cleaning parts. Over heated again so back to cooling off for a bit.

Well when I went back at it and finally decided I would just start bolting everything back up in place of trying to force the axle in the thing slipped in FULLY. I mean ALL the threads showing. I wasn't even trying to put the axle in and it went in all the way.

This thing is possessed.

Well I finished up the install and took it for a spin and it drove perfect and made no noise roar wise.

The passenger side swaybar end link I had partially loosened and forgot to tighten back was popping but I fixed that when I got back from the test drive.

Hopefully that is the last heavy repair for at least a week or so.

I need time to heal.....

hahaha... I know that feeling! I've done a RHF axle, water pump, tensioner, radiator hose, trans filter kit, LED interior lights, washer pumps, LED AEs, and ordered a LF PDC sensor & bumper bracket. Plus coded all sorts of stuff.
And had new tyres fitted (the only thing I didn't do myself).

All in the last month. My bank account needs time to heal!

Tires are next on the menu in the big ticket money wise department.

Not looking forward to that one.

Hope everyone is enjoying this extended summer weather. I know I am.

Roll Tide Roll.

Oh Im loving the weather right now. I may get a bit hot in the sun doing stuff but its been sunny and dry and that's just perfect !

The problem usually is the pins on the snap ring pliers are not parallel so they are pushing the pliers out of the snap ring as you squeeze.

The two fixes for this are:

➀ use right-angle pins so the ends stay parallel; this will not likely work because of the size of the rings you would need a huge snap ring pliers

➁ use a dremel/emery wheel to cut a small notch at the end of the pins, such that when the pliers are wide open the cut faces are parallel to each other.

I had the exact problem with my new, and very nice pliers but that are only designed for up to 3" snap ring, by cutting the little notches it holds the snap ring fine and they pop right out (or back in).

I ended up solving that by taking my dremel tool to a pair of right angle needle nose pliers I have. I ground the ends down so they fit into the c clips holes. I now have probably the most powerful bmw clip removal tools known to man :)

If I ever have to do them again that tool will make short work of it with no chance of breaking like all the real c clip pliers I bought did.

You basically copied what I did with the pliers. Good solution. Dremel can fix a lot


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Pretty much. I just didn't want to grind on the c clip itself any. The way my luck has been going with my x5 Id end up breaking the c clip itself trying to remove it.

Wasn't going to revive this one since it was the other bearing that has gone bad again but I had forgot I made this tool :)

Need to keep this fresh for the up coming bearing job.

which bearing? front? I just saw about a week ago a TSB from BMW about replace the bearing proactively when there is an accident involving a wheel; they had some specifics like if the wheel itself is dented (like from hitting another car or curb etc), then likely the bearing race will have been damaged where you won't be able to tell until the car has been driven a few months, but historically if you don't replace the bearing the customer will be back within a year with a bad bearing.

I just started to hear one of my bearings failing, not sure which one yet but it seems like the front right one which i think is the one i replaced on my car, but i used a cheap brand, so I can be a cautionary tale for the rest; add one more thing to the 'use an OEM brand' = wheel bearings.

My wife's car has a very loud wheel bearing but i couldn't tell which one until i switched her car from 255s to 235s and one wheel suddenly far louder than all the rest.

So in my near future: rear wheel bearing for wife, and i think front wheel bearing 'take two' for my car.

I may invent a better solution to pull the hub, as my current method (long 14-1.5 mm bolts through the hub destroys the dust cap which i just consider part of the job; helps me keep track of which bearings i've done also). For the back, slide hammer is great, but i don't like to use a slide hammer on the front lest i kill a ball joint removing the hub.

Anybody got a good way to remove the front hub with force not banging? the problem with gear pulling idea is nothing to push agains besides the axle so the force goes back to the differential through the CV unless there is a way to block the CV from moving at the knuckle.

What i've done on the 3 front bearings i've replaced is to put three long 14mm bolts through the hub back into the knuckle; (through the dust cap); than when the dust cap is bent out of the way i have these 1/4" thick pieces of steel that are shaped like an "L" that happen to fit in between the knuckle and the rotor to reach out to the bolts, stuff those and and tighten the bolts the hub pops right off; the only problem with this method is the destruction of the dust cap, else it's painfully simple so it's a good method.


PS: nice on the tool; I took my c-clip tool and cut little notches on the end so when the jaws are wide open the notch on the ends start parallel so it won't squirt the clip out like a watermelon seed. The first one i just used screws and vice grip pliers.

Now i have a very nice c-clip tool with right-angle bits; they stay parallel no matter what angle the jaw, they also flip from inside to outside with a flip of a lever. Bought specifically for the last bearing job; the right tool makes all the difference.

Its the passenger side that is roaring this time I believe. Right turn makes it quit and that's what it did last time the right side was bad.

NOT wanting to do this.....