Replacing a front wheel bearing
- joepampel
- 7 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Once I had replaced the very noisy rear bearing I was able to hear a less noisy moan from the front of the car. It seems apparent I hit a pothole at some point that damaged both sets of bearings on the right side of the car. The left side seems completely fine.
I read a bunch of threads and watched a bunch of videos (favorites below), ordered a few tools and got to work.
High level tips/observations:
protect your wheel studs as you hammer away at stuff. In one video I saw the guy hammered the hub on a concrete floor. He had a set of sacrifice lug nuts on, but still. I used a mat. If I did this a lot I might use a couple pieces of 2x4 to make an X to support the hub. You can also put the disk into a vise. My vise is not in the garage so I didn't.
I tried out my air hammer on some of the tasks but found it too easy to slip and possibly damage the aluminum hub.
In hindsight I think I should have used the bearing press to install the races. I'll try that on the left side bearing when I get around to it.
The videos show the washer moving behind the adjuster to check tightness. The washer on my coupe has a notch that locates it on the spindle. It does not move around. I just tighted it down (snug, not hard) to seat everything and then backed off maybe a 1/4 turn? until the hub spun well and did not exhibit any play.
It's winter here and we got a sudden warm day to work with so I did not prepare quite as much as normal. In hindsight I would have frozen the new races and heated the hub, but it all worked out anyway, just a little tougher. Folks on the Pelican boards were recommending heating the hub to about 200 F/ 93 C and freezing the races.
Parts:
Front bearing kit (simplest)
or:
999 059 065 00 Outer Bearing
999 059 098 00 Inner Bearing
999 701 084 50 O-Ring
477 405 641 Rear seal
901 341 623 00 Spacer Ring
911 341 663 00 Thrust Washer
911 341 673 00 Clamping Nut
930 341 066 01 Grease Cap
Grease!
Brake Fluid - bc you'll need to bleed the brakes afterwards.
Tools:
Seal remover - inexpensive and makes the job really easy
Seal installation kit - drive in races and seals
Steering column bearing puller (for removing the outer race)
Small sledge hammer & chisel to remove the grease cap & old races
Brake line plug: M10 x 1.0 bubble flare
Channel Locks - to grab the grease cap
19mm socket & wrench - caliper bolts, lug nuts
13mm socket - dust shield (if you are replacing the spacer)
9mm & 11mm (?) to remove brake line
6mm hex key to remove adjuster
Optional: air hammer. Bearing greaser. bearing puller
Taking it all apart:
Jack up car
Remove wheel
Use hammer and chisel to remove grease cap rotating the hub. Just keep going around.
Remove the brake pad wear sensor from its clip on the strut and disconnect it. (just pull)
Disconnect the hard brake line from the flexible line. Plug the line to stop it from leaking.
Remove the 2 x 19MM bolts that hold the caliper on and remove the caliper
Remove the hub by loosening the hex screw that fixes the adjuster. Then use the hex key as a handle to spin the nut off.
Remove the dust shield. 3 x 13mm bolts (only if you are replacing the spacer)
The outer bearing will just fall out, but the inner one is held in by the grease seal.
Use the seal remover tool or something similiar to pull the seal out. (screwdriver, prybar)
The Inner bearing will now come out
Clean up the inside of the hub, removing all of the old grease.
To remove the outer (smaller) race, I used an expanding bearing remover tool (link below) and a press.
For the inner race, I used a hammer and chisel to knock it out.
The spacer looked fine and looked a little tricky to do with the strut on the car so I left it. I would use the air hammer and a chisel point to knock it off. There are spots on the top and bottom where you can get to it from behind to do this. (see FCP Video). Heat is probably also a good option, or cut a nice notch in it to weaken it. Just remember that if you trash the stub axle you will get to replace the whole strut housing. Ouch.
Getting it all back together:
I used the old races to knock the new ones in. Just flip them over (it will be obvious)
I used a hammer to get them started and the hydraulic press to finish the outer race.
The inner one I wound up hammering all the way in.
I did the inner race first and then tapped the seal into place.
I had a tricky time with the outer race, it kept wanting to tip to one side and I had to pull it back out once.
I used the bearing greaser to pack the new bearings with grease. Since the grease came in a tub I could use the tub to apply grease to the spindle.
Once the hub and bearings and spindles were all greased up, I mounted the hub back on the spindle. It may need a bit of force to seat properly the new seal has to sit around the spacer.
Install the outer bearing, washer and adjuster.
You can use the hex key to spin the adjuster around - make sure the adjuster is situated such that you can get a hex key through the slot to adjust it. It's pretty easy to see if it's wrong; just flip it over.
Tighten the adjuster down (not too tight, just snug) and then back it off until the hub spins freely and you can't detect any play. You can do this little dance a few times to get a feel for it. The hub will not just spin without any resistance - it just got packed with fresh grease. But you will definitely feel the difference as you back off on the adjuster. It will loosen up a bit once you start driving.
Pics
Small sledge & chisel got the grease cap loose enough to grab with the channel locks and remove it. I had a new one to install but didn't want to destroy the old one just in case.
M10 x 1.0 brake line plug. The line will keep leaking otherwise because it's below the M/C. By keeping it elevated and then plugging it I only had to bleed the one corner. Also less mess. This one is for a VW Beetle and is an EMPI part.
The spindle showing the spacer. No room to get a bearing puller on it(?), but you can see there is a tiny overlap up top and there is another below so you can drive it off from the inside if needed. Heat can be a big help here as well. If you replace the spacer be sure to replace the O-ring behind it.
Watching folks struggle removing the rear seal convinced me to purchase a tool for this. This one is made by Lisle and was under $20. It popped the seal out in no time.
This expanding bearing puller is marketed for use in motorcycle steering columns, but it was the perfect size to pull out the outer race. Once that lip was behind the race I just pressed it out.
Using a seal driver to install the new grease seal. The new seal did not match the old one so it was a little strange trying to figure out the proper orientation. I think this is correct, but I guess we'll see.
Using one of the seal press discs to hammer in the outer race. In hindsight I think the bearing press would have been a better tool perhaps, but tapping the races in using the old race to start it and then the tool worked fine. It's just tricky keeping it aligned as you go. The disks from the seal kit are aluminum so there isn't much chance of damaging the components or the hub. Heating the hub and cooling the races would have helped.
Special thanks to Aircooled Weekly Maintenance for the expanding bearing puller tip!
Resources
Tools:
EMPI brake line plug. (EMPI 18-1103-0)
Achilioson Motor Cycle Steering stem bearing removal tool, 1-1/8" - 2-5/8" races
Lisle seal remover (Lisle 56750)
Pelican Parts Threads:
Videos I found especially helpful:
Air Cooled Weekly Maintenance (front bearing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xRrgyA8d6I
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