Wheel bearing installation (resolved, with updates!)

[Wiscon_Mark]

Okay SLi, I'm hopefully going to knock out my wheel bearing myself with my Mechanic father in law's help. Now, I know that it's a bitch because it requires a press to press it into the hub, but I'd like an explanation of the oil seals & what parts I should be ordering.

Here is a diagram:
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/02/WheelHubAssemblygif-1.jpg

I know I need #7 (bearing).

But I thought there were only 2 seals, apparently there are 3? (#9,10,11).

Also, do I need to order that snap ring? (#8).

Is there anything I should be looking for while we do this? This bearing has only been on the car for 20,000 miles and it's failed. Could bad hub balance or something else have caused this? The guy at a shop (I went and got a quote) I talked to didn't even know about the seals (admitted that he was wrong when I asked about them though). I'm wondering if they weren't done last time. I don't know where the paperwork went, so I can't check that.

[d1giPhux]

Dont have the answer to this for you, but when you do it.. try to take as many pics as possible. Would be cool to have a DIY for this, or least some info about it!

Bump for you!

[Dead91silvia]

Mark, I just did one in a Forester. Unless you have a press, dont even try, its a PITA. First bearing replacement I have done and it took me a while to figure it out.

The Hayens (spelling) manual was useless for this job...

Bearing and inner and outer seals. Bearing should come complete.

There is a large clip that holds the outer part of the bearing in, dont forget about it. Also the hub needs to be pressed out first. Then you pull the clip and then press out the bearing.

I was going to do a DIY, but I was getting pissed at it and didnt take any pics... haha

[Wiscon_Mark]

Right, I know it needs to be pressed. I'm not so worried about that.

When you talk about that large clip, is that the snap ring that I asked about? (#8 on the diagram).

I'm really considering (based on the age of the car) just replacing both hubs while I'm at it and getting everything pressed (at a shop) before I pop the hub onto the car.

[mlitz]

replacing the hub is a really good idea as some times the bearing spins on the hub and ruins it.
yes you can reuse the snap ring...

[Dead91silvia]

The hub, if replacing the bearing, should not need to be replaced... Unless the bearing exploded or something, but I have never seen that happen with the hubs I've changed out...

As for the clip/snap ring it is re-usable. All you need is inner and outer seals and the bearing.

[Wiscon_Mark]

Another question. I ordered a hub from Napa, and received the hub for the wrong side (left instead of right). I went back and checked part #s and the left & right ones have the same part number, but there are two separate listings, specifying left & right. I looked at the physical part, and nothing about it screams that there's anything related to the parking brake assembly on it, but I want to be sure before I start ripping things apart. Is there a difference?

[mlitz]

No they are the same there should be no reason why there should be two listings...

[Wiscon_Mark]

Every parts website I've seen has had a right & left listing. I wonder why...

[Wiscon_Mark]

Update: I finally did this job Saturday. What a pain. But the results were so nice. First a picture of what made the previous bearing bad:

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/03/20120318161608-1.jpg

Yep, those tiny little grooves were all it took to make a VERY loud whirring noise. What a relief it is now to just hear the slight tire noise and nothing else. I have reason to believe that the guy who did the job 20,000 miles ago (yes, this bearing lasted only that long) did a hack job of it. The outer seal for the bearing had a small cut in it, which may have allowed dirt in it, causing problems. We also noticed some nicks in the hub and I do remember the guy saying he had a hell of a time pressing it out. We had surprisingly little difficulty getting the hub off the housing.

A few thoughts and notes:

My (awesome) father in law mechanic and I did this. He decided (and I later agreed) that it was a little easier to not disconnect the drum brake cable. Since you can't get the drum brake assembly out until you take the hub & bearing out of the housing, we decided to hammer the old bearing & hub out while the housing was still on the car. That allowed us to then take the drum brake assembly off the housing and leave it connected while working on other things, and subsequently we didn't have to adjust it after the fact.

Secondly, be careful with the tone wheel. Without any contact, while lightly tapping the bearing into the hub to align it before pressing, it broke in two pieces, like this:
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/03/20120318161558-1.jpg

It may almost be better to leave it off until you actually press everything back together (but don't forget it before the hub goes back inside the housing!). Unfortunately, no parts store that was open on a Saturday afternoon had one in stock, so I'm going without ABS, which is OK with me as I never liked it. I will look into an electronic solution where the system ignores that wheel in particular, but for now, it's practically summer so I'm not worrying about it.

Also - I did not have to replace the hub. Father in law agreed with Dead91 - there's really nothing to go wrong on them the way they're designed.

I wish I hadn't been so tired and greasy while doing this job that I could've taken a bunch of photos cataloging it, but I feel confident that I could do this job again, provided the right tools. It wasn't a terribly complicated job, just a little frustrating and time consuming. If anyone has any questions about it, feel free to ask.

[MarkSubi]

Hey guys since were on this subject on this thread. Can a bad or warn Hub on our cars also just make the car go to one side but make no noise while spinning?

[Wiscon_Mark]

You mean pull to one side? It'd be very unlikely. If the hub was out of round or broken, you'd definitely hear something and feel a bit more than a pull.

It's much more likely something else in the suspension/steering dept.

[jjay03]

Im doing my front bearings now when I pressed the hub out half the bearing came with it so now I got to cut the races off which does make it a bit of a pita.

[fullCircling]

fuck this.. my driver's front bearing is trashed. there's soo much play in it. can i get away with just replacing the bearing, or can the hub get damaged also from the heat, or rubbing against something?

lol normally i'm DIY till i die, but my cars pretty rusty down there, so im just gonna save myself the aggravation, cut myself off at the pass, and drop it off at the dealer. and i NEVER do that. bearings suck.

can i convert my front knuckles to the 05 spec that has the bolt in bearings? god i hope so, those are such a godsend.

[Wiscon_Mark]

It's unlikely the hub is damaged, there's not much to go wrong with one.

You could always just unbolt the hub & housing and use a machine shop's press...

[fullCircling]

...and damage a ball joint or two because i don't have a proper separator with me, potentially snap the lower ball joint bolt because everything is rusty as all get out, go hunting for the proper size sockets to press everything out, try to figure out how to PROPERLY install the new bearing without damaging anything, as it's easy to screw up, and on top of all of that, i'd have to settle for using an autozone special bearing because it's all i can get a hold of a day before easter sunday etc etc etc

no thanks. i did the front bearings on a honda (which are essentially the same design) and it sucked ass. i used good parts (koyos), and they still made noise 3 months later. and i'm anal about installing stuff correctly, torque specs, and proper procedures.

there's a reason there's no detailed tutorials on youtube about how to do it. subaru, honda, etc. nothing... probably because it ends up being so frustrating that you just end up with video footage of you swearing into a beer and throwing a wrench into outer space.

until i have air tools and one of those expensive specialized bearing installer tools that can do it on the car... nope.

[jjay03]

The front bearings are not too bad if you get the correct seals and have a press just make sure you get the AWD seals and not the FWD seals. Some part sites like autozones web site only list the FWD seals I had to dig into Timkens site to get the correct numbers. I got a 20 ton press from harbor freight last yr under 200 dollars and its been worth every penny.

[Wiscon_Mark]

This writeup's not bad (and it's Front specific):
http://www.scribd.com/doc/43786961/Whee ... ics-NASIOC (http://www.scribd.com/doc/43786961/Wheel-Bearing-Replacement-Guru-s-Guide-W-pics-NASIOC)

[jjay03]

Then when the knuckles are all apart you can sandblast and paint them.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/04/Legacy016-2.jpg