DIY Rear Wheel Bearing Replacement Walk-through w/.pdf

Yeah I pulled it and I made sure it was back in properly. I am gonna pull it again and clean it and the connecter before I go buy a new sensor.

Just make sure that nothing magnetic, i.e., magnetic screwdriver, gets near the sensor itself. If so, it's possibly lost.

Great walk-thru! Job took me a total of about 1hr. Only downside is now my abs light is on . Not too sure but think I may have messed up the sensor

 

 

What brand HBA did you buy ?

I did the rear and its a moog

i knocked this out today. The above instructions were great.

 

as an fyi, I got a moog also. Ordered from Rock Auto.

I did my drivers side rear yesterday, following these great instructions. Everything came apart nicely, but as most experience the hub itself was firmly attached with rust and crap.

Used a 3 arm puller, only concern is that you put a lot of force on the CV joints before the hub breaks free, even with a good soaking of PB Blaster and time to let it work. Should I be concerned?

Heading to do the passenger side today.

CVs should be fine. The axle is only going backwards as far as the hub is allowing it to move, so the strain isn't on the CVs, it's on the axle itself. Once the hub is free from the axle, then the axle is free to move in and out against the CV. In fact you'll likely have to push it back into the CV a bit, to get the axle splines started correctly in the HBA.

I did this about 8 months ago on my wife's '05 LGT wagon passenger side rear. Hub came right off with no problem (rust free New Mexico car). Anyway I used a Moog and it's been doing fine since. Of course the other rear bearing is whining like mad too so I'll be doing that one next and using a Moog again.

Did my right rear bearing today, and it's still humming, same wheel. Old bearing was definitely shot, and the new one seemed fine. Alignment was good, tire wear is even, axle nut was set with a torque wrench and fully seated before putting on the ground.

 

What are other possible ways I could have damaged the unit? I followed the directions to a T, but this was my first time.

Recheck your HBA mounting bolts to make sure the hub is fully seated in the hub. If it's not seated fully, then the axle nut will only torque the axle to the hub, but if the HBA isn't tight in the hub, it will compromise the bearings. Does the sound change when you take corners left and right at speed? Did you check to make sure that your rear e-brake shoes aren't dragging?

 

Also, check your center carrier bearing to make sure that's not the source of your sound. Given your mileage, and the area, could be the issue.

Edited September 9, 2014 by SBT

Just did my right rear using a Timken HBA. Toughest part was getting the 14mms socket on the HBA bolts. The heads were rusty. And I forgot to release the parking brake when pulling the rotor. Duh.

I'm in the middle of doing a rear HBA right now, unfortunately the hub is rusted to the splash shield, and the splash shield isn't holding up very well to my pounding.

 

Has anyone been successful in getting the hub unstuck from a rusty shield? Any tips would be appreciated. I plan to let it soak overnight in pb blaster, then resume the pounding. If the shield doesn't survive, then I guess I will be looking for a replacement.

Get a hub puller on that after you soak it. And, depending on which side, I have a spare shield. Left rear I believe.

I'm having trouble with the right rear, thanks for the offer though. I called around and this is a part that can be ordered, but no one has locally. Cost more than the HBA unfortunately.

 

I will try the hub puller, I also have a slide hammer, though the shield/HBA is off the car so I have been trying to find a way to secure what's left of the shield without destroying it.

 

Maybe something like this might work, I'm going to remove the e-brake shoes and see if I can get something wedged in between:

 

http://s99.photobucket.com/user/HAMMERDOWNGT/media/Subaru/0421002035.jpg.html

Looking at that picture, it appears the dust shield is rusted to the hub. Start a thin screwdriver down into the area between the HBA and the shield, then spray a bunch of PBB down in that crack and around the backside circumference of the HBA, where the shield slides on. Let it soak overnight.

 

Then put some heat to the backside of the shield, around the HBA "hole", and that should loosen it up. From there,use a flatblade screwdriver or a small chisel to prise the shield away from the HBA. Slow and steady wins the day.

I'm about ready to throw in the towel, I think the shield is due to be replaced anyway:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1hDgKEHmuI9WDFySnhRYzJVMmc/view?usp=sharing

 

I plan to let it sit one more night, then go to town with the slide hammer tomorrow. At least it should feel good to destroy something, as long as the hammer doesn't come off and hit me!

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1hDgKEHmuI9cE1UejRlTXZTRUk/view?usp=sharing

^ Do you think soaking it in some simple green or evaporust would help?

Heat worked to free the HBA from the shield! Thanks a bunch to SBT, I was skeptical, but I'm also cheap. I took the weekend off from working on it out of frustration. This morning I found a small pipe soldering propane torch in my garage, and thought what the heck. I applied heat from the back for about 30 seconds and then realized I should have removed the rubber plug for cog access so I stopped, gave about a dozen whacks with the slide hammer and it came apart to my surprise. Shield still looks nasty, but a little paint might improve things. Like I said, I'm cheap.

Finished my 2 rear bearings two weeks ago. I had one front that was shot so I did the front and while I was at it, I did the rear as well. One was good and one was a little bit noisier but it would still go. I used TIMKEN bearings.

 

I noticed couple days ago some strange sounds from the back. I've put the whole car on jack stands and noticed that the parking brake was dragging just a touch. After adjusting it, I had my friend to sit inside, start the car and accelerate to 100km/h. I was running around the car and listening to the bearings. All were good but the driver's rear was noisy. It's a new bearing as well. Now what?

 

Could it be faulty? It is only noisy from 60km/h up, but you can definitely hear it on highway. Could it be the axle, is that possibility? I'm thinking about removing it and putting it back together or is it compromised already and I should get a new one?

 

One more thing that I noticed (on both sides): when looking at the hub from the inside, the half axle has a silver lip at the very far outside end that covers the speed sensor. On my car, there is a slight gap (~2-3mm) between the hub and this axle lip/ring/guard. Is that normal or should this sit flush with the hub? It is rotating with the axle and the hub is stationary but I didn't noticed how it was before I took the old bearings out... can anyone check his car and let me know?

Does this help ?

 

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x40/92Si/DSCN4640.jpg

Oh If you have aloud bearing, you may want to think about replacing it, is there a warranty ?

I took a picture of both sides last night:

http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l355/iaacek/DSC02887_zps0m8jds6q.jpg

http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l355/iaacek/DSC02894_zps0yvzfjkf.jpg

 

I tried to take it at a maximum angle so it's really obvious. When I put my fingers there, I think it's about 3mm gap. Can anyone check theirs please? I'm still wondering whether I assembled it incorrectly but it's 4 pieces (hub, shaft, backing plate and the HBA), I don't really see how. Anyway, I'll be checking it today. Since it has been apart and I've put anti-sieze on everything, it'll be 30 minutes to get it apart and back together, maybe I'll find something...

 

I'll be definitely returning the noisy bearing. But I need to get a new one first and then send the noisy one back, the car is my daily driver. Just thinking whether I should try a different brand, like Moog or SKF.

Did you make sure that the backing plate was properly centered. ISTR that you can move it slightly up-down-sideways-canted behind the HBA, so that's where I'd start.

 

I tried to take it at a maximum angle so it's really obvious. When I put my fingers there, I think it's about 3mm gap. Can anyone check theirs please? .

 

Yes, the gap is suppose to be there. But as SBT said, the backing plate could be a little tricky to get lined up at first if you are not watching to make sure it fits in there perfectly, at least it was for me.

So yesterday the replacement bearing arrived (SKF BR930474) so I changed the noisy Timken one. What was interesting is the rockauto stated on the invoice that the country of origin is China, but on the box itself was Made In USA. Also the bearing has NSK stamped on it.

 

When I pulled the Timken out and compared them, the SKF was super smooth, my impression was great. Even though the Timken was great, I'd say that SKF felt slightly better to me.

 

Took me an hour to change it including getting all tools out and clean afterwards. Here are pictures of the hubs, left SKF, right Timken with about 2k km on it (I could feel like dirt in it, it wasn't super smooth, that's probably why it was noisy right from the start):

http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l355/iaacek/DSC02947_zpst5wnwnvl.jpg

http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l355/iaacek/DSC02948_zps3qhgcbli.jpg

 

Here you can see that the back plate can't be really misaligned. The holes on the plate matches those on the hub perfectly. Although the holes on the hub are evenly spaced, they are little off center so there is only way it will fit on the plate:

http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l355/iaacek/DSC02921_zps16pwbsds.jpg

 

Assembly tip: anti-sieze on all surfaces and put the bolts into the holes beforehand so when you slide the bearing on the axle you can start doing them right away:

http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l355/iaacek/DSC02950_zpsew9mvhiw.jpg

 

I did a test drive yesterday and went to work today and the noise is gone =) All the other Timkens are good, only that rear one was bad from the start (by bad I mean noisy, it would probably last for some time). I really liked the quality of the SKF one, next time I'll try to get them for front as well. BTW prices I got for the rear one: TIMKEN C$96, SKF C$117, OEM (I quoted Subaru Calgary) C$377! So the choice was not that hard...

 

PS: the gap is really supposed to be there, I check against my neighbors Outback...