Front Wheel Bearing

The driver front wheel bearing went last year, still on warranty. I had a 1992 Honda Prelude, driver rear wheel bearing went early, also on warranty. My 2000 GMC Sierra 4x4, passenger front wheel bearing went less than 6 months into ownership.

With sealed bearings, sometimes you just "luck out" and a get a crappy bearing. Older cars and trucks with conventional bearings, I've repacked and noticed from the factory, they were put in dry. Just the grease in the bearing itself.

Depending on how much they have to take apart, an alignment may be needed afterwards, and should be warranty as well.

 

My '05 got a new right front wheel bearing at 45k miles. Covered under warranty... Have them check the alignment, and the ABS. I had to return because the ABS sensor was mis-aligned during reassembly...

 

I replaced the driver front wheel bearing at around 100,000 (out of warranty) and it was a liece of cake. The whole bearing assemply is replaced so its four bolts and its on and off. THe only tricky p-art was re-installing the dust shield which is held in place by friction. No alignment needed and no ill effects. in about 20,000 miles.

 

There should be no need for alignment as the whole thing is very precise and goes back exactly where it should. Alignments correct for wear in steering parts and bumping kerbs.

There is no need to pack a hub with grease when packing wheel bearings. Any grease outside the bearing does nothing anyway. I put a very thin layer of grease over the inside of the hub to catch any dust that gets in while assembling. I mean thin like a coat of paint. When you go to repack a bearing which has been flooded with grease the grease between the bearings will be clean and hard with cracks where it has dried out a bit.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Oct 10 2007, 01:10 PM) [snapback]523709[/snapback]</div>

I agree that grease in the hub usually doesn't help much. The exception is one of those hub grease packer gadgets for boat trailers that maintain grease pressure inside the hub. There is a zerk on the dust cap end, you attach a grease gun and apply grease until it oozes out the relief hole. So when you back the trailer into the water to launch the boat, you don't get water in the bearings

An uncle of mine taught me at a young age that you really can't have too much grease, unless it's forced in and builds up pressure and blows out a seal. I don't completely pack the hub with grease, but I like to smear some around inside, as you mentioned

The conventional bearings I've repacked - such as on my 1984 Ford F-150 - came dry from the factory. Less than two years old, and they were ruined. Since warranty back then was 12 months, I suppose they saved a couple of dollars per truck

I've never noticed "cracked" grease in anything I've repacked. I use Esso Unitol, which appears to be a very high quality grease. It's suitable for wheel bearings and universal joints

http://www.esso.ca/Canada-English/Files/Pr...GRSESUnitol.pdf

 

Just joined forum. All this bearing packing diatribe is interesting BS. Yes, I've packed open bearings on Fords, Chevy's and 4X4 Jeeps, but they're not like the Prius. The Prius has sealed bearings. That's good or bad depending how you think. If you don't maintain a car, then it's good. If you do, then its bad, because you only get one packing and that's when it's manufactured new. Sealed bearings have low volume areas for the grease. Unsealed bearings have the entire inner volume of the hub available to pack since the hub seals are external to the bearing boundary. That high volume of grease provides thermal mass, and if your grease has some medium viscosity at normal use loadings then it'll flow to the bearing carrying lovely lubrication (when heat and G forces allow) to the bearing and suck heat away. Sealed bearing don't do that. Oh well. I have 130K on my Gen 2 2004. My front wheel bearings are howling like a coyote at full moon. This is my primary commute vehicle, of 4 operating cars, 3 trucks, and 1 street motorcycle owned, currently registered and licensed and actively driven, seeing 122 miles round trip per day, mostly at 85 to 90 mph. Yes I have police scanners and Escort rader detection. Yes, my Prius is amazing. It gets 38 mpg at 95 mph as measured early in life over a 1700 mile trek going and coming over hills and into and with the wind, but all of it was hauling nice person fast. Smoking fast as measured by most people. So the reason I'm here is to find out HOW ANYBODY gets the front spindle (axle) nut off to change said front wheel bearing hub assembly. Anybody got a clue? The stamped detent in the nut flange which sinks it into the axle keyway has me baffeled. Do I try to lift out the dent to lighten the loads on the threads or just crank on it REALLY hard???? ANY Pics and first hand knowledge much appreciated. Posers keep quiet, please. Yes, I'm an engineer. Thanks in advance. PerfectSpeed is Being There...

 

Yes, the point of the detent is to lock the nut in place. You must lift that out using a hammer and a pointed tool, before you can remove the nut.

Then when you are reinstalling, you should use a new nut and set the detent after tightening. Tightening torque is 159 ft.-lb.

 

I'm also an engineer (Chemical Engineer) and learned a long time ago to RTFM. Per the shop manual:

"Remove Front Axle Hub Nut: Use SST* and a hammer, unstake the axle hub nut. Set SST with flat side in. Do not grind the SST tip with a grinder. Unstake completely when removing the front axle hub nut. Do not damage the front drive shaft assy threads.

* SST 09930-00010"

No need for the SST. As Patrick suggested, any reasonable tool can be used, like a punch or pick, to unstake the nut

 

Thanks Jayman. Learning experience. Never work on a vehicle without the shop manual. How hard could it be? Answer: HARD. Removed nuts by lifting dents with punch, but still shaved threads when removing. Both axle shaft threads were damaged anyway. One slight, one needs replacement. Fxck. I also bent BOTH ABS sensor probe center conductors when I seated the dust shields. I should have removed them prior to the whole bearing replacement thing. Straightened the conductors with pliers but am getting ABS, ASC, and Brake warning lights on dash. I'm ready to surrender and take it to the dealer and say fix it. Does anybody know how to reset the ABS warning lights so I can see if maybe that's it? Thx. Perfectspeed is being there...

 

Maybe disconnecting the 12 volt battery for a time will cancel a stale ABS code. Maybe not. It will only cost you the radio station presets to find out

 

2002 prius here, with a bad LF wheel bearing.

I got a new axle nut from the dealer and used a dremel tool with a little cutoff wheel to score lines around the detent, then pounded a screwdriver into and that section split out. The nut came off easy, threads are perfect, and the new nut cost $6.95.

everything came apart pretty easy- so far...

I have the whole assembly off now, with the half shaft and brake assembly wired up to the spring above.

I have a replacement bearing- about $50 from the parts store, and took that and the wheel/knuckle/hub assemble (with dust shield still attached) to a local machine shop, where the claim they can press it all out and back together.

I thought the inside dust cover needed to be *pulled* out, not pressed out. I can't find any really good instructions on this point.

Anyway, I will post results back here.

BTW- I had "The Hum" and when I got it 1/2way apart I found the wheel bearing had a little play in it. Hopefully I can push the old bearing apart and see what failed.

Sealed bearings suck, as far as I am concerned.

-Joe

 

Hi Joe,

Excellent idea! What wheel did you use to score the nut? (Do you know the Dremel # ?)

 

a cutoff wheel- the disposable kind that screws onto a little mandrel thing. I ran it on the edge of an old hammer for a while til the diameter was worn down some, so it would fit in there. A full size wheel wouldn't let me get good angles. -And I cut as deep as I dared, not wanting to mess up the threads underneath.

Driving a screwdriver split the bent in area right off the nut. I should have taken pictures!

I suppose you could do this and reuse the nut, as long as you are able to pound in part of it after reassembly. But for 6 or 8 bucks- I mean, this IS after all a safety issue as well. Axle nut coming off can turn your car into a sled!

 

Totally agree it would be foolish to attempt reuse of the used axle nut. Thanks for the clarification.

 

Re: Front Wheel Bearing-My front wheel bearings are howling like a coyote at full moon.

My front wheel bearings are howling like a coyote at full moon.
I have similar issue and I am wondering if it will pup off one of these days in my commute?

 

Probably, it would be a really good idea to have the front wheels inspected to see if the bearings need to be replaced.

 

I agree, it's just one more disposable, and expensive, part.

Ironically, my FJ Cruiser, advertised as being an off road vehicle capable of fording water deeper than the wheel hubs, also has "sealed" bearings

Which apparently work just fine, until you actually do something silly like, oh, drive through mud or water deeper than the wheel hubs

 

Alright-help me out here all you alpha sounding male mechanic sorts-
I have an '05 with 106K. At the 90K service I told the mech that the road noise was pretty bad-bearings or? He kinda shrugged and said, "eh, old car, lotsa miles, thats to be expected."

Fast forward to yesterday, at the dealer. I told the service guy, he says "we'll ck it out." Come in later to p/u the car, guy sees me and yells over the crowd "Your car is dangerous to drive, you can't pick up your car today." Shit on a shingle. Says the front L. bearings were so bad the wheel was about to fall off. Total, plus the baseline 105K service is upwards of $700.00 plus no car till Tues. afternoon.

As I pondered this, and remembered the 90K guy shrugging it off, I got a bit PO'd.

I'm in awe of you all who have the know-how to do this work yourself. Mind you, I learned how bike mechanics so I could do my own work, and did, even changing bearings and complex stuff, but I don't even want to learn how to do this kind of stuff.

I'm gonna call Toyota today and bitch a bit. Do you think I have any recourse here for being dismissed at 90K? I love my car and of course will get the work done and do have the $ to do it, but the principal of the thing sucks.

thanks in advance,

 

Recourse? Either discuss it with the 90K guy or don't go back.

"Baseline 105K service" smells like a dealer's service "package". You'll get serviced, all right. Before having your wallet cleaned see here for all the routine 105K service needed according to Toyota:
Toyota Online Owners Manuals and Service Manuals
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