Replacing Wheel Bearings

[Guest]

Hi All,

I think the wheelbearings are gone/going in my celica.

The car makes a kind of whurring noise when its being driven... which comes from the front wheels

So how hard is to replace the wheel bearings, and what tools would i need?

[qkslvr]

Hi dude. The wheel bearing is not hard to replace. You'll need a breaker bar or hight setting torque wrench with a good quality socket that can remove the hub nut (can't remember the size from the top of my head but it's HUGE). also get yourself a tub or wheel bearing grease.

You'll need to take the whole knuckle out to relace the bearings. That means removing the brake calipers, brake rotors, undoing the hub nut that holds the knuckle onto the drive shaft spleen, undoing the steering tie-rod, undoing the 3 bolts under the control arm where the ball joint is, undoing the strut from the knuckle.

basically the entire knuckle has to come out. The bearing is pressed onto the hub shaft at one side (from memory) so removing that will be the hard part.

Good luck dude.

[Zoran]

Straight up, not an easy task... just did mine on my ST184 (front left)...

The bearings need to be pressed in! worse still if its the front (not sure on the rear) coz it uses a hub assembly which makes extraction very difficult...

the job its self is estimated as a 2-3 hour job by trained personnel. I do quite a bit of work on my car, this had to handled by the pros!

first off you'll be up for a Wheel bearing kit. which contains the bearing, the seals, spaces etc. not for the faint of heart... and that sound has got to ***** you off something fierce... I know how you feel!

Any mechanic can do this job! just a matter of how much time they have.

[Guest]

Straight up, not an easy task... just did mine on my ST184 (front left)...

The bearings need to be pressed in! worse still if its the front (not sure on the rear) coz it uses a hub assembly which makes extraction very difficult...

the job its self is estimated as a 2-3 hour job by trained personnel. I do quite a bit of work on my car, this had to handled by the pros!

first off you'll be up for a Wheel bearing kit. which contains the bearing, the seals, spaces etc. not for the faint of heart... and that sound has got to ***** you off something fierce... I know how you feel!

Any mechanic can do this job! just a matter of how much time they have.

Well i have a pair of bearing kits ($120 later) and a shed full of tools.. (including a bearing press thing) so i hope i can do it LOL

[CHA54]

if you've got a press, bearing splitter and mandrel for pressing the race in square to the carrier then go for it...

I made up a "special service tool" to make pressing the hub back into the carrier with new bearings a lot easier.

Basically a shaft that sits inside the hub the carrier and bearings can slide down over to ensure they press in squarely, much easier than hoping they start to press squarely when attempting to do the final assembly.

On the toyota carrier, make sure you use Loctite bearing fit on the outer race, without it you run the risk of the outer race spinning in the carrier and stuffing your new wheel bearing.

Make sure you repack the new bearings with some decent quality high temp wheel bearing grease, they'll last much longer than if you use the white/clear stuff they come pre-packed with.

Here's a pictorial guide of a bearing replacement on a subaru for reference, very very similar method of replacement on both the celica and corolla. http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6420

Edited April 10, 2008 by rollamods

[Zoran]

Well i have a pair of bearing kits ($120 later) and a shed full of tools.. (including a bearing press thing) so i hope i can do it LOL

Ar ha.. different ball park then ;) go for ya life then.. that paints a totally different picture now :)