Front wheel bearings

[mackat]

Going for the 2nd attempt at changing out the front wheel bearings this weekend.

Suggestions for tools I'd need?

[Poodle]

A mate, jack, axle stands, breaker bar, ratchet, 16, 17, 19 and 36mm sockets, 16 and 17mm spanners, flat head screwdriver, wedge or chisel, hammer, copper hide mallet, punch, lever bar, philips or t30 torx (if you still have disc grub screws), some sort of press.

[mackat]

Nice one - thanks for that!

A couple tools there which I certainly don't have. I think the most important would be the press, but have just asked the local garage how much they'd charge - £30 dunno is that's good/bad.

One question, I've undone the nut for the steering arm but can never seem to get the arm to come loose. Do I need some sort of clamp to get this to come free?

[Toms306]

Is that £30 with the hubs already removed? Seems a bit much to me!

[mackat]

nah that's with the hubs still on.

Edit - will check though.

[306Dan]

My locals normally charge around £5-10 per hub when the hubs off the car

[Toms306]

If that's £30 for the to do the whole lot I'd say it's good! Would expect between £5-£10 with hubs removed but they can be a pain, particularly the lower BJ.

[Poodle]

Yeah that's a good price, cheap enough that i'd say it's not worth doing yourself tbh. The tre balljoint can be freed up easily with a good smack on the side of where it goes up through the hub casting, if you're not a good shot put the nut back on a few turns to protect the thread. That or a splitter, if you've got one.

[mackat]

Finally have time to try this again!
And yeah it's £30 to have both sides pressed out and new ones pressed in.

Gonna have to use some sort of splitter to open up the hub to suspension strut. Was hitting the bolt (is the nut on) with a hammer last time and it wasn't budging.

Also how'd you get the steering link/joint out from the hub?
Undid the nut and again hammer time but to no avail..

[Poodle]

The strut should come out of the hub without needing to remove that bolt. To free up the TRE turn onto full lock (as if the front of the wheel is pointing in towards the engine bay) and hit the side of the hub casting where the TRE spigot goes through, hit it hard. Obviously undo the nut first else it won't be able to drop out lol. Spraying a bit of penetrating fluid on everything first should help too.

[mackat]

The strut should come out of the hub without needing to remove that bolt. To free up the TRE turn onto full lock (as if the front of the wheel is pointing in towards the engine bay) and hit the side of the hub casting where the TRE spigot goes through, hit it hard. Obviously undo the nut first else it won't be able to drop out lol. Spraying a bit of penetrating fluid on everything first should help too.

Thanks Poodle - will give that a go.. might have to buy myself a bigger hammer