Front wheel bearing replacement.

[b*saint]

Im pretty sure the outside race is machined into the hub.

[bastianshaw]

Yeah...they are all come with bearings...when they said "change wheel bearing" they meant "change wheel bearing/hub assembly" and those pics show the process.

in fact, anyone know where to buy bearings WITHOUT the hubs? Post a link, don't give me any bullshit like 'they got them at autohauz", gimme a damn link AND a part number!

lol

[TurboJake]

Is the 3 arm puller absolutely necessary? I have a 2 arm that would fit.

Sometimes they pop right off. Especially when below 30 degrees.

But there was one inner race I had that stuck. I slotted it with a dremel, and cracked it with a 3lb maul and chisel. No heating the spindle. No puller possibly chewing stuff up. No damage to anything except my face. Which is pretty fucked up already so it's all good.

[36brua]

Is the 3 arm puller absolutely necessary? I have a 2 arm that would fit.

try this.. easy GL

http://e30world.com/suspension/BMW-E30-Front-Wheel-Bearing-Replacement

[io_RobbieRodgers]

Alright, I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I don't have a bearing puller . . is there anything else I can use or is that like the end all be all tool??

You could McGuyver a super electromagnet, slap it on the hub bearing, chain it up to the back of a truck, and step on the gas of said truck. Like pulling teeth.
The next step is pray the bearing comes free before your strut is ripped out.

[Click]

Is the 3 arm puller absolutely necessary? I have a 2 arm that would fit.

[b*saint]

Front bearings? Cake walk.


Rear bearings? Fucking waffleswaffleswaffleswaffles whore son of a bitch sucking blood from the mother of all that is sacred on this rock hurtling through space.

They actually aren't that bad.

[Fixcinater]

I just did this according to the workflow outlined here, which does a nice job of covering everything.

When I got to the 36mm nut, I stood on my 3/8ths drive Craftsman ratchet and snapped the internal pawls trying to break it loose. Had to put it all back together and get their (1/2 inch drive handle to get it done.

Also, my bearing fell apart as I yanked on the rotor to get it off...even the inner race basically slipped right off.

[cholyoke]

Turns out that holding the hub or rotor still while removing the nut was unnecessary. Both came off with no problems. The hub just starts to spin a little once the bolt is loose, but the bolt itself came off with no problems. Impact wrench = Good times. Thank you for the write up!

[mcr_driver]

When I did my front bearings I used a bar to hold the brake pedal while i used a breaker bar to remove to nut

[cholyoke]

I'm about to do this job as part of a larger project, but haven't taken the dust cap off. The bentley says to remove the 36 mm nut with the tire on the ground and a write up at pelican said to remove it with someone holding rotor/hub in place by depressing the brake. Is the 36 mm nut around a fixed spindle and you don't need to hold the hub still while removing the nut?

[Click]

I believe my front bearings are starting to go. How long do front wheel bearings usually last?

[Rigmaster]

Alright, I hope this isn't a dumb question, but I don't have a bearing puller . . is there anything else I can use or is that like the end all be all tool??

Yeah, I know this question was posted several months ago, but you don't need a bearing/gear puller to do this job.

To get the old hub off, once you remove the 36mm nut and the rotor set-screw (5mm allen) thread the lugbolts back into the hub, just enough so that they are securely in the hub (5-6 full turns should be enough). Now you can use the loose rotor as a sort of ghetto slide hammer- grasp the rotor at 9 + 3 o'clock and snatch it out away from the hub. You might have to do this several times if the hub is stuck on the spindle, but it will come off.


If the inner race sticks like it seems to do more often than not, you can do what someone else suggested and carefully cut through it using a cutoff wheel or a sawzall, or you can try to carefully put the tip of a flat chisel between the edge of the race and the step on the spindle and tap it a bit, moving it to a new position eac time to slowly work the race off of the spindle.

[cale]

Luke I'm going to take appart one of the hubs I have pulled off and see what the bearing vendors at work can do for me. We deal with FAG and they make e30 hubs, so I'm sure there are bearings out there available for purchase so you'd just have to have them pressed in.

As for autozone specials, buy decent stuff. Cheap bearings suck, and it's a pretty integral part of your vehicle which if it goes wrong is going to hurt.

[djjerme]

If you get em through Advanced, it's only $60 per side for the bearing/hub assembly. Plus, they usually have some decent deals going..

As for the inner race, several other Pro-3 guys gave me the tip of just slicing it up with a cut off wheel. If you happen to nick the spindle, it's not the end of the world, just hit it with some Emery cloth or sand paper (won't affect performance.) Considering these guys change their wheel bearings pretty regularly, they know some good tricks to get it done, quick like.