Front Wheel Bearing Replacement

I'm planning to tackle the front bearings on my '54 plate TDi 90 next weekend, weather permitting. Does anyone in the East Anglia area (Bury St Edmunds/Cambridge/Norwich) have a tool I could borrow for an appropriate consideration? If not, I'll get one myself, and then there will be one in the East Anglia area (Bury St Edmunds/Cambridge/Norwich area) for others to borrow.

Cheers,

Mike
 
Speed sensors. If you can replace all the wheelend sensors yourself, the abs light may be cheaper to get sorted at the dealers.
Ok you are trying to save yourself 180 quid a corner.
Pick out your old mot and look for any advisories around the wheel area.
Ok buy 4 stands and a trolley jack at lidls, £60
Break the wheel nuts and send it up on the stands,, as high as you dare.
Start front. There’s enough stuff on a2oc to get wheels, callipers and disks out of the way .
I tried a slide hammer here. And it wouldn’t have it,, stands and car start moving.
So the bearing comes off with a puller, so get the half shaft out.
Don’t even bother offering a puller up to it.
You did shake the wheel before touching the wheel nuts when up in the air
The hub is to be removed.
All the checking of antiroll bar, wishbone, track rods, control arm etc, are going to be accessible and preferably done now, be ruthless making your list of parts
Throw in the cost of an ebay 12 tonne press £80 and £25 for an about appropriate saddle type bearing puller ( for the rear ).
If you got this far without buying a blow lamp, spend £20 on one now.
Build press as I did in living room
Then just wait, cos you are nipping back to pull the back ones
Brakes,,dress them, fix yer andbrake .
Saddle pull the bearings
Whip out n unclimbed wired sensors
Hahaha punch n drill n severely clean ( for the sake of your consioyunse when reading forums ) where the sensor goes in
Have a look at where that speed ring sits

Can I do this next bit as another post
 
Danny said:
Speed sensors. If you can replace all the wheelend sensors yourself, the abs light may be cheaper to get sorted at the dealers.
Ok you are trying to save yourself 180 quid a corner.
Pick out your old mot and look for any advisories around the wheel area.
Ok buy 4 stands and a trolley jack at lidls, £60
Break the wheel nuts and send it up on the stands,, as high as you dare.
Start front. There’s enough stuff on a2oc to get wheels, callipers and disks out of the way .
I tried a slide hammer here. And it wouldn’t have it,, stands and car start moving.
So the bearing comes off with a puller, so get the half shaft out.
Don’t even bother offering a puller up to it.
You did shake the wheel before touching the wheel nuts when up in the air
The hub is to be removed.
All the checking of antiroll bar, wishbone, track rods, control arm etc, are going to be accessible and preferably done now, be ruthless making your list of parts
Throw in the cost of an ebay 12 tonne press £80 and £25 for an about appropriate saddle type bearing puller ( for the rear ).
If you got this far without buying a blow lamp, spend £20 on one now.
Build press as I did in living room
Then just wait, cos you are nipping back to pull the back ones
Brakes,,dress them, fix yer andbrake .
Saddle pull the bearings
Whip out n unclimbed wired sensors
Hahaha punch n drill n severely clean ( for the sake of your consioyunse when reading forums ) where the sensor goes in
Have a look at where that speed ring sits

Can I do this next bit as another post
Click to expand...
 
At the front and rear , you have had a chance to have a visual on where the sensor sits. On eBay, by spinning the pictures around, you have seen the speed ring position.
So the next bit,, check or don’t check this sites or any source
You can keep going my way with this fix
The risk is getting a better tooled person or place to continue at your limits
Or
Start breaking stuff and dealing with it,,, cut finger etc,,,, split hub, car off road at home or garage. Its about to get demobilised by its components, you could back down and refit and just sort brakes etc,,,, it wont turn off dish lights.
So proceed
Bearings and sensors come off better on one side than the other, , unless this fault has been changed before.
When you have at least one rear wheel bearing off and your two front hubs in your hands,, proceed to the press.

Next post
 
In the forum I read a bit where a gut is having a conversation with a mechanic about a bearing and speedring not being pressed into the correct possition to operate.

Twelve tonnes , press ( Hydraulic forcing jack system ) , heat Blow lamp
Please find a way to learn about what you just bought

Because you now know how to use the press
Set it up and push the bearing from the hub , having ladled it first.
It is possible with the right tool if you have a blow lamp

Do some thinking Next post
 
The bearing comes out, new one goes in
Where does it stop, you cleaned it and measured everything
You scribed marks, meaning if , that components mark reaches that measured mark or point,,,, job done
Don’t be afraid to unassemble and get new bits if you destroyed stuff

Use the old bearing and the double hex socket bought for the nut and the blow lamp and a hammer and someone , who you won’t argue back with. To shout out press alignment issues.

Front old bearings out, new bearings in
Lovely
Thank your assistant for only pointing out alignment faults.
New post
 
You are answerable to you
Missalignment is easily fixed now you see it and can adjust it
If you can’t be bothered, buy a new hub with refitted bearing
When the set up is 99% right the press will shove out the bearing, wd40 helps
The handle on the press starts deforming at 12 tonnes
Your assistant notices the expression on your face as 12 tonnes approaches
Choices
Stop pumping,,,regardless
No squeals or noises
Hammer tap where appropriate
Bleed off re align or change set up

Retry
Consider heat
New post
 
you can get washers and spacers atan ironmongers, if it thought to be required as a support
If it doesn’t move,,, its ok,,, its not you mate,, but you may have to re-evaluate,, pay the dealer
The problem with this is is that you can keep spending on increasing power
Twelve ton is a lot,, you tried it’s ok, just cos it worked for me,, my car is 85,000 miles
With the blow lamp, hammer tapping , jack and job readjustments, and allowing time for heat to transfer,,,
It does work.
One out and new one in ( yes it’s as difficult ) press new one i until it stops, at the shoulder, and it correct measures
Is that not what audi do
Note,,, who would stop pressing a bearing in before it shouldered out,,,,,, and if that is you,, well does this need to be listening to folk who can’t handle a press or want to call people , just because they handled a press.
You don’t go through all this to put proper components out of reach of a sensor
When it shoulders up , the jack goes hard , the job looks straight, you have a brew, no squeals or clicks occur
Job is dun
Refit as per a2oc folk

Wipe sweat off brow and pr
 
Danny said:
you can get washers and spacers atan ironmongers, if it thought to be required as a support
If it doesn’t move,,, its ok,,, its not you mate,, but you may have to re-evaluate,, pay the dealer
The problem with this is is that you can keep spending on increasing power
Twelve ton is a lot,, you tried it’s ok, just cos it worked for me,, my car is 85,000 miles
With the blow lamp, hammer tapping , jack and job readjustments, and allowing time for heat to transfer,,,
It does work.
One out and new one in ( yes it’s as difficult ) press new one i until it stops, at the shoulder, and it correct measures
Is that not what audi do
Note,,, who would stop pressing a bearing in before it shouldered out,,,,,, and if that is you,, well does this need to be listening to folk who can’t handle a press or want to call people , just because they handled a press.
You don’t go through all this to put proper components out of reach of a sensor
When it shoulders up , the jack goes hard , the job looks straight, you have a brew, no squeals or clicks occur
Job is dun
Refit as per a2oc folk

Wipe sweat off brow and pr
Click to expand...
£20 a bearing £15 not they are cheaper abs sensors
When this work is done the dealer won’t be able to charge you for doing it
N you won’t like this
Although pointers all pointed at it,, it probably isn’t the problem
But you can’t be smacked in the teeth by someone claiming that it is
And now the job is done
Inspect removed components
Can we see an obvious fault
Leave it there
 
Danny said:
...
Click to expand...

Congratulations @Danny .. you've managed to transform a description of car maintenance into an epic poem very reminiscent of Beowulf in the original... but less succinct! ;)

ie. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/16328/16328-h/16328-h.htm#I

if it sticks at the table of contents, click the hot link (I)

I particularly enjoy the bit where Grendel realises that someone has put a bit of black tape over his chariot's EML and rains vengeance on the Danes.
 
Last edited:
Oy I know a bit about the Norwegian thoughts and Thor the hammer , regularly is invited to my a2 lol
 
You are correct spike
I trawled and and found nothing deffinate
As an engineer, I know that if when pressing a new bearing in
It has a shoulder to hit and stop at, theres no funny business here allowed
The squealing stops, heating gets no where, most of all measurements are correct.
Pump up, achieve 12 tonnes, wait, check if you can pump more
Heat the hub,,, moderately
Any movement or noise
Tap with hammer, tap hard enough to say. If that was going to move it would have
Reheat reatap, try pump , no extra movement in all, ,,, that bearing is home
 
Its easy to smash the outer race off and use it as a correct sized pusher
And your tool would be the nicer alternative
At the end of the day this is engineers trying to make electrical components work
 
Ok its spacing
I had problems both with using spacers and old components.i also had problems with a twelve tonne press, heat and missing and Mashable iron components on the press
 
I looked at audi bearing shifting kit
I cant push anything properly , unless I can pack it correctly
 
Incidently
When the front bearings arrived,,, they were put in the freezer
The back ones were put on the radiator ( cold in Aberdeen) when I went out to remove the rear bearings. Clean up the sensor areas, and the brakes you cleaned as you removed and the shaft and the back of the shaft.
Now rebuild can begin
Yes the bearing is hot
Use the old nut to wind the bearing on, then remove it.
Your £17 wheel bearing kits came with nuts and dust caps,,, yes
The £25 screwfix 1/2” torque wrench is used with the ebay 36mm bihex draper and the rear , off the top of my head, it may be a lower size ( possibly 27 mm ) normally found in semi decent 1/2” socket set. Set torques as per book and fit the dust caps,,, leaving them off to recheck torque later,, will involve wheel removal to fit caps, or you mush one and need the old one, like I did lol.
Four bearings on and new abs sensors,,, you have saved some money
 
The 4 sensors can be got from the bay for £15 but they take a month to arrive. Or they are about £12 each.
Jacks, parts, tools, consumables,, below the cost of a dealer doing one wheel.
 
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