front wheel hub bearings

[coffeecup2006]

Hey everyone,
Changed the wheel bearings in the front of my 98 malibu. Can't believe they went out with only 83,000 miles on it. The older cars i have had never had to change them just pack them with grease. It wasn't to difficult of a task, a scale of 1 to 10 10 being the hardest i give it a 5. The garage was going to charge me 700.00 to change them. I only paid 140.00 each for the bearings I am glad it was the wheel bearing and not the transmission. The bearings going out sounded like a growling noise when you got up to 15 miles per hour and got louder the faster you went. This forum gave me the ideas i needed to investigate and found that it was the front bearings. This forum is great.

[IOWABOB]

Originally Posted by coffeecup2006

Hey everyone,
Changed the wheel bearings in the front of my 98 malibu. Can't believe they went out with only 83,000 miles on it. The older cars i have had never had to change them just pack them with grease. It wasn't to difficult of a task, a scale of 1 to 10 10 being the hardest i give it a 5. The garage was going to charge me 700.00 to change them. I only paid 140.00 each for the bearings I am glad it was the wheel bearing and not the transmission. The bearings going out sounded like a growling noise when you got up to 15 miles per hour and got louder the faster you went. This forum gave me the ideas i needed to investigate and found that it was the front bearings. This forum is great.

I also need to change a front bearing, did you have to have a special puller to remove the hub from the axle? Does the ball joint need to be split from the spindle? or can you just remove the axle nut and hub torx bolts? thanks.

[coffeecup2006]

Originally Posted by IOWABOB

I also need to change a front bearing, did you have to have a special puller to remove the hub from the axle? Does the ball joint need to be split from the spindle? or can you just remove the axle nut and hub torx bolts? thanks.

No, i didn't need a special puller, just a three jaw puller is all you need. No you don't have to split the balljoint. It is very simple. Before you begin, loosen the hub nut on the axle. Then jack the car up and remove the tire. After that you need to remove the brake caliper, then the rotor slides off the hub. After that unplug the anti-lock brake wire. Then take out your hub bolts ( the three on the back side), you will need a 13mm short six point socket and a universal swivel, use a 3/8 not 1/2 inch, the 1/2 inch won't fit on to the bolts because the sockets are too big. The bolts come out hard because they used locktite on them. After that take your puller and pull the hub loose from the axial, don't push to hard just enough to break the axial from the hub. Don't pull out on the axial shaft to far or you might pull the bearings apart inside the axial shaft. Take a hammer and tap the back side of the hub until it falls out. Reverse to put it back in. The axial shaft nut needs to be torqued back to 284 ft lbs. Just a hint of advice...i used antiseize on all my bolts before reinstalling the hub. Need anymore help let me know.