Front wheel bearings in my car are shot. It's finally to the point where the car is getting uncomfortable to drive.

Cost of parts has caused me to put it off...but now I need to do it. there is very little info and source of parts on these bearings. No formal DIY exists either from what I've seen.

In looking for cheapest price, I came across this

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...mGn2plfDkpi_sw

Autozome shows $170 for a fromt wheel bearing/hub assembly. Problem is I think it's bearing only

A google search shows this part number (timken BM500013) shows it available on rockauto.com as well...for $89 though. Shows pic of bearing only.

http://www.rockauto.com/dbphp/x,cata..._BM500013.html

Even for bearing only, this is cheap! Timkin is a reputable bearing manufacturer and I have no issue using them as they are oem in many cars.

I would prefer to buy new bearings and hubs and press them together beforehand. Would just be easier.

Online infinit dealers have bearings are $170+ without hub. That rock auto price is dirt cheap...if correct.


Also, does anyone have any DIY info...such as torque specs for bearing and axle bolts?

Like I said...very little info. Seems most info is rear or front (non-awd) bearings

Edit: found fsm for fromt bearings

http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/G35/Seda..._Sedan/fax.pdf


Edit: btw, rock auto has the rear bearings for $49. If you search, you can usually find a 5% off code


EDIT: DIY COMPLETE 8/1/11

https://g35driver.com/forums/g35-sed...-bearings.html

 

If I purchase 1 of the rock auto bearings, anyone know where I can get a cheap hub?

I want to try to do this for $200 a side. Right now, the drivers front is the one that needs to be done first.

 

I will tell you the horror of doing this replacement yourself from recent (last week) experience. First of all, check with rock auto to see if they actually have that part in stock. I checked on the wheel bearing/hub assembly and they said they were out of stock. I tried Autopartswarehouse.com also and after ordering and them debiting my account $109 for just the bearing, they then e-mailed me about 3days later and said "sorry, we're out of stock and will refund you you money within 5 days.". What i ended up doing is going through a reputable local repair shop that my mother in law uses and paying about $250 after taxes and everything to get just the bearing.

I then went to auto zone and rented a slide hammer and a 32 mm spindle nut remover. Of course you have to pull the front axle to get to the 4 bolts holding the bearing in place. I used the slide hammer to pull the existing stock wheel hub out. It took a LOT of yanking to pull this out and the bearing was so stuck in there that the front of the bearing came apart and left the back half od the bearing in place. I took that place to the shop who cut off that piece of bearing and pressed on the new bearing for free for me.

From here i tried to use an air hammer to pound out the rest of the bearing but it was seized solid. Luckily i have a friend with a press and after lots of work (drilled cotter pins and used an impact wrench to remove seized nuts) we were able to get the entire knuckle off and take it to his house where we presed out the bearing (which of course broke the ABS sensor (which was also seized in place and unremovable).

My car had already been down for 2 weeks trying to replace this bearing so i was in a bit of a time crunch, but i just wanted to warn you of some of the pitfalls of doing this. Make sure you have the bearing in your possession before taking down the car and be ready to just remove everything and press out the old bearing. Hopefully yours isn't as bad as mine was but I'm just hoping no more ever go bad, haha.

 

Thats kinda why I want to buy a hub as well. I'd rather pay $100 for the hub and then just press it onto the bearing at my own leisure.

Then, when it comes time to do the job, I remove axle, unbolt bad bearing and hub, and just bolt on new one. I don't want to have the car down and deal with pressing the hub off and onto the new bearing. I want an assembly ready to go.


Then, later on, I'll press out the hub, buy another bearing and press the original hub into the bearing and then do the other side.

I just need 2 things.

Cheap source of front awd hub

Procedure to removing the fromt axle shaft.

 

Great, im about to have to replace my front left bearing too, its humming like crazy

 

FWIW get the factory Nissan bearing from riverside or one of the other vendors on this site then any capable machine shop can press out the old and press in the new one. I went through the whole trying to save a dime rockauto, autopartswarehouse, etc it will not work. X's use a different front bearing than all other 350's and G's because of front drive axles. Like others have stated if you spent any good amount of time driving on a shot bearing your hub is probably fused to your bearing like mine was in that case you might want to pick one up from riverside as well and avoid mean looks from angry mechanic or hit up http://www.car-part.com if you dont mind used. GL

 

ive had to replace bearings for my x recently too. One of them was seized to the hub/spline, so had to replace the entire axle shaft assy. Timken are decent, but I would still prefer the OEM NTN ones.

 

Did you replace them yourself?

 

I did it with a friend, because I dont own the right tools. The main issue we ran into was all the rust. As far as the torque specs for the axle nut, etc, i dont remember exactly off hand, but they should not vary from the FWD cars much...if at all.

 

Ugh, well this is going to be a $500 repair for me in parts.

2 oem bearings, and a single hub.

Im hoping I can separate the hub/bearing cleanly on the side I do first, and then reuse the hub on the other side with new bearing.

I want a bearing/hub assembly ready to go when I start. Don't want to mess around will pulling off hubs and ruining them with a puller. I have a 20ton press at work and want to take my time and do it carefully.

In 15 years of doing my own maintainence...this will be the most expensive single repair to date for me.

 

Here's the whole problem with that, the bearing has to come out of the knuckle before you can install the new bearing and hub. That's why i saved myself the expense of buying a new hub and just reused the stock one. The problems didn't stem from the hub and new bearing being pressed together, that was the easy part. The problem was that thanks to time and corrosion my bearing was stuck in the aluminum knuckle and I had to remove that whole part to have the back of the bearing pressed out of the knuckle. I'll go post up a picture of what i mean in a second. Save yourself the expense of buying (and the trouble of even finding) a new hub assembly. The hub assembly itself was not messed up when i pulled it, the bearing itself, behind the hub, split and dumped ball bearings everywhere leaving the front half still on the hub (which was carefully but easily cut off with a grinder) and the rear half stuck in the knuckle(which was removed as a whole and we pressed the bearing back out with a press.

 

Here you can see that while the hub pulled out fine, the bearing itself was seized in there.



With the new bearing in hand, we quickly cut off the small ring that was the front of the old bearing and then took the entire knuckle off and press out the old bearing and then after some cleaning we were able to simply slide in the newly assembled hub/wheel bearing assembly. Hope that helps!

 

Ugh. I do all of my own maintenance and mods as well, and I hope I never see this happen to my X. Does not look like fun at all!

 

It wasn't, . But now that I've done it once it doesn't scare me as much and I at least know what needs to be done next time. That's what took the longest and why my car was down for so long. I tried ordering the part from one place and then found out two days later they were out of stock and refunding my money. Rinse and repeat. After several similar times trying to buy different parts online I decided just to go with the one locally so I could get the car up and running. Then the bearing came apart. A buddy said "Here, use my air hammer, that should get it out." A day or two later that thing was not moving so we decided to take the whole thing apart and use the press and then it was done that day.

 

The problem is my 20 ton press...is 30 miles away at my work.

Now I'm worried about the bearing seizing in the hub enough that I want to start soaking it down with pb blaster on a regular basis.

I wonder if bolting the wheel onto the hub after unbolting the bearing and putting weight on it would break it loose? Hmm.

Well either way, I need to find out. If in need to remove the hub and take it to work, then thats what I'll do. I can always return (or sell) the hub if i don't use it...but I'd rather have it on hand.

I'm actually more worried about removing the half shaft. I've never done bearings on a FWD car...only RWD. So this will be the first at removing the shaft.

I can't find jack on removing the front shaft on the net...and the FSM has me removing have the suspension and using vague tools I dont own to remove the shaft.

How easy was it to yank the shafts off up front? Rear looks easy, but front not so much. So I need to drain the fromt dofferential first?

Once I get the shaft out, I'm more than convinced I can do the job quickly assuming the bearing doesn't seize in the hub. I am going to start soaking them in pb though.