Fixed

 

Excellent! Glad it went fine for you as well. The AWD model definitely has more back there. The axle being the biggest thing in the way but it wasn't too bad. I was able to zip three of those bolts off in about 2mins with my cordless impact. The rear lower bolt has the Control Arm blocking access but I was able to get in there with a ratchet without issue. I'll admit, lining everything up and evenly tightening those bolts was probably the biggest pain (aside from my brake rotor being stuck) I know I probably should have replaced both at the same time but I'm a firm believer in "If it ain't broke don't fix it" So I'll wait until it needs replacing. I'd say the job is about a 3 or 4 on a 1-10 of 10 being the hardest. It's a little more involved than changing brakes and rotors but it really isn't much more involved.
Hopefully this thread helps or encourages people to do this on their own account to save the bank from being hit.

 

Just an update on this: my passenger side hub/bearing began chewing itself up about a month ago and was just getting extremely loud in the past week so I am doing that side over...I am not sure if this is an issue with the Timken part or just because this winter has been brutal and potholes are worse than I have ever seen in almost 20 years of driving. Either way I got less than 9months/10k miles (under 15k kms) on these bearings...The good news is that Rock Auto is sending a replacement under warranty. Interesting thing to note, Rock Auto has its own warranty on Timken parts which is only 12 months but if you buy the part elsewhere it gets 3 years!

Either way, having done the job before, it was much faster this time and only took about 25 mins to disassemble including jacking up the car and putting it on jack stands; reassembly time is TBA as I am not picking up the replacement part till Saturday and doing a bunch of other maintenance that I had been putting off while it was too cold and | was too busy to work on the car for the last two months

 

I posted a complete diy on this on here. It will save you major time on this...

It's in the general discussion area titled wheel bearing DIY

 

Much thanks for the direction! My favourite part "Next reconsider your driving approach and how you will avoid Pot Holes in the future." ...haha...so true....

Your DIY is the one I followed when I first did both front hub/bearings last year and is absolutely the reason that I was able to do it so fast this this time.

I responded to Kevinl86's thread because it was newer and I wanted to contribute to the forums having used them for at least 25 different DIY's already, without having time to comment much. I figured this thread complimented your DIY by focusing more on the alternatives available for the parts as the price range seems to vary quite a bit for these things, but again thanks for the great DYI

 

I too was experiencing the loud whirring sound from the front of the car. Finally decided that it was too annoying to listen to that drone on and on while on the highway so I swapped out the bearings in the front. I got the Beck/Arnley hubs from rock auto for about $85/each.

I followed the DIY but got cocky after completing the drivers side. When I pulled the passenger side hub, I neglected to remove the ABS sensor which broke when the hub came out. This was an expensive mistake as the replacement is $130 on rock auto. Kinda pissed since I basically just spent this for the hub replacement.

Total time it took me was 5 hours because i'm an idiot. It was difficult getting around behind the steering knuckle and I had to keep turning the wheel to get it. The DIY helped a lot, definitely wouldn't have tried this without it. Thanks!

Lessons learned;
- Use a slide hammer to pull the rotors out if they're stuck. You can rent one from a parts store like auto zone for free(?).
- REMOVE THE ABS SENSOR AND PROTECT THAT THING
- Use PB blaster. You need it. It needs you.
- I used a lift at the auto hobby shop on base. If you have access to a lift, it really helps to get the leverage needed to break the caliper bolts free.

Good luck people!

 

we've all been there glad you got er done though