fronts are required to be replaced with hubs, bearing does not come off the front hub.

Rear you can just change bearing in order to save $$. If press is unavailable buying already assembled hub is certainly alternative route that gets the job done.

 

I think I've got a bad/noisy wheel bearing. I thought it might be tire noise, but just put on a new set, and the sound is completely unchanged. I'm pretty sure the sound is coming from the rear, but sitting in the driver's seat, I'm not sure which side.. I need someone to drive while I sit on the hump in my back seat, and maybe then I can determine which side it is (hell, might even be both?).

Taking the wheels, calipers and rotors off is a bit of a shore just to diagnose, considering I'll have to put it all back on while I order and wait for parts.. but I might have to do this, check all 4 wheels to be sure, and then order the parts. I have plenty of pad life left (50%+ all around), but when I repalced the pads at ~60K (52K miles ago), I did not turn the rotors as they were borderline minimum thickness already. I figured I would have replaced the rotors and pads by now, but these pads have had outstanding life. I have a high-speed shudder, and below 15 mph, it can feel like my braking force is going back and forth from like 20% to 50% as I'm slowing to a stop. I've been living with it, but with this whole bearing thing..

And even though the sound seems to be from the rear, I think the fronts are where the major shudder/warp is, so I'm wondering if it's actually the fronts I'm hearing, if extended running with the "bad" brakes might have caused excessive stress on the bearing and worn them out.

I think I'm going to order new pads and rotors all around, and when installing them, I can check every wheel bearing at that point. If I find a bad one, I can order just the parts I need and take that corner back apart later. That would be better than taking them all apart, checking for wheel bearings, then taking them all apart again to replace the brakes even if only 1 bearing is bad..

I do wonder though, so any insight would be much appreciated- If I put new pads and rotors on and have a bad wheel bearing, what type of damage might I do to the new pads and rotors while still running the bad bearing? I'm assuming that as long as I'm not too hard on them, and don't go more than a month or so (about 1500+ miles for me) before replacing the bearing, that it shouldn't have any real effect on them. Am I wrong..?