Front wheel bearing on a '01S

[Frodo]

That's it? No removing the end link, no loosening anything on the control arm, no disconnecting the tie rod? Don't get me wrong, that sounds good...but there's conflicting reports out there on how much disassembly is required. Following your recommendation, does the bottom of the strut not get in the way?

BTW, yes, I do have the 32 mm nut off.

And now a more elementary question I should have asked before (sorry). When I spin the hub, the bearing really doesn't feel/sound bad at all. In fact, to my untrained ear (and fingertips), it seems pretty good. Can bearings start to go, to the point they'll make an audible noise when driving (with top up, especially at relatively slow speeds, especially when turning, especially turning to the left) and yet still feel/sound pretty good once the wheel, caliper and rotor are off?

[insite]

trust me; i've done dozens of these. the SIR makes it easy.


EDIT: to answer your other question, you can't tell if a bearing is bad just by trying to wiggle the spindle. sometimes there is obvious play, but sometimes there is not.

[tommy986]

I thought the strut insert blocked you from removing #5. At least it did on my 2000 S.

[insite]

Originally Posted by tommy986

I thought the strut insert blocked you from removing #5. At least it did on my 2000 S.

i haven't ever run into that problem.....

well, frodo, if you run into that issue, remove the sway bar link bolt from the top of the wheel carrier. loosen the lower control arm bolt. this will allow you to slide the wheel carrier a bit lower on the strut to clear the stator IF you have a clearance issue.

[Frodo]

Well, yeah, I did run into that issue, unfortunately. The way it is now, there's no way to get the wheel spindle/ABS (#5 on your pic) piece out. (Things may have changed between '99 and '01?)

Okay, Insite, onto what you were recommending. I loosened the top end-link bolt at the top of the wheel bearing carrier:



Doesn't that also help hold the wheel bearing carrier to the strut? I should push that bolt all the way through and out (ie, to the left in my pic)?

Keeping in mind that I'm an admitted noob, here's where I also start to run into terminology problems. You say to loosen the lower control arm bolt. Now 101 Projects refers to the components of the suspension as the 'wishbone' and 'control arm'. Bentley calls the same pieces the 'transverse control arm' and the 'diagonal control arm.' They're all the same thing, right? So when you talk about loosening the lower control arm bolt, are you talking about the bolt by the nickle (next to the ball joint)? If so, again: do I take it all the way out or just loosen it?



I know these are idiotic questions, I just want to do this right the first time...

[insite]

my car has coilovers, so that may have been the difference.....

in your first picture, remove the bolt completely. you want the wheel carrier to slide down the strut. if you can make this happen without doing anything else, then GOOD.

if the wheel carrier will NOT slide down the strut after you've removed that bolt, then you need to only LOOSEN the control arm bolt. in your last picture, the quarter is sitting on the control arm. trace it to the left of the picture; there is a single bolt that holds the control arm to the subframe under the car. if you loosen it, the control arm will move & allow you to lower the wheel carrier enough to get the ABS stator out of the upright.

[Frodo]

OK, here's where I am now. (I'm workin' on this in short bursts, when I get home from work. Not my DD, no huge hurry...except the weather is suddenly BEAUTIFUL, perfect driving weather, unlike what it's been for the past several months. So maybe I AM in a hurry.)

Per the above recommendations, got the endlink disconnected from the wheel bearing carrier, and got the inner bolt loosened on the control arm:



You can see how far the carrier has dropped on the strut. Here's the problem:




In the first pic, you can see I've gotten the carrier lowered by maybe 2" (see the horizontal line around the strut, separating dirty areas from clean, black areas)...it's still not enough. Looking at the second pic (taken from behind the wheel bearing carrier, ie from the inside looking out), I think I probably still need maybe another inch before I have any chance of slipping the wheel spindle/ABS piece (#5 on earlier schematic pic) out to start the actual wheel bearing work. The bottom of the strut (for the uninitiated, it's the more-or-less vertical black cylinder in the upper left part of the pic) is still in the way.

I've been tapping on the carrier (light hammer taps, with a piece of wood taking the blows) to get it as far as I have. My question now is whether or not I'm going to create problems with either the LCA ball joint:



...or the ball joint at the innermost end of the diagonal control arm:



It may be hard to tell from the photos, but they're both getting some pretty significant angles to them. (The carrier tapped down to where it is pretty easily; now progress is getting tough.) I'm really trying NOT to break anything here.

I guess my options are:

1) disconnect the strut at the top, which might give me some more play.
2) unbolt the bolts at the ball joint and/or at the inner end of the diagonal control arm.

I was trying to avoid #1, because I think everything then gets all loosy-goosy which, I would think, would make extracting the hub and bearing more difficult. (I'm working alone much of the time.)

Are there any "issues" involved with #2 other than just wrenching off the nuts? No ball joint tool involvement? (I don't have one---though I suppose I could pick one up.)

Would a spring compressor (available at the local Auto Zone or Advanced Auto) be of any help?

Any advice appreciated.