Wheel Bearings
 

I am about to do my wheel bearings. Going to take the carrier off and bring it to a shop and have them remove and press in the new bearings. Is there anything I should be aware of or look out for or hint/tricks i should know?

Also is there anything else I should do/replace while i am doing this? I just replaced worn outer tie rids.

Thanks.

Yes. You didn't say what year, but the ABS/PSM systems in these cars use wheel speed sensor shutter wheels that are in the bearings, which means the bearings has two different "sides". Install the wrong side facing the pickup sensor, and the car will have a non stop ABS fault MIL light because it cannot see the wheel turning. And then the only way to fix it is to replace the bearings, again.

Great. Thanks.

It's a 1998 Boxster.

Any bushings I should just change?. Going to change th sway bar drop links. Anything else?

You need to check them all and see what the car needs, there is no blanket recommendations for this.

I watched a video of a new bearing (FAG brand) being disassembled and the user showed just how little grease was in there from the factory.

He removed all the factory grease and repacked it chock-full of new, better grease and said it would make the bearing last a lot longer.

You might want to do this since this is such a massive undertaking for such a small inexpensive part.

here it is ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A5kf5pXl4w

Yup! That's the one. Everyone swapping out bearings should watch this video first in my opinion...

More grease isn't better. Usually 1/3 full is recommended.Otherwise it will seep past the grease seals on the bearing when it gets hot and leak - on the brakes !
The ultimate grease for high temperatures(if that is the limiting factor??) is probably some like this:
HP800 Grease - Neo Synthetic Oil
YEMV

Trying to change the bearings with the assembly still on the car. Do you need the Porsche tool to Get the hub out of the carrier or is there some other way?

In addition the pulling with the sir tool you can use a slide hammer bolted to the hub, or you can use the lug bolts themselves to press it out, search my "wheel bearings are hard" thread to find a link to a YouTube video of a guy doing a BMW.

If this is the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX9iCZIVgFY
I am sure others can suggest refinements to his 'techniques' .
For example: leave the wheel on the car and the wheel on the ground to slacken the big axle nut, use the correct size breaker bar, not a cheater-pipe on a rathcet,use a punch instead of hammering a screwdriver,check the grease in the new bearing, freeze the new bearing,
clean up the other mechanisms .de-rust and carefully lube,support the weight of the brake caliper with wire,not the hydraulic hose ,use a click or beep type torque wrench, tighten progressively ,not in one shot ,brace with the tire on the ground,re-check the torque after a brief test run ,I could go on but this is seriously substandard workshop practice. Good enough for mere BMW perhaps?

You can use a cheap harbor freight front wheel bearing kit to do the job. Not sure if it's also a tool you could rent for free from Autozone, Oreilly etc.. I used the SIR tool and wasn't impressed. Getting the race off of the hub was the hardest part for me. Even with a great puller I wasn't able to get it to budge. Since I didn't have my Dremel handy I let a shop cut through most of it then hit it with a hammer and chisel.

You'll also get a lot more room by removing the secondary cats and if you have the means, it's a great time to install secondary bypass pipes.

Getting the race off the hub was tough, I could get the fronts but had to get the backs removed at a shop.

I had a shop do the job. I brought them the carrier. I also messed up a few things. The last is I ruined the brand new tie rods threads by using a hammer to try to separate it from the carrier. This was stupid as I had the tool to do it but was too lazy to walk across the garage. Ugh.