RWD Rear Hub/Bearing replacement

[jumbosrule]

I did a DIY for the front hub and the rear is significantly different enough that I thought I'd write up a rear hub swap since I have now done them both.

What started as a noise progressed into full failure while I was on the highway. Luckily I was able to slow it down under control and get off the road. I had to be towed back home and then I jacked up the car in the garage and went about removing:

OEM Wheel (20mm socket)
Eibach 20mm Spacer (19mm socket)
Brake caliper bolts (19mm socket)
Rotor
Half shaft/axle (14mm sockets)
Axle bolt (32mm socket) & cotter pin

Most of the half shaft bolts came off without problems but a couple were difficult to reach because of access. With a couple of extensions and a wobble, I was able to break the nuts and remove the 6 bolts.

I removed the Ebrake assembly as well - this is not necessary but I wanted to clean it all up before installing the new hub/bearing assy.



Once the bolts were out and the axle nut & cotter pin were removed, the half shaft slid out of the hub with a few taps of a hammer. I used a block of wood to protect the end of the shaft from the hammer. You don't want to distort those threads or you'll never get that nut back on.



Here's the old hub/bearing with a new bearing assembly sitting next to it. ~$100 from InfinitipartsUSA. The old hub won't rotate at all.



Setting the hub up on the press to separate the bearing:



The busted bearing outer race. The bearings inside should all look like little cylinders and every one of them was coned:



Have to cut the inner race off the hub with a cut off wheel:



Then used some 2000 grit on the hub shaft and coated it with a little grease before pressing on the new bearing:



Install was exactly the opposite order of removal. I used some loctite on the half shaft bolts to make sure they don't back off.

On a scale of 1-10 I would put this at about a 4. Maybe a 3 if you have a car lift. The whole thing took me about 4 hours with a 2 hour trip to the shop to hang out and eat lunch after pressing out the bearing.

Everything goes back together with a torque wrench to make sure each bolt is the correct tightness.

 

[tchuck]

Nicely done. Did you go to Powerfab?

SfmDRuT2

 

[jumbosrule]

Yep - Powerfab was nice enough to donate the workspace & equipment for pressing out/in the bearing. Everything else was at home in my garage.

I will say that removing the half shaft bolts at the differential wasn't cake. A couple of them took some extensions and wobbles. The Infiniti specialist at Powerfab (guy that built my first FX and has his own 700whp G35) said that the half shaft bolts tend to get loose after being removed for any reason. He has seen these come in with some loose bolts and recommended blue loctite to keep them from backing off after reassembly.

Knowing what I know about fasteners a new lock washer would probably solve the problem, but I had the loctite so that's what I went with. Just because a couple of the bolts were awkward access, I drove around the block and then re-torqued everything except for the hub bolts (half shaft blocks access). 3/6 of the half shaft bolts did move on the re-torque.

 

[la_fx35]

If both rear wheels are off the ground, you can turn the wheel or half shaft for easy access to the bolts otherwise, yeah, there a couple bolts are pretty awkward location that for sure

 

[pmanliu]

What would be the best way to tell if it's the front or rear bearing that is giving out ?

I'm hearing a "woo" sound at 40mph+

sent

 

[la_fx35]

That would be a good indication.

 

[pmanliu]

Bummers. It's currently faint but I'm afraid it will get worse fast in a short amount of time and give out. Anyway to diagnose front or rear ? Time for a trip to the dealers, hopefully it's under warranty.

sent

 

[jumbosrule]

If both rear wheels are off the ground, you can turn the wheel or half shaft for easy access to the bolts otherwise, yeah, there a couple bolts are pretty awkward location that for sure

Good call - but then the wheel wants to turn when you are trying to break the nuts? I purposefully only lifted one side of the car so I could break the axle nut & half shaft nuts. Probably could have saved myself about 30 minutes by rotating the shaft half way through the bolts.

What would be the best way to tell if it's the front or rear bearing that is giving out ?

I'm hearing a "woo" sound at 40mph+

That would be a good indication.

COULD be a good indication a bearing is going out but could be other things as well. It is pretty easy to hear which wheel bearing with the help of a friend outside the car. I'm able to hear it alone by rolling down the windows on one side of the car and then driving next to a wall or other surface that reflects the sound back. Doesn't need to be fast - 5 or 10mph should be enough.

 

[la_fx35]

Good call - but then the wheel wants to turn when you are trying to break the nuts? I purposefully only lifted one side of the car so I could break the axle nut & half shaft nuts. Probably could have saved myself about 30 minutes by rotating the shaft half way through the bolts.

A break bar and socket on the nut with a wrench on the bolt head on the other side to hold it from spinning did the job for me.

 

[Ataher]

Jumbosrule thanks for this great DIY, I did mine last weekend and I used your post as a guide, I got into a few issues that I wanted to share though:

It will make the whole work a lot easier if both rear wheels are jacked up and the parking brake is disengaged, but it is important that chock blocks are used with the front wheels to avoid any incidents, also, use good quality jack stands at the rear wheels and never rely on the jack itself specially the one with rollers. This set up will help tremendously in two cases:
1) Popping off the rotor specially if it is stuck badly: with a rubber hammer, hit the rotor couple of times from the inside out right at the open area of the splash guard, then rotate it a bit (say 15 degrees) and then hit again and so on, you will see it will come out pretty easily after couple of turns.
2) unbolting and bolting back the flange of the drive shaft: get under the car, and using a power tool undo the most lower bolt (out of the six bolts) it should be pretty accessible specially if you use a knuckle joint, then grab the hub and turn it a bit so the next bolt becomes accessible, and so on till all bolts are undone. If you are using a spanner then I guess you will have to apply the parking brake every time you bolt or unbolt.

The above two points should save a hell of a time.

Apart from that, I find it easier to access and unbolt the bearing from the inside if you remove the radius rod out of the way, you might want to jack up the lower link a bit for it to come off easily.


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---------- Post added at 03:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:52 AM ----------

I apologize to la_fx35 I just saw his post, he pretty much covered the 2nd point and I strongly agree with him.

I highly recommend using an impact wrench for such operation, I have the 1/2" Bosch HTH181-01 18-Volt with mighty 500 ft.lbs that made this a one hour job. This will solve the issue of having the shaft rotating when bolting or unbolting. It won't rotate if you use an impact wrench even if the parking brake is disengaged while the two rear wheels are off the ground.


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