Fairfax 4.0T

Note: While the procedure decribed here was for a Toytota Sienna, I have been told that the bearings on Audis have a very similar issue.

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/28004/jimmys_garage.jpg"></center>

So if I could have it my way, I'd like to be like Mat and spend a lot more time working on cars (and driving them). Well thanks to a good tip from the Toyota Sienna message board (there is about one new thread every second or third day), I (being Jimmy's Garage) got the bearing race off the hub with very little effort.

As described over the last couple of days, I'm trying to replace both front wheel bearings on my wife's '98 Toyota Sienna. The dealer wanted $5,500 for a bunch of needed work, with around $1,100 for the front wheel bearings. I decided to tackle all of the jobs myself.

I started working on wheel bearings two days ago. The first step is to remove the brake caliper, rotor, and rip out the hub using a heavy slide hammer. This was pretty easy. However, when you rip out the hub, part of the bearing sticks to is, as shown below.

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/28004/bearing_side.jpg"></center>

Next, I had to get of this bearing race from the hub. The genuine toyota manual says to insert a bearing splitter between the bearing and hub, and press the pieces apart. Because the bearing was right against the hub, I could not get the bearing splitter in far enough and broke the life-time guarantee Harbor Freight bearing splitter which I had just picked up for 10 bucks.

<center><img src="http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/photos/03900-03999/03979.gif"></center>

[Note that I thought there was a separate seal between the bearing and hub. However, this was the seal that was internal to the bearing. You don't need a separate seal for these types of bearings.]

I heard of 6 different ways to get off the bearing:

1. Buy a new hub and throw away the old one. (Hubs are $125 each from the Toyota dealer). This is how the Toyota dealer does it.
2. Take it to a machine shop.
3. Use a conventional bearing puller. (I found this on a Miata board). However, the problem is that you need to get the arms of the bearing puller between the hub and the brearing, and there was no room for this.
4. Use a chisel in an air hammer and work the air hammer to pop it off. This is how master mechanic Mat does it. However, <a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/midatlantic/msgs/115844.phtml">his description</a> scared me off.
5. Use a dremmel with a cut-off wheel to score the bearing and then wack it with a chisel to crack it along the score. This was recommended to me be a very wise man, Sluggo, on the <a href="http://www.siennaclub.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=10222">Toyota Sienna board</a>. Thanks sluggo.
6. Use the bearing splitter shown above which is recommended by the Toyota service manual. However, it did not work.

Number 5 seemed liked the easiest thing to try. As long as I did not make a royal screw up and grind into the hub, I'd be fine. This should not be a problem because the dremmel is a pretty small and precise tool. If it did not work, I had nothing to loose. Here is my procedure.

First, score through the bearing race from end to end being careful not to cut into the hub. In order to make the chiseling easy, keep the cut as narrow as possible. I used a dremmel with a very thin cut-off wheel. It went very quickly (about 5 minutes per hub). I scored (cut into) the bearing fairly deeply, but was never came close to cutting the hub.

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/28004/bearing_grind.jpg"></center>

Once the grinding is done, strike the score line with a chisel using a big hammer. For the second hub, I managed to grind a narrow groove, and it only took three hammer wacks to crack the bearing. For the first one which I scored a very wide groove, I had to strike the bearing pretty hard at least 20 times.

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/28004/bearing_chisel.jpg"></center>

The bearing cracks very precisely along the groove and no damage is done to the hub. From the picture, you cannot see the hairline crack the chisel made in the bearing, but it is cracked and came off easily. A quick, easy, and cheap way to get the race from the hub. The picture makes it look like there is a scratch or grind on the hub, but this is just a reflection.

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/28004/bearing_off.jpg"></center>

A special thanks to Mrs. Fairfax for taking the photos of me in action.

Blue TooTh Fan

Jim, nice job. Glad it worked out. did you get it back in? LOL

BSK

some work!

absolutcq20v

Yup, BTDT. I've found that if you're lucky, the race shatters right off. Nice work!

Fairfax 4.0T

press in the new bearings, and then press in the hub. I won't be able to finish until Saturday.

By the way, I am very happy (so far) with the bearing removal/inserting tool you sold me. We'll see how it holds up to some extreme pressure.

Jim

Potomac-Greg

I honor your bravery. I assume you'll have a killer write up for the Sienna board! My wife owned a 2000 Sienna. We sold it before it needed any repairs!

Fairfax 4.0T

I could have used that experience to profit on your repairs.