Anyone Replace FX35 Rear Wheel Bearing/Hub?

A

Artifex

Member
Location
Nebraska
I have trawled all over the net and cannot find any postings, so I am going to give it a shot here.

I am trying to replace the rear bearing/hub assembly on my '04 FX35 AWD. Got the wheel off, the rotor off, and now am stymied. The hub bolts are only accessible from the rear of the rotor shield/towards the inside of the car, and even then they are not all that accessible. The CV housing makes it impossible to get a socket on any of the bolts at anything other than a poor angle. I am wondering if I have to take the whole wheel assembly off?
Anyone have any ideas or better yet, experience with this?

BTW - great tip for getting that rotor off I picked up elsewhere: find a fully threaded 1/4" bolt (or as big a size as will fit through one of the caliper mounting holes) about 3 inches long, washer and nut, and a small piece of wood. Remove the caliper, from the inside put the bolt through the caliper mounting hole so the threaded part can reach the backside of the rotor. Thread the washer and nut on, put the small block of wood against the rotor where the bolt end will contact it. Put a ratchet on the bolt, and hold the nut with a wrench, and tighten away. The bolt will press against the wood pressing against the rotor, and eventually will force the rotor off with a pop! slick as a whistle.
 
I just finished replacing my right side rear hub bearing last weekend. You can't get to the HUB bolts without removing the half shaft.

The problem with removing the entire assembly (including the hub knuckle) is you would have to remove a lot of joints fromt the knuckle (4 hard to access bolts). Lots of jacking up and pulling down joints to access differetn ones. And if the botls are rusty, it's a pain, lots of pain. I went this way and regretted that i did.

Suggestion is do the half shaft removal method. First you loosen the HUB nut. And notice the half shaft that connects to the rear differential is connected by some bolts. Get these bolts off and the shaft should come down without affecting the differential. Make sure you mark the position of shaft in relation to the differntial connector before you remove it. Easier on the bolts during re-installion. Once you drop the inner half of the shalft you should be able to pull the shfat out of the HUB assembly. If there some tignhness just tap it with a hammer from the outside.

You would have un-impeded access to the 4 HUB bolts. Remove those (they should be pretty easy to break loose with a breaker bar).

Now here's where you need to be carefull. The HUB is a little tight in there and needs to be banged out from the inner side. If you bought both the bearing and the hub assembly then just bang the old one out. But if you planning to save the HUB and just replace the bearing you will need to be carefull not to bang on the HUB too hard. You will make a dent. Use a round flat piece of metal that just about the same size as the inner side of the HUB to pretect it from being dent during banging.

Once that pops out, you are ready for the new bearing/hub.

I reused my HUB assembly cause the stealership was gonna charge me 190 just for that without the bearing. So I spent 160 for the bearing and pressed out my old HUB. No issue. Smooth ride with no vibration after that.

Good luck.
 
Update On Rear Bearing/Hub Replacement

06FX35 - Thanks! You give me heart and encouragement. I remain stubbornly wedded to the idea that this really should be a repair a decent shade tree mechanic could do. Your directions will be extremely helpful.

I made some progress myself this weekend, and actually got the hub off. First I used a pulley puller to get the 5 bolt hub off. Then there was so much play in the ruined bearing that I was able to push the driveshaft joint aside just enough to get a socket on, and unbolt the hub w/o taking out the drive shaft. After removing the emergency brake shoes was able to beat the old useless bearing hub off. What a mess. The entire inner bearing race is gone except for the inner cone. The outer bearing race bearings are intact minus the casing and seals, leaving the cone bearings exposed on the hub shaft. So I have a hub shaft with a cone in the inside end, and the cone and naked bearings on the outside end. Should be a simple matter of removing them and pressing the hub into the new bearings, right?

Well it would be, except I cannot tell what is part of the hub and what are ruined bearings. It should be blindingly obvious, but when I look at the inside diameter of my new bearings and the outside diameter of the hub shaft that slides into them, it looks like there would be a huge gap instead of a tight fit. :eek: I don't want to incur that $190 expense you mentioned by trying to take off what is actually part of the 5 bolt hub. Am I right in assuming the hub shaft is nothing more than a smooth cylinder that should slide tightly into the new bearings?
Maybe it is an optical illusion that the diameter of hub shaft looks much smaller than the inner diameter of the bearings. I am going to my friendly Infiniti dealership to see if they will show me an unmolested hub so I will know where I stand.
But thanks for the update - that is how I will proceed when I finally get this all going back together.
 
Yes, the HUB shaft should be a smooth cylinder all the way to the body of the HUB where the 5 lug studs are, as shown in diagramn #5 in the following link from InfinitipartsUSA (give them some credits). If there is any cone part still on this shaft, it needs to be pressed out. This cone looking thing is the inner side of the bearing that came apart from the rest of the bearing when you beat it out. Once the HUB shaft is free of the rest of the bearing it should press firmly into the new bearing, see diagram #7.

http://www.infinitipartsusa.com/par...0555&callout=7&catalogid=2&displayCatalogid=0


If you need a tool to remove this leftover bearing half, try this bearing separator tool or something similar:
http://www.harborfreight.com/large-bearing-separator-3979.html

Just tighten it around the collar part of the bearing that is still stuck on the HUB shaft and press it out the HUB shaft with a shop press or something that would give you around 6 or 7 tons of pressure onto the HUB shaft to slide it off the bearing.


Now the problem I foresee you would encounter is when you are ready to get the HUB/Bearing assembly back on to tighten the 4 bolts onto the knuckle. With the bearing now new and no play, you would would be stuck with a shaft in the way of the 4 bolts that hold the HUB/bearing assembly onto the knuckle.

Other than that it's home free.
 
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06FX35 - Thanks for all the excellent advice. I took a long hard look at it today and see where it will indeed slide in tightly after removing the leftover bearing parts - the hub edge is beveled and it threw me off. I plan to cut the bearing cones off VERY carefully using a dremel cut off disk.

I realize with a tight bearing I can't replicate the trick I used to get the four bolts out. I'm going to see if I can pull the shaft out like you described earlier. I don't want to remove the backing plate and all that - I don't have a ball joint puller.

Anyway, thanks for your very excellent help - MUCH appreciated! I'll update here when I am done with a synopsis that may help others.

---------- Post added at 01:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 AM ----------

Dracula: That is the weird thing. Almost no warning at all noise-wise. I have had 2 other bearings fail at once at about 90K miles, so I know exactly what it sounds like; they both made plenty of noise and held together long enough for me to replace them. I am at about 102K now, and with this one I noticed a little noise Monday, and by Thursday realized the back end felt "squsihy", like a flat tire or a strong wind pushing the car around. Still almost no noise, but the looseness quickly became alarming. I limped home at 35mph and found I was able to move the bad wheel by hand quite a bit. No doubt what the problem was. It was just strange it failed all at once with almost no warning.
Upon disassembly I found nothing left of the inner race but the cone, and the outer race missing its outer cover and seals, race largely still intact on the inner cone. It is disturbing it could have disintegrated like that without the 'usual' symptoms. Looking around on the web a little you realize these models eat bearings like candy. Definitely a weak point.
 
oh interesting i wonder if im having those sympoms right now at 73k. After dealer changed subframe, rear feels loose and sways from left to right and now its everday issue it use to be an everyother day thing. So im wondering if this is the issue
 
06FX35 said:
I just finished replacing my right side rear hub bearing last weekend. You can't get to the HUB bolts without removing the half shaft.


when I replaced my lug stud I pulled my rear hub off and I didnt have to pull my half shaft out. I just simply had someone push it in with a hammer and I used a swivel socket with a cheater bar. but before that I WD40 the bolt first. Yes it is a pain in the butt but I was able to the the four bolts off to undo the hub and put them back on that way. good luck!
Click to expand...
 
Dracula: It is easy to check. Chock the front wheels front and back so the vehicle won't roll off the jack - lots of people ignore this important step, and having a car roll off a jack is not a good thing. Then jack it up and grab the wheel and see if you can tip it in and out. Any movement means you have shot bearings. If you put the car in neutral (you chocked the wheels, right?) you can rotate the wheel and feel for grinding, listen for noise. If you have any issues it will be pretty obvious.

---------- Post added at 09:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:38 AM ----------

Infinitifan25: Thanks; I am hoping to do something like that. Boy, if I could put the bearings in, then slide the hub in, that might give me enough play to tighten up the four bearing bolts, but I don't see any way I could realistically expect to 'slide' the hub into the bearings and on the splined axle shaft at the same time.

---------- Post added at 09:49 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:41 AM ----------

And, I finally got all the old bearing pieces off the hub shaft last night. I used the trusty Dremel with the cut off disks and cut a notch into each race cone that was left on the hub shaft. It was fairly easy, and only took about 10 minutes to cut almost all the way through the bearing remains. Then I put the hub assembly into a vise and used a hammer and chisel to spread the cut. The inner bearing cone popped right off, and the outer one closest to the flange spread enough that I could tap it right off. In spite of my best efforts I nicked the hub shaft a little but that won't affect anything. So, I am on to re-assembly - first step is pressing the old hub into the new bearing assembly. Then I have to figure out how to use all of your suggestions to attach the bearing carrier with it's inaccessible four bolts back onto the axle carrier/backplate.
 
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UPDATE: Got it done this weekend. Pressing the bearing onto the hub was a challenge, but I managed to get that part done with some patience and a really big vise. If you are going to do this yourself, you need to plan on taking the hub and bearing to a machine shop or someplace where they can press it in for you. The part that had me the most worried, reassembly with the axle shaft in place crowding out the bearing hub bolts was not a problem. After I had pressed the hub into the bearings, I was easily able to bolt the four bolts onto the axle carrier since the axle shaft was pushed in so much. I had plenty of room to put a socket on the bolts, although I had to use a swivel adapter like Infinitifan25 mentioned for one of them. The others were fine with a 5 inch extension that was slim enough to avoid the outer CV joint bulge. I would just put the socket on, hook up the ratchet with the extension (or swivel adapter) and crank them down tight. It was so easy I kicked myself for taking so long to address it. Then I put the large axle nut on and tightening it down pulled the axle shaft up tight into the hub. One new cotter pin, remounting the rotor and caliper and wheel, and the job was done in less than 1/2 an hour.
So, being an average mechanic would I do it again? Absolutely. I think this is in the realm of the average shade tree mechanic IF you have these tools that I found essential: 32mm socket to remove the axle nut ($14 at O'Reillys), 1/2 inch driver for the 32 mm socket, 3/8 inch driver with 4-6" extensions and a swivel adapter, a gear puller that I needed to get the hub started off (I find this tool useful for lots of stuff - mine is only an inexpensive two arm; a three arm would be better), a 3/8 breaker bar so you don't ruin your 3/8 driver, and some pipe to give you leverage to break bolts loose, jack stands, PB Blaster (the ultimate penetrating lubricant) and a shop that will press the bearings for you.
If I had to do it again, I think this would be no more than a 3 hour job, knowing what I know now. Steps include:
1) Chock all the wheels for safety (front and back of each tire). I have had a car slide off a jack, and it is worth it to chock it properly. Jack up the car and in addition to the jack put a jack stand in place for added safety. If you don't have a jack stand use concrete blocks or anything that could potentially take the weight of the car if it fell off the jack. Remove wheel. Spray bearing hub bolts with PB blaster.
2) Remove caliper and rotor. I used the bolt and nut on the upper caliper mounting hole trick to pop the rotor off since I wanted to reuse it. If you are replacing the rotor then just beat the crap out of it and it'll come off.
3) Remove cotter pin and axle nut. You may be able to pull the hub off but I had to use the gear puller to grip the edges of the 5-bolt hub and put the center bolt on the axle - there is a dimple on the axle for just that purpose. Once loose, I was able to pull it off easily by hand.
4) Now for the fun part - you have to reach in behind the axle carrier/dust shield to remove the four bolts holding the bearings in place. My bearing was so shot I could push the outer CV joint aside enough to reach the bolt heads. Or like Infinitifan25 suggests you can also push the axle in enough to get at these; my experience on reassembly showed me that works just fine. I had to place the socket on the bolt head first to clear the outer CV joint, then insert the extension and the breaker bar. I could not put the socket on the bolt head with the extension in place - not enough clearance; it is a two step process. Use a length of pipe on your breaker bar to give you leverage to break the hub bolts loose, then use the ratchet driver to take them out.
5) If there are any bearing remains on your hub, you can CAREFULLY cut them off with a dremel and cut off disks, or better yet use a bearing remover like 06FX35 suggests above. OR, take it and the new bearings to a friendly machine shop and have them remove it with their bearing puller and at the same time press in the new bearings.
6) Fit the new bearings and hub back onto the axle carrier, reach behind and put those four bolts back in. You will now need to push the axle shaft in to make enough room to reach the bolts with the new bearings in place, but I found mine sufficiently recessed that I was OK.
7) Put rotor back on, remount caliper and wheel, and you are done. It's that easy.

This cost me over $500 with parts to have a shop do it last time, hence my motivation to source the part on my own for $150 and mount it myself. If you have a high priced Infiniti shop you could be looking at $750 easy. They charge a ton because the official Infiniti shop method dictates removing the entire axle carrier, meaning lots of tough bolts and a ball joint. Sure, this makes it super easy to get at everything, but you risk the damaging the fragile speed sensor ($200 alone) and it takes a TON more shop labor which means $$$. My opinion: You don't need to take it to a shop - do it yourself. Good luck!
 
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mserrato1: Good luck, take your time. If you can source the bearing with the 5 bolt hub already pressed in, that will save you needing to find a machine shop to press it in for you. After I bought my bearings I found more than one site online selling the bearing assembly and the wheel hub already pressed together for about the same money. That would have saved me a lot of time and work.
You could go the other way and just buy the bearing races themselves and reuse the 4 bolt bearing carrier. But now you have to get the old bearings out, press the new ones in, and press the 5 bolt hub in. However, you will save a TON of money. I found you can go to any good precision supply shop and get the exact same bearings for a fraction of what a dealership or parts store sells them for.
 
my rear bearings are shot, i was thinking of getting the hub and bearing together.. is it bolt on afterwords or there needs to be pressing?
 
Your Options Are

Dracula - Mostly what you will find are the bearings in the bearing hub for around $130 -$150. You have three choices (I am not endorsing these as parts suppliers, just as examples):
  1. Bolt on, most costly: JCWhitney dot com Product Number: 32121G is an example of the complete package that is bolt on.
  2. Bearing hub with bearings, second most costly: autopartswarehose dot com Part #: W0133-1728300 - you will need to have the wheel hub pressed into this.
  3. Bearing races only, least costly: I couldn't find a quickie picture, but these are just the bearings. You will need to reuse your old bearing hub, press these two races in, and then press the wheel hub in. Most work, but 'way cheaper.

I would recommend you save a ton of time and frustration by getting the wheel and bearing hub assemblies already pressed together for between $160 to $250. Then you don't have to worry about getting the old bearings off without hurting anything, or figuring out how to press the new bearings in or the hubs together.

Good luck
Bill
 
Dracula:
The parts description at the top of the page you sent the link for looks like only the bearings in the bearing hub, not the complete wheel hub/bearing hub assembly like in the JC Whitney part number 32121G I referenced in the previous post. I can't tell positively because, strangely, the "bearing and hub assembly" in the parts description at the top of the page is not even pictured in the parts diagram below. But at (approx) $165 I imagine that is what it is.

Parts places call it the "bearing assembly" because it is actually comprised of two bearing races inside a 4 bolt "hub" and sold together as an "assembly". Confusion is compounded because they call the 4 bolt carrier the bearings fit into a "hub", while most of us think of the thing the rim and rotor bolts to as the "hub" (#7 on the diagram). So when they say "hub and bearing assembly" you naturally think it is the bearings, their 4 bolt carrier (hub) and what most of us normally call the "hub". Not so. It's just the bearings and their 4 bolt carrier that attaches to part #6 in the diagram.

Hopefully I have not totally confused you. Summary: I think the parts at the top of that page are option #2 in my earlier post.

As for Timken versus OEM, I am not qualified to comment. All I know is the OEM stuff seems to fail at the drop of a hat (hence all of us replacing our bearings) and that Timken has been an American household name that has stood for the very highest quality for over 110 years.

Good luck!
 
thanks for all the info- i fully get it now, im leaning towards the 3rd step you advised, but i feel like i should follow the second step-
hmm dealer said my rear two bearings are failing, well i dont hear any humming or any sound, the problem is the rear feels like its out of alignment, wobbly, not stable, vibrates constantly- when i jacked up the rear, i did the 12 - 6 oclock holding from the tires and there was no movement, but when i held it from the rim there was. Also the right rear while spinning was making metallic sound, i want to take a video of this and post it on here, when i have time.
 
Dracula -
Sure sounds like you have some bad bearings. My rear made no noise, but all of the sudden I got that wobbly feeling you are describing. I could visibly see the wheel was out of kilter and I could tip it in an out about 1/2" or so sitting on the ground. When I took it off the inner bearing was gone gone gone; just a cone was left. That metallic noise probably means your bearings are falling apart. I heard that on my other bearings when they failed.

As long as you have access to a press and the tools (or courage to use what you have) to remove the old/bad bearings, go for it. I did it without a bearing press or bearing removal tool or a slide hammer, but I have a very well equipped farm tool-wise (yes, I live on a small farm and have an FX35 instead of a pickup :eek.: ) and can usually make do. But like I have said, next time I will pay the extra $100 and get the whole assembly to bolt right in to save time and frustration.

You know how to pop the rotor off, right? That can be a show stopper for lots of folks.
Good luck!
 
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