Re: <E28> Howl you like my wheel bearings?

[Randy Walters <RandyWal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Patrick Burns <patrick@domain.elided> wrote:

>So it's time to replace one of (I know, I know...) the front wheel bearings in
>my '86 528e, and it seems I can only purchase the front hub assembly as
>opposed to simply replacing the wheel bearings themselves. This, of course,
>goes right against my cheap bastard nature of replacing only the worn out
>stuff as opposed to replacing the worn out stuff plus that really expesnively
>made part that holds the worn out stuff but never wears out itself.
>
>I've replaced plenty of wheel bearings in other cars, pressing (or knocking,
>before I had access to a press) the old races from the hub, cleaning
>everything up, packing the bearing, pressing/knocking new races in, and
>adjusting them. Okay, so I can't adjust these bearings, but... why am I not
>finding just the bearings for sale? What's so hard about pressing some races
>into a hub? 
>
>Of course, I wouldn't be bitching about this if hub assemblies weren't so
>freaking expensive. Maybe I should have bought a Saturn. ;-)

 Patrick, 

 I just replaced the left front wheel bearing in my 89 325is today, and
your car's setup is very similar to mine.  Your wheel bearing is integral
to the hub so there's no separate bearing available and the whole 
assembly must be replaced as a unit.   The hub itself *is* the outer 
bearing casing and contains the cage(?) that the ball bearings reside
in.   My bearings are all original and have 127,600 miles on em,  until
last weekend when my LF finally went out during an autocross practice
(it went bad very suddenly,  roaring like a Lion on right-handers).  
Considering how long these things last they're not all that expensive in 
the long run.   I paid $96 total for all the parts to do the left front,  but 
your car's assembly is larger and is priced about $25 higher than mine is.  

It took me an hour to replace it from start to finish, i did it on the car,  
and i didn't even have to resort to any special tools, press, or puller 
despite what the Bentley Manual said :-)   It was a breeze although
i had expected the worst.   I basically used the wheel/tire as a sort
of slide hammer to yank the bearing off the stub axle,  then pushed
the new bearing onto the stub axle by tightening the collar nut, then
went through the torqueing procedure to finish the job.   There's a
lot more steps that i've left out but this is how i got around using
special pulling/pressing tools.  If you've done a FWD VW front 
wheelbearing then this is WAY easier!  I think this was the easiest 
wheelbearing replacement i've ever done.  And no icky grease either :-)   
 
 Randy Walters
 89 325is
 L.A. & S.D. Chapters

 PS:  I'm working on a detailed writeup of my first BMW wheelbearing job. 

 http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=153582&a=1200064


 

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