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My friend’s parents need to get the rear wheel bearings replaced on their 2005 Honda Element AWD. They went in for inspection and where told both are bad. They asked me if I can change them out rather than pay the mechanic a large sum of money.
I have watched Eric’s accord wheel bearing video, is the process for the Element about the same or different? I don’t really want to invest in a bunch of tools here for one job. Are these able to the slide hammered off? I do have a slide hammer.
what I am thinking of doing, is take off the whole knuckle assembly as you need to, and then taking it to a shop to have them knock out and replace the bearing. I figure this might cut down on the cost. Would a normal mechanic shop be able to do this or would I have to take it to a machine shop? I am in Pittsburgh, so if anyone knows a shop that would help me out, please let me know.
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I have replaced several Honda wheel bearings, each time taking the thingy to a shop or garage. Most of them if they’re not too busy can press it in and out right then or they will call you a few hours later. They’ll charge you $10 to $40 to do it.
It’s not too hard to remove the assembly yourself, but it sure helps if you have an impact wrench.
Also in the colder and saltier climates you can get frustrated if the bolts don’t come off, you often have to apply extra heat or sometimes even have to get a whole new cast iron piece if the bolts won’t come out of the bushings.
Yea, Living in the Northeast I have PB Blaster and Liquid Wrench and a MAP gas torch. I do have regular torches, but I need to get the oxygen tank refilled. Pretty much for anything I do, I have found that the MAP gas torch will heat it up enough to break it free. I really don’t play around anymore and if there is not anything rubber around the bolt, I just heat it up and then hit it with an impact.
I am going to get a slide hammer to pull the hub out and then get it apart. I’ll take it down to my friend’s shop and have him press them in.
You can not replace the bearing in this unit. It is sealed in the hub assembly.
You will have to press in and out the hub from the assembly =, but the actual bearings come preinstalled in the carrier that bolts in.
You replace the entire hub, and looks like they are relatively cheap (as far as hubs go).
How hard is it to get the hub (the part with the studs and the spline) from the wheel bearing unit assembly? Do I need a slide hammer for this, or when I pull off the spindle nut, it comes free?
I priced this from BernardiPArts.com and it comes out to $83, not too much more for the Honda part. In the Northeast, where I live too, I usually get my order next day from them.
[quote=”Raistian77″ post=76054]You can not replace the bearing in this unit. It is sealed in the hub assembly.
You will have to press in and out the hub from the assembly =, but the actual bearings come preinstalled in the carrier that bolts in.
You replace the entire hub, and looks like they are relatively cheap (as far as hubs go).
[quote=”Vlad2″ post=76055]How hard is it to get the hub (the part with the studs and the spline) from the wheel bearing unit assembly? Do I need a slide hammer for this, or when I pull off the spindle nut, it comes free?[/quote]
I use a shop press, the problem I see will be how to put the hub back in without a press. I know some use hammers, but I personally think that is a bad idea.
Yea, I was thinking the same, even with a block of wood, it doesn’t seem smart to me to bang on a bearing.
Luckily I have an old skewl auto parts store that has a machine shop as well. They cut my rotors, I didn’t think about a press, it seems they have one of those too. So I plan on taking them there. If they can’t do them for some odd reason, I can take them to a friend’s shop, a 30 pack of Miller Lite goes a long way during hockey season… 🙂
I almost have the all apart but the @#$#@$#@$ speed sensor won’t come out. First, I had to drill the bolt out as somebody else snapped the head off the thing, I get that free, and now it won’t come out. From reading other forums it seems this is an issue.
Is there a trick to get the wheel speed/ABS sensor out of the rear knuckle on this thing?
I did everything I could to get this out, I finally disconnected it from the connector in the middle of the car and then worked on it outside the car.
Banging around it didn’t work
Gotta a bigger hammer, didn’t work
penetrating oil soaking for 8 hrs and hammering didn’t work.
pulling with vice grips didn’t work.
taking it as a loss and hitting it from inside the wheel didn’t work.
I finally melted the living sh** out of it and got it mostly out.I figured I would let the machine shop snap off the stuck bottom when they press out the old bearing and press in the new on.
So this is done on the drivers side, I will be doing the passenger side in a few weeks.
What I learned (I like to do this in forums to help others):
1. If the speed/ABS sensor won’t come out, they are 40 to 50 bucks, sacrifice the thing to the sensor gods. I had to literally send it to Hades with my MAP Gas torch, which still won’t let me pull it out. I finally had the wires pulled off, melted the crap out of it and put a 2.5 inch dry wall screw in it. Once it cooled a bit, I was able to pull some of that out. When the pressed the bearing apart, the rest of it came out.2. Have a shop or auto parts store (like a real one, not a chain) press the bearing out and back in. For 50 bucks or so, its well worth it.
3. A slide hammer won’t budge one of these.
4. Self tapping bolts are your friends. The person before I touched this job snapped off the bolt that holds the precious speed sensor / ABS sensor on. I ground it flat, drilled a hole in it, and it still didn’t come out. So I just used a self tapper to hold it.
5. the tab that holds the ABS Sensor is fragile, don’t hit it with even a rubber mallet, by mistake, if you break it off, 5 min epoxy is your friend.
6. use some di-electric grease to help slide the sensor home.
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