How to replace your MkIV's front wheel bearings

tdi_addict

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Aug 30, 2009
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Halifax NS
TDI
2004,2006 Jettas
My nephew, who is a GM mechanic, taught me a neat trick. With the drive wheels off the ground and spinning lay your hand on top of the spring in the strut assembly. If the spring is vibrating then you found the bad wheel bearing. Goes without saying to be careful not to touch the rotating tire when doing this. I found my passengers side is toast 142K km on it. $50 for the bearing ....$172 installed. Still deciding whether to tackle it but this post is very helpful
 

JetStreamer

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2010
Location
Southern California
TDI
2001
JetStreamer said:
Hey everyone,

Is there anyone in the greater Los Angeles area that can do wheel bearings, I'd of course pay you for your time, I'd actually like to see it be done if at all possible, please send me a PM if you can do it, or know of someone, or an inexpensive shop?


Thank you so much in advance!

Anyone?

Or if anyone knows of a TDI forum that is specific to Southern California, I would really appreciate it!
 

scurvy

Good Ol' Boy
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Feb 21, 2006
Location
Chicago IL USA
TDI
2006 Golf
JetStreamer said:
Or if anyone knows of a TDI forum that is specific to Southern California, I would really appreciate it!
There's a left-coast specific section of TDIClub. Scroll down on the main page to "Meetings/ GTG/ Regional Discussions" and it's the second section. Yuri already told you about Wild Rose Motors in Whittier, but honestly a wheel bearing isn't a TDI-specific issue. Any reputable suspension/driveline shop should be able to handle this bearing, which is a fairly common procedure for FWD vehicles.
tdi_addict said:
My nephew, who is a GM mechanic, taught me a neat trick. With the drive wheels off the ground and spinning lay your hand on top of the spring in the strut assembly. If the spring is vibrating then you found the bad wheel bearing.
May also be an off-balance wheel what would make the strut assembly vibrate. I think you may have meant spring perch or top cap, not spring. IMO putting your hand in the wheel well to feel the spring with a spinning tire nearby is very, very, very bad juju. Mine was bad enough to very easily verify which one was by by ear alone.
Shenandoah said:
I took the old axle nut and put it on the backside of the hub (where the axle goes in the hub) and used my three jaw puller to push the hub out of the bearing/spindle. No need for a slide hammer.
I like this idea. In the off chance I have to do another front wheel bearing, I'll give this a try... but I'll still rent the Autozone slide hammer as it's nearly guaranteed to work and costs nothing out of pocket at the end of the day.
 

Shenandoah

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2005 Jetta Wagon; 2005 Beetle; 2004 Jetta; 2002 Golf (three of them); 2002 Jetta Wagon; 2000 Audi TT->TDI; 1999 Beetle
Scurvy,

I figured pushing the hub out of the spindle didn't stress the strut bushing as much as a slide hammer would. The hub pushed out really easy.

Great write up!

Eric
 

STRANGETDI

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Sep 20, 2001
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East Hampton, CT
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2013 Audi A3 S-Line Premium Plus Quattro - APR Stage II
scurvy said:
To be certain which one is bad, put the front end of the car up on jackstands. Put parking brake on. With car idling, put it in 5th gear and let the clutch out. The side with the bad bearing should be making that gawdawful racket. Disclaimer: this is dangerous. Don't get near the spinning wheels. Use good jackstands. Don't be stupid.
I thought I could just jack up one end at a time and do the 12 and 6 o'clock position and shake the wheel. Not with these kind of bearings?

I swear I have a bad front bearing, but my wheels didn't shake one bit.
 

Eskimo yo-yo

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Feb 24, 2010
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CT
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03 tdi wagon
STRANGETDI said:
I thought I could just jack up one end at a time and do the 12 and 6 o'clock position and shake the wheel. Not with these kind of bearings?

I swear I have a bad front bearing, but my wheels didn't shake one bit.
strange, I just did it on my jetta over the last weekend, the bad one was groaning wicked bad

I'm not sure if you've bought the kit or not but I've got the wheelbearing kit for sale locally if you're interested, used once
 

STRANGETDI

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2013 Audi A3 S-Line Premium Plus Quattro - APR Stage II
How did you do it? What kit are you refering to?

I am getting the "whrowhrowhrowhrowhrowhrow" groan from 40-70 mph that the original poster is refering to that is why I feel the bearing is on it's way out, but when shaking the wheel from top to bottom, I get no movement. I also have a ripped inner CV boot on the same side, so I wonder if the sound is coming from there instead.
 

Shenandoah

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StrangeTDI,

I replaced the driver's side wheel bearing first as I thought that was the one making the noise. It turned out the be the passenger side that was bad (also). I didn't check the driver's side, but I did on the passenger side. It would move when holding the wheel at 12:00 and 6:00.

I know replacing the wheel bearings is somewhat of a pain, but I would replace both sides at the same time.

Eric
 

Eskimo yo-yo

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CT
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03 tdi wagon
STRANGETDI said:
How did you do it? What kit are you refering to?

I am getting the "whrowhrowhrowhrowhrowhrow" groan from 40-70 mph that the original poster is refering to that is why I feel the bearing is on it's way out, but when shaking the wheel from top to bottom, I get no movement. I also have a ripped inner CV boot on the same side, so I wonder if the sound is coming from there instead.
I'm talking about the kit from harbor freight that lets you replace your bearings
 

SirKnight_2

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2010
Location
Lilburn, GA USA
TDI
2000 GLS TDI
I did the job this last weekend. Everything went ok except I could NOT get the hub out with the slam hammer. I beat on it until my hands ached. Then I just marked the strut towers and removed the knuckles. It was a quick job on my H frame press. The tech. guys at German Auto Parts tell me that as long as I marked the struts well before removing the knuckles I wont have to ahve it aligned. I will be checking for tread wear over the next few months. It is SOOOOOOOOO quiet now. Thanks for the help.
 

scurvy

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Feb 21, 2006
Location
Chicago IL USA
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2006 Golf
STRANGETDI said:
I thought I could just jack up one end at a time and do the 12 and 6 o'clock position and shake the wheel. Not with these kind of bearings?
Depends on how bad it is, really. Double-row angular contact bearings will be less resistant to shaking than single row bearings.

IMO the best and most thorough way to tell which bearing is bad is to do so like indicated in the first post. It will remove any doubt as to which ones are bad and you've got to put it up on jackstands to replace the bearing anyway.
 

STRANGETDI

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2013 Audi A3 S-Line Premium Plus Quattro - APR Stage II
scurvy said:
IMO the best and most thorough way to tell which bearing is bad is to do so like indicated in the first post. It will remove any doubt as to which ones are bad and you've got to put it up on jackstands to replace the bearing anyway.
Sounds good thanks. I am a little nervous to try it though.

While on jackstands, start the car to idle, roll windows down, put it in 5th and let it stall itself out?
 

scurvy

Good Ol' Boy
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Chicago IL USA
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2006 Golf
Exactly as I described it:

Front end up on jackstands. Good ones you have faith in. Get everybody else away from the front & back of the car.

Put the parking brake on good and hard.

Start the engine. While idling, disengage the clutch. Shift into 5th gear. Slowly engage the clutch. The front wheels will start spinning and the parking brake light will flash and the instrument cluster will beep angrily at you. Remember, you're confusing it by making the front wheels spin with the parking brake on.

But ignore the beeping din, pay attention to which side of the car the awful groaning noise is coming from. That's your bad bearing. You can stay in the driver's seat with the windows rolled down if you're nervous, but feel free to get out and listen from the outside of the car (A SAFE DISTANCE FROM THE SPINNING, DEADLY, ANGRY WHEELS).
 

coalminer16

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Dec 11, 2008
Location
Central Wisconsin
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Golf 2004
I too replaced my drivers side first. Found out it was the pass side. Evident once I took apart and cleaned all bearings. I did mine a with a different kit where I didn't need a slide hammer but the end result is the same and this kit is cheaper.
 

Rodrigues

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Dec 5, 2006
Location
Detroit, MI
TDI
None
The #13 plate is too big to remove the old bearing!

The #13 plate should only be used for installation, if you try using it to remove it catches on the back of the hub and never even touches the bearing!
 

keggo

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Location
SF Bay Area
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2015 Golf TDI
Ok... I just replaced my wheel bearings, but the job isn't completed yet.

Here are some things I would suggest...

I used the method Shenandoah described for pressing out the hubs from the bearings. Use a three jaw puller and the old axle nut as the pressing disc. One issue I ran into with this was that I couldn't get all three legs to grip onto the spindle so I removed one of the puller jaws, placed a socket between the puller body and the bottom of the strut to center the puller with the axle nut and just cranked it. Worked like a charm.

Before pressing out the outer race from the spindle, I chose to remove all the "guts" from the rear of the bearing and used a pressing disc that fit in the bearing but was larger than the ridge which separates the ball bearing channels in the middle of the race. I can't remember the disc number right now, but I'll look at them shortly and update my post. This worked better than using disc #13 as I encountered the same issue as Rodrigues... #13 was simply too big for the rear bearing opening in the spindle.

If you use the Harbor Freight Kit 66829, I'd suggest replacing the threaded rod and corresponding coupler. I again had the same problem as Rodrigues... the 'welded' nut on the HF threaded rod just tore off.
I bought a 3/4" coarse thread frame bolt and a coarse thread heavy duty coupler. I cut about 2 inches off the end of it. If it's still too long, you can space the pressing disc with other pressing discs. For spacers, use discs with a smaller diameter than your main disc. The heavy duty bolt and coupler set me back about $12 at a local bolt store (Budget Bolt) and is infinitely better than the supplied garbage.

As far as the hubs go, the inner races were on there so bad, even with dremeling a cut through them and chiseling, only pieces of the inner race broke off and the majority is still there. So, instead of messing with it further, I just bought new hubs from IDparts and am now waiting for them the arrive so I can finish the job.

The easiest part was pressing the new bearing in. For this, I used disc #9. It's nearly the exact diameter as the bearing and doesn't have a raised center portion. I used this because I didn't want to damage the bearing by using the flat side of #13 as MOGolf suggests. Although the race (inner and outer) surfaces seem flush to each other, I didn't want to risk it.

Also, I'm not sure if it's related or not, but my driver side axle nut was alarmingly loose, such that I could remove it with a regular 1/2" drive ratchet. I wonder if it came loose because the vibration caused by the bad wheel bearing which WAS on that side.
 
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Shenandoah

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Guys,

One thing I didn't post on was how I removed the inner race from the hub:
1) Bolt the hub to the rim/tire or put the hub in a vice
2) I used a two jaw puller with the tips ground down so they were fairly thin
3) position the tips of the jaws under the race
4) use a big pair of channel lock pliers to hold the jaws under the race while turning the nut/bolt on the puller.

The inner races came off pretty easy. I really had to hold the channel locks tight while turning the puller bolt. If you had two people it wouldbe much easier.

The wheel bearings had 150,000 miles on them when I replaced them.

Eric
 

eddie_1

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Dec 27, 2004
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Hannover, Germany formerly Toronto & NY
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Jetta Wagon 2003 TDI tuned to 170HP, A6 Wagon 2008 TDI 2.7L tuned to 340HP
Thanks to Scurvy for the how to. However I also did the bearing job on both front wheels and would like to add a couple of key comments.

- I know that the theory of turn direction based diagnosis of which bearing is bad was debunked saying there is an inner and outer race but to me it seems 9 times out of 10 the theory holds i.e. noise on left turn is bad right bearing and vice versa. If I had followed the conventional theory I would not have had to replace both bearings. I did the driver first and of course it was the passenger. But no big deal - got both of them changed. (I also could not hear a thing by popping clutch into 5th while wheels off ground and could not feel rough spot when turning wheel by hand also no play at 6/12pm position: the only thing I could go by was noise when turning in one direction or on straight road)

- The other big point mentioned by others also is the Harbor freight #13 disc for removing the bearing. Of course the #13 hangs up on the shoulder part on the back of the knuckle. It is important to point out that the bearing SITS up against a SHOULDER in the knuckle. i.e. when pressing out you want to be aware the opening to press out on the back is smaller than outer diameter on the front because of the shoulder. I think it better to ignore mention of various HF disc sizes in the how to and ask the question each time if the disc being used for the current operation makes sense. There is also a shoulder inside the bearing that enables to use the smaller discs in the kit to push from the back. Similar approach when installing bearing then hub. When I used #13 on the back the welded nut on the long bolt head came off at the weld. I ended up getting it welded back on with an even better weld and proceeded from there.

- One other point I found is that the Impact Wrench use may not be the best. It may provide higher instantanous torque, but with a regular wrench you can control the pull and re-install better.

You can see the long bolt separation in the pics below. I did use a dent puller slide hammer and dremmel to cut off inner race. Worked fine. My only concern is the posts towards the end of the thread may not be seen by all before they attempt the job - like I didn't see some of the warnings.














 
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LegalRod

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Feb 3, 2008
Location
Millville, NJ
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI, vented, Frank06 head
Wow, it is like déjà vu. I did this last summer on both bearings for a total of four times. Lessons learned: 1) Don't forget to install the clip (it looks like this is a common occurence), once you begin to install the hub and take a few turns on the rachet to realize that the clip is staring at you in the face, it is too late. 2) Make sure to use the right size cup to push the bearing, if not, you will push the inner race out towards the front of the bearing. The job took me longer than I expected, but the car runs great. I have driven 40k miles since the repair.
 
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scurvy

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Chicago IL USA
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2006 Golf
eddie_1 said:
I know that the theory of turn direction based diagnosis of which bearing is bad was debunked saying there is an inner and outer race but to me it seems 9 times out of 10 the theory holds
Hasn't worked for me 100% of the time.

To be sure which one is bad, get the front end up on jackstands and let the wheels rotate freely in air so you can listen to which one is groaning (A SAFE DISTANCE FROM THE SPINNING, DEADLY, ANGRY WHEELS). Unless you're doing both sides for fun, I cannot now nor will I ever subscribe to the theory of turn direction.

Especially when I have a more complete theorem as well as a personal proof of invalidation of the turn theory.

eddie_1 said:
- The other big point mentioned by others also is the Harbor freight #13 disc for removing the bearing.
There are at least two different kits at HF. I have the 'old' version, MOGolf's numbers are from the 'newer' version. There may have been several other suppliers since our kits were manufactured as well. Disc numbers are for reference only. Always physically check the parts in hand to make sure they fit.

eddie_1 said:
My only concern is the posts towards the end of the thread may not be seen by all before they attempt the job - like I didn't see some of the warnings.
Scurvy Heavy Industry & Technologies cannot be held liable for anyone not reading all the directions several times over before starting a job. This thread is for reference purposes only and may not be to scale. ;)
 
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coalminer16

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Dec 11, 2008
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Central Wisconsin
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Golf 2004
scurvy said:
Scurvy Heavy Industry & Technologies cannot be held liable for anyone not reading all the directions several times over before starting a job.
;)
Couldn't be said any better. I read the directions for the Sir B-90 kit several times through. It worked good enough for me to get the job done but didn't have the visual aids so I made my own. No matter the kit and/or job always read through so you know if you have the tools, the know how (to ask questions), and the parts to do the job.
 

Ron 33

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Oct 17, 2000
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South Carolina
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Y2K Jetta GLS Atlantic Blue, Manual
one sure way

One sure way to find out which bearing is bad, drive it like you stole it until the wheel starts smoking!:eek:
 

greengeeker

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Feb 8, 2006
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Cambridge, MN
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2002 Jetta GLS
Ausgezeichnet TDi said:
Like what you did there Ted! ;) Past couple wheel bearings I've done, the inner race and hub were so badly rusted and galled that I had to take em to a machine shop.
On the last bearing I did, the hub and INNER inboard race decided they didn't want to be separated. I actually shattered the inner race pressing the hub out with my Hubtamer.
 

Herb Score

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Lake Orion, MI
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon
Another case where turn direction proved wrong. That method on mine definitely points to driver side. The jackstand method didn't help - neither side was noisy. But the other test of grabbing the wheel at the top and bottom made it perfectly obvious that the passenger side is bad.


Hasn't worked for me 100% of the time.
To be sure which one is bad, get the front end up on jackstands and let the wheels rotate freely in air so you can listen to which one is groaning (A SAFE DISTANCE FROM THE SPINNING, DEADLY, ANGRY WHEELS). Unless you're doing both sides for fun, I cannot now nor will I ever subscribe to the theory of turn direction.
 
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