Rear axle bearing re & re 'how to'

[JohnnyThin]

I know this is an old thread, but I just want to say - THANK YOU. You just saved me about 400$ (between labours and VW parts) for replacing the rear wheel bearings on my '02 jetta TDI.

I used DieselOx's idea of a clamp on a puller, and the inner race popped off in a jiff.

again. THANK YOU. and my wallet thanks you.

 

[DieselOx]

Well done, good to see someone else get some help from this thread.

 

[indysoto]

MKIV Rear Wheel Bearing replacement DIY MK4 Jetta Golf Beetle A4 VW thought's

[FONT=&quot]By doing this yourself you might Kill yourself! For informational purposes only![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1 Get Pointy two armed puller? Look at em at autozone then rent it[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2 Some Say best tool For Job: OEM/Adjustable heavy duty pitman arm puller for cars and 3/4 Ton light trucks(autozonerent)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
3Also get a BRAKE CALIPER TOOL autozone(do brakes)
4Cold chisel(if u want to be caveman)
5Big Rubber Mallet
6OVEN bearing @ 100 4mins(use mits)

Push on new bearing Precaution:
My father's method was to get a metal tuber(socket in usa) that had the right diameter for the inner bearing ring and used that to hammer the bearing in so that no impact ever hit the balls in the bearings. I used a 3/4 drive socket of the appropriate diameter
The dremel and cold chisel trick mentioned in this thread works great...took about 5 min per side being extra careful not to cut into the shaft. …
Others whacked at it for 15-30 mins (so in retrospect rent the puller anyway
Another option: take off 4 bolts to separate race from stub (if u did not get pointy two legged puller or a hand bar vise)
Some have said : wouldn't split after hammering on it hard. Removing the rotor shield (so unbolt the stub axle, remove shield, re-attach stub axle) lets you get easy access to knock the inner race off from the back with the chisel and hammer - even if you just do it a bit to get enough of a gap for your gear puller to grab on.

 

[volmaniac]

Link to a good instructional video on a 2003 Jetta:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6DDe_eAq4A

 

[indysoto]

Link to a good instructional video on a 2003 Jetta:

http://www.ccp.edu/site/about/ccptv/car_corner/carcorner_bearings.html

Nice Vid! little heavy on the data tho just sliced my knuckle pretty bad on the back plate trying to remove the hardest to get to of the 4 stub bolts...grr would leave it alone but alignment said it needed a shim so. got a new one from bora parts 32$

 

[rockwood]

Was able to pry my inner race out with two hammers using the nail claw, if anyone's not keen on using a dremel or can't get the pitman arm puller in there.

 

[dilkie]

Well, after 475K (kms) and towing heavy trailers, my driver's side rear bearing is going... This procedure looks easy enough. Question for you folks, should I do both sides while I'm at it? My experience with front bearings, in the past, has been that when one side goes, the other side follows shortly after but perhaps rear's are different?

 

[ymz]

My experience with front bearings, in the past, has been that when one side goes, the other side follows shortly after

Definitely not my experience during decades of VW ownership...

(Present car: Front Left bearing went at 194556 km... Front Right at 446980 km... Rear Left bearing went at 743287 km... Right one still fine at 816xxx km... of course, I keep a spare rear wheel bearing/hub in stock...)

YMMV

Yuri

 

[dilkie]

Definitely not my experience during decades of VW ownership...

(Present car: Front Left bearing went at 194556 km... Front Right at 446980 km... Rear Left bearing went at 743287 km... Right one still fine at 816xxx km... of course, I keep a spare rear wheel bearing/hub in stock...)

YMMV

Yuri

works for me, I'll do just the one bad one.

In the past, I've traced failing front bearings to bad alignment, which tend to stress both sides, hence my experience of double failures... (yes, bad alignment due to my fiddling with suspension parts and not getting an alignment done afterwards...).

 

[dilkie]

Definitely not my experience during decades of VW ownership...

(Present car: Front Left bearing went at 194556 km... Front Right at 446980 km... Rear Left bearing went at 743287 km... Right one still fine at 816xxx km... of course, I keep a spare rear wheel bearing/hub in stock...)

YMMV

Yuri

Also, you live nearby, my '01 Golf is getting some pretty serious rust, it'll have to be retired in the next couple of years. Is yours experiencing the same? Is there anything one can do about it?

 

[ymz]

Funny you should say that... I just came back from Ottawa... (picked up a few spare parts from GuyGuy in Rockland... went to a lovely little restaurant in Gatineau... Edgar... great soup and sandwich...)

Yes, there are little spots of rust... the 2003 will probably go into the shop some time this spring for a more-or-less full body touchup... the 2001 doesn't get driven all that much, so it can probably withstand staying the way it is for a few more years...

Yuri.

 

[jobob307]

One thing I would like to add. Don't pound on the hub to get bearing started on the shaft. Use a large socket and push on inner race. This is the same mistake most people make on front bearings also. It deforms the seal which leads to premature failure of the bearing.

 

[jobob307]

Just did a rear bearing yesterday at a remote location. Which means no air tools. 27 minutes start to finish.

 

[cowboy_manswers]

Is there anything different in the process when doing this on a 2006 jetta tdi?

 

[paramedick]

Nigel, thank you for this article. After removing the brake stuff, it took about 15 minutes per side.

I did have have VW 3420 hub installer nut, The OEM 27170 pitman arm puller, and a harbor freight 3 arm puller. They made all the difference.........

 

[Van Wylder]

Nigel, thank you for this article. After removing the brake stuff, it took about 15 minutes per side.

I did have have VW 3420 hub installer nut, The OEM 27170 pitman arm puller, and a harbor freight 3 arm puller. They made all the difference.........

Bruce, did you mean the video link? I'm looking for all the inside tips I can find on this. The axle bushing re and re is something I'm thinking about doing (mine are shot), likely at the same time I put on new shocks and struts (likely going with) Koni STR's. I don't have Dave's bushing tool though.

 

[paramedick]

This is an article/how-to for rear wheel bearings......

 

[Van Wylder]

This is an article/how-to for rear wheel bearings......

Copy that. Got mixed up.

 

[dilkie]

works for me, I'll do just the one bad one.

In the past, I've traced failing front bearings to bad alignment, which tend to stress both sides, hence my experience of double failures... (yes, bad alignment due to my fiddling with suspension parts and not getting an alignment done afterwards...).

Definitely not my experience during decades of VW ownership...

(Present car: Front Left bearing went at 194556 km... Front Right at 446980 km... Rear Left bearing went at 743287 km... Right one still fine at 816xxx km... of course, I keep a spare rear wheel bearing/hub in stock...)

YMMV

Yuri

Update. Passenger side rear went south and was replaced yesterday. The job is much faster the second time around, didn't need to do the dremel procedure, the two arm puller worked just fine.

So, so far, my experience of bearings going in pairs is holding up. I changed my wife's front passenger-side bearing a couple of months ago, bet the drivers side will go soon...

 

[schwechel]

I had to do this over the weekend and just want to say thank you for the walk through and pictures. It helped. I'm quite the shade tree mechanic so it took me about 4 or 5 hours, but I got it done and so far the wheel has stayed on. So I call that a success!

 

[canbluegolf]

As an alternative to grinding out the back of the hub to get the inner race off, you could try this:

Any clamp could work (this one is easy to get to stay in place), and some pullers come with this function . I dremmeled out my first side, and it took so long (OK, just a few minutes, but I bet my wife I could do them both in an hour, I was looking to shave time) I tried this for the heck of it first. Got it off in seconds.

I've been meaning to show you this for a couple months now. Thanks for this thread, it was a big help.

Real time saving picture here, worked like a charm.
The only thing I did differently was use my 3" air cutoff tool to grind out a bit behind the small front lip so the puller had more bite, took about 10 seconds each side. Using a 4" dual jaw puller I was able to remove the race, with a quick release bar clamp holding the arms together, totally from the front lip.

Now to finish the brakes ...

 

[jiggseob]

1-3/16 twelve-point inch socket is what works

The 1-3/16 12-point socket is what works for rear wheel bearing nut. It also works for front axle nut.

1-3/16 = 30.1625 mm. But the 1-3/16 goes on and works great.

I have access to a 2000 Jetta, it is headed to the crusher after a side impact, its a gasser, and most usable parts have been peeled off. The rear axle stub axles and bearings look recent.

I've got whining bearings on the back of my 98 Beetle, does anyone know if theres a way I can use these free rear bearings/stub axles off that 2000 Jetta on my Beetle? The collective opinion seems to be that there is no removing the bearings without wrecking them. Any ideas?

Jiggs

 

[gmenounos]

You could try this: http://www.lellaautosport.com/alignment-shim-wrench.html

 

[Prairie Chicken]

Great write up... I'm about to do mine and am concerned about installation-by-pounding method, but in the end does it compare at all to the stress put under while driving/cornering?

I'm planning to ice the shaft and heat the bearing in the oven. Not sure of the temp yet but thinking in the 175 range to start. I have an old tub of bearing grease and the drop point on that is 450 so I'm not worried about giving it a little hit in the oven. Hopefully the combination of heat/cold will make enough difference to install without too much influence.

will update...

 

[Wingnut]

Nothing wrong with giving it a gentle tap with a soft rubber mallet. I would never recommend doing it with a sledge hammer though. You just need to push it on enough to allow the threads to show so you can use the nut to drive it the rest of the way. If you are really worried about hitting it with anything, use a large socket that is the same size as the inner race and pond away on that as hard ad you need.

 

[jfbsaratoga]

I just did this a week back. The inner race will be stuck on the spindle and will not want to let go. The lip that is available is tiny. I resorted to cutting the race with a dremmel. Oddly enough, you don't have to cut through the whole race. Once I got about half way, the race popped off the spindle. Anywho, let us know how it goes.

 

[Pat Dolan]

Great write up... I'm about to do mine and am concerned about installation-by-pounding method, but in the end does it compare at all to the stress put under while driving/cornering?

I'm planning to ice the shaft and heat the bearing in the oven. Not sure of the temp yet but thinking in the 175 range to start. I have an old tub of bearing grease and the drop point on that is 450 so I'm not worried about giving it a little hit in the oven. Hopefully the combination of heat/cold will make enough difference to install without too much influence.

will update...

It's not a really tight press at all. But, if you are really worried, the Matra (VW) tool that is a nut with a sleeve to aling is the way to get it started dead square. Under $30 from Samstag and I think is even in the US Snap-On dealer network.

I have a real problem with whacking any bearing with a hammer of any kind, especially a steel one,. Pressing is the way to go.

 

[volmaniac]

Link to a good instructional video on a 2003 Jetta:

updated this link.

Link to a good instructional video on a 2003 Jetta:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6DDe_eAq4A

 

[Prairie Chicken]

finally did mine last night - no real problems encountered.

Notes - Pressing the jaws of the puller into the inner race worked really well. I used a C clamp. Also, to drive on the new bearing I didn't bother with a heat/cold test - I just used a large socket to drive on until threads were exposed and worked great.

Worst part about the job is that I doubt over 160k the rotors had been off - I had to pound the dog out of them to break free from the hub - the wife came out to the garage concerned I had gotten mad and was just beating on the car with a hammer... LOL. Even the wheel was stuck on pretty good. A wire brush and liberal coat of anti-seize on the new hub and rotor/wheel surfaces will take care of that - I'm actually looking forward to the next brake job to enjoy how easy the rotor comes off.

 

[ymz]

Link to a good instructional video on a 2003 Jetta: [edit: bad link removed...] http://www.ccp.edu/site/about/ccptv/car_corner/carcorner_bearings.html

updated this link.

Still not functioning...

Originally Posted by foxracer1
Wars are fought over religion, money, land, and brand of injectors for a TDI

You forgot to include "brand of oil"...


Yuri