DIY - Front wheel bearing. VRs -04

[Masteron]

Thought i would share my front right bearing removal and installment. 

 

My car is a Octavia vrs - 04.

 

The kit i bought. 

 

 

SKF bearing kit - Came with a spring and three nuts. 

 

 

Made a contraption-cage so i was able to pry against something with my regular jaw-puller. The cage laid against the dustshield and the housing.

Then i laid a thick plate on top to press against.  

 

 

The jaw-puller i used. 

 

Hub out, inner race still left on the hub. 

 

Bearing left to be pulled out. 

 

Pulls out. Took some turns and then a loud click was heard and it went out smooth. 

 

Bearing pulled out successfully. 

 

Housing got cleaned up. 

 

Pulling in new bearing with greased housing. 

 

Seated with lock-washer installed. 

 

Had to grind down the sides of the Inner race to weaken it so i could use a rod to crack it. 

 

It cracked and I was able to pull it off, wear eyeprotection when hitting on bearings. 

 

Greased up and ready to be pulled in. 

 

 

Hope this can be helpful for someone!

 

It took from parking the car to drive away aprox  4h. Hardest part was the Inner bearing. I marked up and only removed the 3 nuts under balljoint. And of course the hub-nut. Made it in situ.

 

Now the car is quiet and enjoyable to drive again in higher speeds.

 

(I didnt took any more pictures.) 

 

 

Cheers! 

 

 

[reesky]

Nice one! Thanks so much for sharing.

 

I have a brand new knuckle on the way from Germany after my original shattered when the garage tried to press the bearing out. I have the same installation tool as you and am looking forward to getting this job done. (I did order a "used" replacement knuckle after the first shattered but that turned out to be bent).

 

Your guide is really useful.

Cheers

[octyal]

Nice job, but did you follow the correct tightening procedure? If not then there is a fair chance the preload will be wrong and the bearing will become noisy again

[Masteron]

5 hours ago, octyal said:

Nice job, but did you follow the correct tightening procedure? If not then there is a fair chance the preload will be wrong and the bearing will become noisy again

 

I pressed the bearing and the hub fully seated. I hadn't a torque wrench that was going to 200nm so I torqued it to 165nm then  the rest with a breaker bar until it went to a firm stop, and I couldn't turn more.  (didn't want to damage the nut.)

I understand  that this step is to seat everything fully home. 

 

Then I released the nut 180 degrees, rotated hub 180 degrees, then I retightened the nut to 50nm. Finally it should had been tightened 60 degrees, I tightened with my breaker bar aprox. 40 degrees then it went to a firm stop, then I tightened just a little more. 

 

I can't understand the last 60 degrees, it would had been too much in my case, I didn't want to damage the nut. The bearing type can't be overtighten because of the cylindrical shape, only the nut will be damaged if overtighten. 

 

I'm confident with the torqued I applied, had done a lot of mechanical work in my life so my feel of it guided me. 

 

I had done ca. 80km since the change and everything is fine. The nut also has a plastic inner part of the end of the threads so it should hold in place without undoing itself. 

 

I torqued it unloaded on jack stands using a crowbar and two wheel nuts to hold the crowbar. Picture showing when untightening the nut. 

 

 

 

(Also, When I pressed the hub in, I had a smaller disc that was resting on the edge of the inner race so the bearing didn't got damaged.)

 

Regards 

Edited 15 August, 2017 by Masteron