Hi guys,

I am looking for a recommendation for a tool to do the front wheel bearings on our Roomster.

The pictured tool is used on a video I watched online, which seemed to work fine, although according to reviews, the quality is questionable.

Has anyone used this tool? Or could you recommend an alternative?

I know a lot of people say take it to the shop for a wheel bearing, but with 173k on the clock and an MOT due, I'm keen to keep the costs down!

Cheers,

Joe.

Have a look at the "Hub nut" thread in the Rapid section, I posted a link there for a suitable tool if your bearing is a 72mm one.

I bought a cheap Chinese kit and it worked well, just make sure that you use Moly grease on the forcing screw.

I played safe and bought a set of similar length pins from a Sealey tools site online - these can get seen as being consumables so for the Sealey kits they provide spares, and these Chinese kits are not a lot away from being copies of whatever Sealey copied!

So I can't vouch for the strength of the forcing pins, everything else worked fine, these bearings can need quite a bit of force to get them out, I got the first side (LHS) out of the 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS with 288mm discs okay without damaging the ABS sensor, but I cracked the one on the RHS, I think that it was the build up of rust scale that caused that to happen on that side, you'll probably side that removing the wheel sensor intact is not going to happen, CarPartsInMotion sell Bosch ABS sensors for not much money, from memory the 2015 VW Polo uses 4 different ones!! Each shaped to suit its location - my 2011 Audi S4 uses only 2 different ones, which is more useful.

Removing the seized ABS sensors:- I just drill down into them, screw in a long MDF screw through a slide hammer attachment for pulling car panels, and yank them out, they also can require quite a bit of force as I discovered when removing one from my 2011 Audi S4 - for the 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI, once the drive shaft was out of the way I just hammered a drift in from the lower end, though if I was to repeat that job, I'd just use a screw and slide hammer.

Edit:- if you have any difficulty working out which bits to use when in these kits, just ask the question as I'm sure that I will have made a note of how I used it! I probably only read most of the online content covering using these kits many times before maning up and using it!

Edited 12 May12 May by rum4mo

1 hour ago, rum4mo said:

CarPartsInMotion sell Bosch ABS sensors for not much money

i just tried to search for them, Car Parts in Motion is in the Netherlands, but there is Partsinmotion based in Exeter thats a parts webshop

That will be them, I got it wrong.

They have an ebay shop.

I felt the need to add/suggest PIM as I messed up and grabbed a new Bosch ABS sensor from ECP to save money, and didn’t save so much, so going forward I’ve bought from PIM, very fast delivery!

Edited 13 May13 May by rum4mo

Massively helpful info here, guys. Hugely appreciated.

Duly noted about the forcing pins and ABS sensors. I will order some additional pins and hope for the best with the sensors! Either way, I now know where to find them.

I have ordered all of the kit to give it a go over the next week or so.

I will post my progress.

Thanks again,

Joe.

I find it easier to take the hub off. I then drift the old bearing out using a square lump hammer as a drift, leaving the original ABS sensor in place. Dremel inside and seats to clean up and install using a vice to hold on the bench.

I put the new bearing in the freezer for 24hrs, lube bearing and casing up and install with similar tool. ABS sensor doesn't require changing then.

I used to install them the old fashioned way of bearing in the freezer and hub in the oven, you can push them in by hand, but have to renew the ABS sensor.

There is a “snap ring” sort of retainer around these bearing normally, freezing the bearing assembly will not do much to reduce the dimension of the retainer ring!

This sounds a lot like you’ve been dealing with old style Gen1 bearings.