Excessive Cabin Noise

[coco26]

Yeah I was secretly hoping it made sense to change the entire hub because I know that's much easier. I just ordered the SKF one from RockAuto. $120 shipped so I can't complain. A coworker offered his driveway and axle nut sockets, but recommended I source a slide hammer too.

 

Edit: Does anyone happen to know the socket size for the axle nut?

[FLlegacy]

Yeah I was secretly hoping it made sense to change the entire hub because I know that's much easier. I just ordered the SKF one from RockAuto. $120 shipped so I can't complain. A coworker offered his driveway and axle nut sockets, but recommended I source a slide hammer too.

 

Edit: Does anyone happen to know the socket size for the axle nut?

 

I believe it is 32mm, but honestly I have a set of large sockets so I am not 100%, more like 95%. That is the first size that came to mind.

[GTEASER]

Pretty sure it's 32mm. I can check the one I bought to do our old 2003 Forester.

[coco26]

Project update:

 

Had rust not been a factor, this would have been a 1.5, 2 hour project max. Rust, however, was fairly involved.

 

The swap process goes as follows:

 

1. Remove axle nut (32mm)

2. Disassemble down to the hub (remove caliper and rotor)

3. Remove wheel speed sensor (10mm)

4. Remove 4x 14mm hub mounting bolts (I used the style of hub puller that pushes on the axle to gain more clearance to get at these bolts)

5. Slide hub out (Air hammer would be ideal, slide/regular hammer should work fine)

6. Clean up the bore, and reinstall in reverse order.

 

 

My mistakes:

 

1. When removing the 4 mounting bolts, don't stop halfway through. If the bolts are anywhere near as rusty as mine were on the exposed end, loosening them will generate heat. If you stop to take a break (like I did) while that rusted portion is within the hub threads, it will cool down and seize for good. I needed a torch, longer tools, and a coworker to get them moving again.

 

2. Have replacement bolts ready. Even if they aren't in terrible shape, they'll go back in much easier if they aren't rusty. Dealers don't stock them, but they are available. They're M12x1.25x47mm, class 10.9, so some hardware stores will have something close too.

 

3. The axle-pushing hub pullers are nice, but I didn't like pushing on the axle as hard as they do. Loan a slide hammer from autozone. If you have some rust, the assembly should pop right out. If you have a lot of rust... good luck. On mine, the slide hammer actually separated the hub from the mounting flange/bearings, so I wasn't left with much to hold on to. About half an hour with a 4lb sledge later, the flange came off too.

 

 

All in all, it took me 3 nights to finish. The original noise is gone, but now there's a similar (much quieter) noise with a different pitch. I first thought it may just be the new bearing wearing in, but I've done almost 500 miles and it hasn't changed. To be investigated.