The dreaded front wheel bearing howl

So here's the side by side of the old VS new brake rotors. I noticed and appreciated the nice cross hatching on the new rotors. You can see in the third pic that the old rotors were pretty well rusted , especially in the center veining area. The new Detroit Axle rotors are coated rotors in the veining and inside hub areas which will hopefully slow down the rusting a bit. The new Detroit Axle Rotors were exactly the same diameter and thickness as the ones I took off the car and the lug holes lined up perfectly.

 

The Detroit Axle brake pads (model # P-822,shown in previous pics) were pretty standard ceramic brake pads and came with the new hardware clips. They are nice and quiet and I guess my only complaint is that there's not a lot of clearance between the new rotors and the new brake hardware so it took some finagling to keep them from scraping on the rotors . I could have used the old clips but they were pretty rusty.

 

Caliber support brackets as they came off the car. The guide pins were crusty and sticking

 

Caliber support brackets all cleaned up and repainted with Rustoleum semi gloss black

 

I used a small wire brush, it's from a 20 ga shotgun cleaning kit, attached to my cordless drill, to clean out the guide pin channels on the brake caliper brackets, after removing the pins. I kept the rubber boots in place and just squirted brake cleaning fluid into the guide pin channels and also used long handle q-tips to clean out the channels before greasing and re installing the old guide pins. they slide nice now with no binding. Should help with the un even brake pad wear I noticed starting on the old brake pads that I just removed.

 

So while I had everything apart I decided to use the old cordless drill and a wire brush to clean up the suspension components like the tie rods, the linkage, axle and lower swing arm. Then I gave everything a nice coat of Rustoleum Hammered Black spray paint. As you can see in the pic I also cleaned up and painted the brake calipers with high temp silver Rustoleum.

 

So as these projects tend to do sometimes this one started to grow. I saw that the original 17 year old 190K mile front struts on both sides had lost their rubber boots. I decided to replace them with a new set of Monroe RoadMatic shocks from Rock Auto.com. Part numbers 182358 left side and 182357 right side. They were $80 each plus shipping. I already had the spindle out of the car so all I had to do was remove a few bolts from the engine compartment to access the top strut bolts and they were in. Super easy job once you have the car striped down to this point. Top strut bolts are torqued down to 35 Ft lbs. Lower strut bolts that connect to the spindle are torqued down to 177 Ft lbs. The center bolt on the top of the strut that holds the shock to the spring assembly is also Torqued to 35 ft lbs.

 

Passenger side all put back together including the new strut, wheel bearing/hub, Caliper bracket, caliper ,Brake rotors and pads. ALWAYS use an new axle nut and stake it in when removing the hub assembly. I purchased mine from my local Toyota parts counter for about $8 a piece. You can see the Copper grease on the Brake pad guides to keep them moving smoothly. The small packet of copper grease came with he brake pad kit and was enough to do both sides of the brackets as well as the backing plate of each brake pad.

 

Drivers side all re-assembled on the car. You can see the transference of Permatex anti seize from the back of the factory aluminum wheel rims to the face of the wheel hub. I used it here for the same reason as when I used it on the spindles. To slow the corrosion where two dis-similar metals come into contact with each other .

 

So...all in all not that bad of a DIT job. Not including the front wheel alignment that I plan to get next week parts cost me right at $400. The two new Wheel bearings from Detroit Axle were $100. The Two new Detroit Axle brake rotors and pad kits were $120 and the two new Monroe Front Struts were $180. Labor of course was free and I have seen cost estimates from others on the chat for just a single wheel bearing range from $800 to $1,400. If you take your time and make sure that you have all the correct parts and more importantly all the correct tools available it's not too bad of a DIY project. A little trick on removing the staked center axle nut that I borrowed from someone else on this chat was to use a small cut off tool in a Dremel and make a small cut on each side of the axle nut right where it is staked . Then use a small flat blade screwdriver and remove the center tab completely. This keeps the staked part of the nut from ruining the threads on the axle shaft. It worked like a charm for me. Best of luck on your wheel bearing replacement project. Any questions just ask.

Be Well & Stay Safe
Rick

 

Spindles after being all cleaned up

 

The lower control arms were in very good shape for 190K miles with only some minor surface rust which easily cleaned up with a wire wheel in a drill. A quick coat of Rustoleum and they are good to go. I like your idea of using a low mileage spindle with the bearings attached. $60 each was a steal

 

Thanks Al, It's amazing how with just a little TLC these cars will go for 300,000 miles plus. Iv'e owned my 2005 prius since 2013 when I purchased it from a family member who got it brand new. It had 70,000 miles when I got it and other than brakes, tires and oil changes Plus an aftermarket Traction Battery this is really the first time the car needed any attention. I enjoyed the car so much that I purchased a 2011 Prius that I still drive today. The 2005 became my Collage age son's car

 

So after 2 weeks and 1,000 + miles all seems to be well with the new bearings. I took the car to Toyota yesterday and amazingly they checked the front wheel alignment and told me no adjustments were needed. Can't do better than that. I'll check back in after several thousand more miles and let you know how the Detroit Axle wheel bearings are holding up. Also the new Front Struts/Shocks made a HUGE difference. I should have done them a long time ago.

 

So,,, Another Month of driving has gone by and all seems to be holding up well with the new struts , wheel bearings and brakes. I don't drive the car every day because it now belongs to my youngest son who is away at college and the Prius is at home but I do try and drive it at least one day a week . When I had the new Traction battery installed at 160,000 miles the tech informed me that the traction batteries do NOT like to sit for long periods of time so I try to take it for a spin at least one day a week whenever possible.

 

Just a side note... When I took the Prius to my local Toyota dealer for the front end alignment after doing the work they informed me that the vehicle was within specs and did not need an alignment. I would have thought after having the spindles out and replacing the front struts that the frond end would definitely need to be re -aligned. I was wrong so don't automatically assume that it will need to be aligned. My Toyota dealer ( Riverhead Toyota) was honest enough to let me know it wasn't needed in my case.

 

Nice. Wonder if Firestone still offers the lifetime alignment