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Replacing Front Wheel Bearing Hub on 2008 Prius

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Becky M., Dec 24, 2014.

  1. Becky M.

    Becky M. New Member

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    Hello All,
    I am new posting to the forum, but have been reading for years.

    Our 2008 Prius (Gen 2) was making a loud whining noise characteristic of bad wheel bearings at 80,000 miles, so we took it to the local Toyota dealership to have them check it out. They ended up suggesting several pieces of maintenance:
    1. Replacement of both front wheel bearing hubs. $1204 ($364 parts)
    2. Replacement of our water pump, which was apparently leaking, along with the drive belt. $408 ($145 parts)
    3. An invertor flush, which is recommended every 100,000 miles or 6 years. Our Prius is 6.5 years old. $129
    4. Throttle cleaning due to some oil in the intake manifold. $163
    5. Alignment of the rear brake drums. $79
    After some research, we ended up deciding to let them replace the water pump as that can be a big job and was worth the cost of them doing it. We also had them do the rear brake alignment, despite the fact that we had no idea what they were talking about. It ended up making a difference in the parking brake, which is now harder to push in, but seems more secure.

    As for item #3, our service manual suggests this at 100,000 miles or after 10 years, so we decided to hold off on this. All my reading on the forums suggest there is no need for this until later unless you see a color change, which we do not.

    The other items, we decided to do ourselves. We had previously replaced the brake pads and rotors ourselves and this job seemed to only be one more step from that. The dealership said it would take 4 hours per wheel bearing hub, which is pretty pricey.

    Here are the steps we took to replace the front wheel bearing hubs.

    We purchased these from Advanced Auto Parts and used a coupon that gave us $50 off a $100+ purchase. I bought one and so did my husband. This brought the cost of each wheel bearing hub to $95, which seems pretty good. We decided to buy the hubs as that would not require a press, which we didn’t have.

    Also, we did this job with 2 large guys and 1 small woman. Many of the jobs could not have been completed without 2 large guys that could pull and hammer on these things with all their might.

    Tools/Equipment:
    • wheel bearing hub (purchased from Advanced Auto Parts)
    • wheel bearing puller (rented for FREE from Advanced Auto Parts)
    • slide hammer (rented for FREE from Advanced Auto Parts)
    • various sockets and wrenches, mostly 10mm thru 21mm
    • breaker bar
    • hammer
    • chisel, screwdriver, and/or punches
    • pneumatic tools
    • 30 mm 12 pointed socket
    • wire to hang these up with

    Time: 12 hours (4 hours of this would have been saved if we had just taken it to NAPA Auto Parts earlier)
    1. Parking brake is on, the car is in park, and the key is located far away from the vehicle.
    2. Disconnect the 12V battery.
      • It is located in the trunk near the spare tire.
      • We just disconnected the negative. It is a black cable. There were some sparks that came off as we were disconnecting this.
      • This job required a ratchet with a 10mm socket and some rubber gloves.
      • Also, once you unhook the battery, don’t close the trunk as you can’t open it without the power.
    3. Loosen the lug nuts on the front wheels.
    4. Jack up the car and place jackstands.
      • These need to be placed on the jack points, Don’t jack up on the axle as you may need to disengage the axle and that could be bad news!!
    5. Remove the wheel.
    6. Remove the caliper.
      • Uses a 17mm socket and a breaker bar.
      • Hang caliper up with some wire.
    7. Remove rotor, which is now loose.
    8. Remove speed sensor.
      • Requires 10mm socket.
      • Also hang this up out of the way with the caliper.
    9. Remove the axle nut.
      • We had to hammer and pry up the dent in the bolt. This took a screw driver/punch and a hammer and some time.
      • After pounding out the indent, we used a 30mm 12 point socket on the end of a pneumatic tool. We were worried that we might be damaging the axle threading when we were doing this, but it worked very well.
    OK, so at this point, you will need to make a decision. If your hub is not rusted on and will be easy to remove, you should leave the knuckle on the vehicle. If it is corroded and stuck on, you will want to remove the whole knuckle.

    In our case, we tried removing the 4 mounting bolts and leaving the knuckle on. In our case, this was a poor decision. We tried a PB Blaster, slide hammer, blow torch, air chisel, and even a pneumatic saw with no luck! We could have saved ourselves many hours of trying if we just took off the knuckle and had NAPA Auto Parts machine shop separate the hub from the knuckle. It took them 15 minutes and $20 per knuckle/hub combo!
    1. Loosen, but don’t remove, the knuckle-to-strut bolts.
      • The guide we used also mentioned to mark the strut to knuckle relationship, but this didn’t end up mattering to us.
    2. Remove the tie rod from the knuckle.
      • Remove the cotter pin on the end of the castle nut that is connecting the knuckle to the tie rod. This should just pull out. Some people suggest replacing these, but we reused ours.
      • Then we loosened the jam nut on the tie rod. We weren’t sure that this was necessary, but thought it might create more movement to help with the rest of the removal. This required two wrenches and once we got it loose, we marked the relationship of the tie rod to the threading.
      • Next, we used a socket wrench to take off the castle nut. This may or may not have required the use of a pneumatic tool.
      • Finally, we disconnected the tie rod from the knuckle using a “pickle fork”. Unfortunately, we ended up breaking the grease cover/dust cover/bladder on the end of the tie rod. Luckily, this can be easily repaired with a $6 universal dust cover and some grease!
    3. Remove the balljoint-to knuckle bolt (1) and nuts (2) for a total of 3 pieces.
      • These are on the bottom of the knuckle and were pretty easy to take off. You do not need to remove the castle nut!
    4. Finish removing the two bolts on the top of the knuckle holding it to the strut.
    5. At this point, the axle should come out and you should support it with a piece of wire.
      • The axle did not come out for us. We pounded on with a hammer, no budge. We put the strut bolts back in and ended up using the slide hammer to rip the front part of the wheel bearing hub off. You need lug nuts that don’t have a rim on them to fit on the wheel hub puller you can rent. That freed the axle!
    6. Once you have the knuckle free from the vehicle, take a different car to your local machine shop (NAPA Auto Parts for us) and have them remove the knuckle from the hub.
      • Make sure to mark the brake dust shield so you know which side faces out.
      • The machine shop can also clean up the erosion and dust they are bound to find between the knuckle and hub.
    7. Clean up the bolts and nuts you have pulled out in this time.
    8. Re-assemble the NEW hub, brake dust shield, and knuckle.
      • 14mm socket.
    9. Guide the knuckle and hub assembly onto the axle.
      • The most important part for us was to make sure we got the lower part of the knuckle so that the 2 nuts and 1 bolt could be put in, while also making sure the axle was coming through the center of the hub.
    10. Everything else is in reverse, but don’t tighten things until you have everything connected.
      • A chisel and a hammer worked great for getting the indent back on the axle nut once it was in place.
      • Our ball joint at the end of our tie rod was rotating so we couldn’t tighten the castle nut with a regular ratchet. We ended up using a pneumatic ratchet to get it tightened. Once tightened, we could use a torque wrench without the bolt rotating on us.
     
    RC-Pilot232, YBLee, Tony D and 3 others like this.
  2. Yakoma

    Yakoma Active Member

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    Great write-up and good job on the repairs. Sounds like you had a nice little pre-Christmas adventure there. Thanks for sharing your experience.
     
  3. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    Nice work. An excellent idea to rely on your local machine shop to separate the hub from the steering knuckle. They've got the equipment to do that work quickly and at a minimal charge.

    I hope you installed new axle nuts.

    It sounds like your team "of two large guys and one small woman" would have been able to replace the engine coolant pump as well, if sufficiently motivated to do so.
    How to replace engine coolant pump and thermostat | PriusChat
     
    #3 Patrick Wong, Dec 25, 2014
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2014
  4. Becky M.

    Becky M. New Member

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    Thanks.

    We did not install new axle nuts as I found mixed reviews on whether it was needed. Ours were not stripped and we dented it back in when we put it back on. Do you know why some people recommend new axle nuts?

    We probably could have installed the water pump, but the price was reasonable and we were taking on the job of the wheel hubs, so it was worth the money.
     
  5. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    The prius water pump is 20x easier than any other car. You could have easily tackle this yourself in a couple hours. Did the dealer change the radiator coolant? That was partially drained during the repair. Good job on the bearing hub.
     
  6. Patrick Wong

    Patrick Wong DIY Enthusiast

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    1. The Toyota repair manual recommends replacing the axle nuts.
    2. After the nut is tensioned once (159 ft.-lb spec), its shape may become slightly distorted, which would result in damage to the threads on the axle shaft.
    3. The correct axle nut costs around $6 at the Toyota dealer where I buy parts, depending upon your locale your local dealers may charge more. In any event this does not represent a big incremental investment in parts.
     
  7. mjancola

    mjancola Junior Member

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    Great write-up, thanks! I'm in the middle of the same job and I thought I would share some insights. By the way, I'm doing the job because the bearing would groan above 30mph, not because the wheels were loose.

    First, undent the axle nut and loosen while the car is still on the ground - possibly a little easier.
    On mine, everything came out fine, but the replacement hub would not slide on the axle more than half way. (I purchased the cheap model at O'Reilly's for about $100.) I took it back apart and verified everything looked good, then I went for it. After hammering the hub on a bit, I noticed the bearings started to seem lose. I then used the nut to pull it the rest of the way on. Unfortunately, I could not get it the last 1/4" in! I test drove and the sound was gone but the traction control light kept coming on, presumably because the speed sensor pickup was not all the way next to the sensor.
    Now comes the nasty part. I got a big breaker bar extension and tightened the nut even further... until it got easy...you know the feeling - it's now stripped!
    I jacked and checked the bearings by putting a hand on top and bottom of the wheel and wiggling... they were really loose now.
    So I spent the next day disassembling, which took forever because the axle nut was stripped and the axle was jammed into the hub. Chisels, dremel, pliers, 3 hours, and eventually the use of the large puller and I got it apart. The end of the axle was trashed!
    Nasty part two: I tried to pry the axle shaft out of the transaxle for about 20 minutes to no avail. I finally gave up when ATF started leaking! I must have damaged the axle seal now!
    So, today I rented the axle shaft puller, which barely fit, but did the job. O'Reillys had a remanufactured axle for $75 and it fits the replacement hub just fine. But the replacement hub still won't slide onto my factory axle shaft. I'm really curious why this is.
    But, now I'm stuck, because the only seal they have is about 2mm too small in outside diameter!
    Tomorrow I'll hit a few other stores and see what I can find.

    I'll report back if/when I finish, but in summary, I would consider buying up instead of getting the cheap parts. At 100k I figured that was all I needed, but I'm surprised the fit is so poor.
     
  8. M in KC

    M in KC Active Member

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    Good times my brother. Any one who does enough DIY repairs will eventually find themselves in similar situations. Props for sticking it out. Consider sourcing the seal from Toyota. It couldn't be but a few dollars. While you are there you can pick up some WS trans fluid to replenish what has leaked out.
     
  9. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I never had wheel bearing problems, with our parade of Hondas over the years. Kinda strange that this is so common. Prius specifically, or Toyotas in general? Chasing lower rolling resistance at the expense of bearing longevity?
     
  10. m.wynn

    m.wynn Senior Member

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    Good point, Mendel. I often wonder if by-design load forces are behind Toyota's wheel bearing issues. Certain models and certain generations of models go through wheel bearings, but it's not every model/generation and definitely not unique to Prius. This has been Toyota's m.o. for the 23 years I've been brand loyal. It would seem the company that generally sets the high mark for auto reliability must know why some of their vehicles eat simple wheel bearings. Strange that Gen 2 eats fronts and Gen 3 eats rears, too. Hard to think a pattern like that doesn't have meaning.
     
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  11. Igoryan

    Igoryan Junior Member

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    Great guide, thanks! In my case the axle came out easily, didn't have to use hub puller. but it took me 20 minutes hammering to get the hub out of the knuckle.
    I didn't have a spare car to get it to a mechanic :)
    Btw, I filmed the whole process. Maybe someone will find it useful.
     
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  12. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Excellent video. I've saved this, even though ours is 3rd gen, I think front wheel bearing change is very similar?

    A couple of comments regarding the brakes:

    1. It's much easier to remove the clips in the caliper mounting brackets (the ones at the two ends of the pad) before the rotor goes in, also easier to clean the area the clips push into, apply lube, whatever.

    2. I'd be cautious with caliper pin lube: was that the same stuff you used elsewhere? What was it btw? One safe lube for pins is Sil Glyde Brake Lubricant: doesn't dry out, or swell rubber.

    Thanks again for the video; will watch it a few times more, get clear in my head the steps to replace bearing. Much easier to understand than text description!
     
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  13. Igoryan

    Igoryan Junior Member

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    Thanks. I think if you take off the wheel, you'll see if it looks similar. But i'd try to find a description/video for 3rd gen.

    Makes sense, thanks, will do it next time :)

    I used to have that special silicone grease for brakes, should have used that for pins.
    I used some multi purpose high temp grease. It mentioned bearings in description. I'll double check what that was and come back to you.
     
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  14. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Yeah sorry for the nitpicks. That's a very informative video, well shot, all the steps. I've never taken on something that tough.
     
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  15. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The grease Toyota specifies for their slide pins is not a silicone of any kind, but a "lithium soap based glycol grease", which they sell in a tube that says "RUBBER GREASE" with part number 08887-01206. It's pinkish-clear in color and has a musty sort of smell. There's no need to own a tube of it if you buy their caliper repair kits (each kit has all the rubber parts and small fiddly bits needed to overhaul two calipers, and comes with a little packet of the proper grease).

    [​IMG]

    Part of the point is not to swell the "rubber", but there are so many different formulas of "rubber" (just like the crazy number of different resins called "plastic") that I'm not just looking for some generic product that says it doesn't swell "rubber" ... I'm looking for the product recommended by the people who engineered the brakes on this car because they know it is compatible with the rubber that they selected.

    -Chap