Ok - I have been reading the 5th gen wheel bearing posts for the past week - I think I have gone thru all of them couple of times.

Looks like I may have all bad bearings (front and back). Fronts are chirping bad on turns, rears are roaring most of the time.

2003 SE, 64K miles - everything stock.

Q-1: as I am out of warranty, I am trying to find out what is doable DIY. For the fronts, if I replace the Hub with the bearing, is it any easier to do? I can certainly goto the shop to have the bearing pressed into the new hub - but is the rest of the process still the same to get the old hub off and put the new one one the car? In other words putting in a new hub with the new bearing does not make the job any easier?

As an example, do I still need to remove the knuckle from the struts?


Q-2: Rear are any easier to do? Looks like the rear comes in pressed with the hub and bearing assembly?

Thanks

 

can you post the link the thread about the wheel bearing, i cant find it.

 

I have a bad passanger side front wheel bearing in my max...id like to know if its better to change the whole hub also. Bump.

 

I had one done at a shop. I believe that a press is needed to put the bearing in the hub. Also the bearings should be replaced before damage is done to the entire hub. Its important to chose a good mechanic. When I took mine to get replaced the previous mechanic screwed the whole thing up. I needed to replace some $400 in things that he damaged. I seen the damage with my own eyes and it was bad. I wouldn't pay any more than $200 a side.

 

So I went to Nissan dealership today - complained about the noise. Having talked with the real service manager, he called in the big boy (foreman) to drive the car with me.

He did his act, drove for a while and ruled out any issues with the bearing - the guy seemed to know his stuff. Anyways this is what he did:

1. He would drive fast, slow, turn left and right (sway) during decent speeds and obviously no additional noise was heard.

2. Then he offered to put up the car on rack and then use s***hescope for any additional noises from the bearings. Hmmmm - I am not sure, perhaps when the car is not loaded the bearings are not under any load and may not produce the effects.

Anyways, their diagnosis is that my tires are cupped and that is where the howling sound is coming from. The tires indeed are somewhat bad, so for now my fight takes me to Discount tires where the previous owner has purchased these Kumho Escta tires.

Anyone else has problems with Kumho Escta tires on SE?

The one thing the foreman did ask me to keep an eye on is the chirping sound in the morning at first start and turning the vehicle (backing out of my garage). Now I have to determine if it is the strut mount or something else (could be bearing) on the passenger side front.

 

if you wanna know if it is the wheel bearing, jack up the car then try to wiggle the the wheel holding the top and the bottom of the wheel, if you can wiggle it then its the wheel bearing, if it does not budge at all, then its not the wheel bearing.

i just replaced my wheel bearing yesterday, had to replace the bearing and the hub, the hub had a lot of wear on it so i replaced it.

 

I have no wiggle in any direction, that is the first thing we checked.

How was your R&R experience with hub and bearing? easy, medium, difficult - any inisights? I am sure mine is not given up yet but it will in short order.

 

it wasnt too bad if you have all the tools. the most important tool is the press, you will need to press out the old bearing and press in the new one. i think total time was about an hour or so i didnt keep track of the time.