The how to
Replacing a front wheel bearing on a 2005 Ford Explorer
Needs:
• Replacement wheel bearing assembly (see discussion)
• medium flat blade screwdriver
• ¾" socket
• 30mm socket
• 18mm socket (see discussion)
• 15mm socket
• Breaker bar
Torque Wrench
• Appropriate ratchet for sockets
• Coathanger
• Softface mallet
• Penetrating spray (I use Liquid Wrench)
• Antiseize compound
Optional but recommended:
• 2005-2006 Ford Service DVD
• Work light
• ¼” Air impact ratchet
• Doodad that can press the halfshaft out
• Another working vehicle
• A safe way to work from under the vehicle (see discussion)
• Large loading dose of valium
• Someone else to take over
Initially:
I consider myself to be an intermediately advanced mechanic. I have removed and installed motors and transmissions, I just don’t enjoy it now like I used to when I was younger. I consider this to be a basic-level repair.
This really isn’t a how-to so much as it is a how-don’t. Had I known then what I know now, I wouldn’t have attempted this without more tools. Having read another how-to on an older model, I truly thought it would be a straightforward procedure, but I was mistaken. Firstly, the bolts that hold the bearing assembly on are very, very hard to remove. Most bolts are rough for the first 3-4 turns, then you can turn them by hand. On mine, it was necessary to crank each one out all the way. Secondly, these bolts are located directly behind the bearing. This means you have to hunch over the top of the hub and strain your back. Had I known this, I would maybe have tried to figure out a way to do this from under the car and facing the back side, a more direct shot. You can’t really just turn the wheel back and forth for the third reason – there is very, very little clearance between the bolt heads and the cv drive shaft. You need to use a thin walled socket. I wound up going through 3 before I found one that would clear.
Then, the head of all of my ratchets wouldn’t fit directly onto the socket. A 4” extension is too long. Using that flexible thingy is about out, too. You have to apply a great deal of force, and when I tried it, I wound up accidentally flipping it and banging myself into things much harder than my knuckles. Another trip out found a 2” extension that worked. If you had that and an air ratchet, I believe I could have knocked 30 minutes off the procedure, and saved most of my knuckle skin.
The final issue was the halfshaft. The splines refused to pull out of the bearing. 15 minutes of malletwork produced zero results. I finally got a sledge and tapped it out. I was careful to not bend the joint too much, but I don’t think I would recommend that method to anyone else (Ford says don’t tap on it at all). I later saw a picture of something with fingers that attach to the bearing flange, and has a center screw that you tighten and apply force to the halfshaft, that would have knocked (pardon the pun) twenty minutes off the procedure and ran a much lesser risk of mushrooming the end of the halfshaft or damaging any of the cv joints or whatever the halfshaft snuggles into on the other end. Having said all that, lets’ begin:
First –
Prepare your work area. I find myself running back and forth way too much, and then have to go into town at least twice (hence the call for a working vehicle in the tool list). Gather what you’ll need and put it where you don’t have to get up or hunt for it, but don’t crowd yourself. If you do, you could slip or trip, or if something goes south, your escape path might be blocked. I also recommend a work lamp. Even outside, it can be dark inside the wheelwell. It doesn’t have to be a million candlepower, but I do recommend it can survive a drop to the floor.
I also recommend washing the vehicle before you start. Disk brake and off-road vehicles get nasty down there. That crap gets on everything and makes it hard to hold onto stuff. Plus, some of that dust might not be healthy for you. A little cleaning now can save you a lot of grief later.
Start by popping the hood. No, we’re not going to extract the bearing from the backside, but the wheel speed sensor plugs into its’ socket inside the engine compartment where you can’t reach it from the wheelwell, forcing you later to either cut its’ cable off or climb up onto the truck and hope it doesn’t fall off the jackstands.
Here is Fords’ neat drawing of it, snug in its’ home aft of and below the battery, near the frame rail (I don’t know where it was on the passenger side):
Here is a photo of where I found it. I added the arrow and inset:
Notice there is a tab at the top, you have to depress it to separate the halves. Don’t ‘help’ it with a screwdriver.
Remove the lug nut cover with a medium to large flat bladed screwdriver, and break loose the lug nuts. Break loose the center axle retainer nut with the 30mm socket.
THEN –
Jack up the vehicle. Blah blah in neutral, wheels chocked, be safe, etc. etc. You know the drill. Finish removing the center nut, or at least get it to the point where you can spin it off. Or else, when you get the tire off, its’ going to be an uphill battle holding that bearing flange still while you try to crank that nut the rest of the way off. Do not accidentally hit your friend who is trying to hold the flange in the face as I did (sorry Robbie). After removing the lug nuts and the tire, put the tire under the frame. Read ahead to find all the bolts involved, and douse them liberally with the penetrating spray.
NOW –
You should be here:
There are two crinkly washers applied to the lug studs on this vehicle, apparently to help hold the disk onto the wheel assembly. I am certain there probably is something I should know about them, but they were such a pain in the ass I wound up getting cutters and just cutting them off. The Ford DVD never said anything about them, and there weren’t any replacements in the Ford kit I bought.
NEXT –
Prepare your coathanger. Untwist it and stretch it out. Find something solid as far back on the right side of the wheelwell as you can get. I picked something more in the middle, and it wound up constantly dangling in my way.
Unclip the many fasteners that hold the sensor cable to the brake line. Remember how they go. (BIG hint, remember how that sensor wire snakes around the caliper. You will see that again later.)
Take the 18mm, get behind the caliper and remove the two bolts.
This is a photo hunched over the wheel assembly looking straight down. Your target is the bolt marked with the white arrow (there are two, one above, and one [not pictured] below). Don’t mistake it for the one the red arrow points to. That’s a slider to compensate for pad width.
After removing both of the caliper bolts, take your mallet, and carefully tap the top of the caliper towards the right until you can see the top bolthole. Thread the coathanger you tied off earlier through this, and pull the slack out as you continue to tap the caliper loose. Tie it off and let the coathanger support the weight of the caliper, NOT the hose. Do not bend the brake line any more than you need to. You may need to separate the wheel sensor line from the caliper a little at this point. They just unsnap from each other.
Now, take the disk off. Look at it. If it is deeply scored or discolored on either side, you might consider getting it turned down or replacing it. Same for the brake pads. If they are thin, your next job might be a pad replacement.
FINALLY –
Comes the bad part. Using all your mojo, figure out a way to remove the three bolts holding the !@#$%%^ bearing assembly on.
In the above photo, two of the three are marked by white arrows. I apologize for the ****ed perspective, but its’ pretty cramped in there. We are looking down and back from the front bumper. The red arrow points to the tie rod end, and the green arrow points towards the floor. This also shows my earlier attempt to use a knuckle adaptor and breaker bar to remove those bolts, which didn’t work very well at all. With this setup, you could only turn maybe a quarter turn at a time. That bolt is at least two and a half inches long – you do the math!
It was bad enough that I gave up. Here is a picture of a buddy that came to rescue me:
See how hunched over he is? That’s why I say that figuring out a way to do it from the other side would be the way to go next time, and using an air wrench. Yes, that is a lot of light, but note to the left my initial lamp that I dropped and broke.
ONCE –
You get the bolts loose, you should be ready to remove the bearing assembly. Ford specs out a special tool in their DVD (Remover, front wheel hub, 205-D070 (D93P-1175-B)), and maybe you could rent something similar from one of the big box parts stores. I am definitely going to look next time. Once you get the assembly off, clean the mating surfaces using some degreaser and a razor knife, and apply some anti-seize. Because it was difficult to push the new bearing on, we decided to put some on the splines, too. I don’t know if that’s ok, but it is what we did and it worked for us.
The kit I bought came from Ford, and it was only around ten or so more dollars than from one of the big boxes. My kit came with all new bolts, and a preinstalled speed sensor. It even had a replacement holder for the sensor wire mounting location above the shock absorber.
The box said it was p/n 4L2Z 1104 AA and if I recall correctly, it was around $170. Assembly pretty much really is the reverse of disassembly. Torque the bearing bolts equally. Run the center nut back on there as best you can. Ford specifies a new nut, but the kit didn’t have one. So, I used the old one. Hope my wheel doesn’t fall off. Install the rotor, having cleaned your greasy pawprints off of it so you don’t contaminate the disc pad linings. Correctly routing the sensor wire, reinstall the caliper.
Clip the sensor wire back up the brake line, then put the tire on and hand-tighten the nuts. Lower the car, torque the nuts (DON’T forget the center nut!!) and reinstall the cover. Finally, reinstall the sensor connector halves.
That should be it! Oh - the torque specs are: center nut (184 lb-ft), the caliper bolts (24 lb-ft), and lug nuts (100 lb-ft) according to Ford. I couldn’t find the specs for the bearing bolts.
-Shawn