How To: Replacing Front Hub / Bearing 1995+ Ford Explorer IFS

[gavin]

I am new at this and in the middle of doing this for my 95 XLT on the driver's side. On the wheel end of the CV half shaft is what's left of a shaft seal that you don't mention renewing while you are doing the job. I already have the half shaft out, but the seal that I got from Advance doesn't appear to be the right application. Any help would be much appreciated.

is it rubber?

what I've noticed is that remanufactured half-shafts do not come with this, but the new units do.

When I first replaced my half-shafts, the originals I removed did not have this. No clue if the half-shafts were replaced before I bought the vehicle or not.

I wouldn't worry about it, as I never have.

 

[captsyphillus]

chirpin in Alberta

My 97' Explorer 4.0 Sport has just started emitting a chirping/squeeking noise from front driver side hub, mainly at low speeds and over uneven road. I threw a jack under the front and wiggled the tire back and forth, there is some play in it but very little.Is it possible that the hub nut is just loose or does it automatically mean the bearing is shot?

 

[4edxplor]

I have noticed some comments on noises appearing after replacing the hubs, I believe the culprit could be the dust cover interfering with the rotor. I have fixed noises in brakes before simply by bending the dust cover away from the rotor. It is real easy to bend them by accident when laying them on the ground, especially the old rusted ones.

 

[xdviper]

I have noticed some comments on noises appearing after replacing the hubs, I believe the culprit could be the dust cover interfering with the rotor. I have fixed noises in brakes before simply by bending the dust cover away from the rotor. It is real easy to bend them by accident when laying them on the ground, especially the old rusted ones.

It is the cover, When I had the drivers side done, I kept hearing noises from that same exact wheel, went down to the mechanic, took off the wheel, and just broke off the cover, it was already rusted and dirty.

 

[Anthony_]

edit - double post.

 

[Anthony_]

Glad I read through this thread (most of it).

My explorer has a whurring sound when i'm driving and I definitely have some play at 3&6 positions on the front left wheel. I was sure it was the tie rods but now not so much.

It started 4K miles ago as some minor clunking over bumps at low speeds but now it's rattling much more and the whurring sound is much worse. Could it be the bearing and not the tie-rods? A little of both?

146K miles. Up until 141K this thing drove like a new truck now, not so much.

 

[William Schumacher]

mine started doing this a few weeks ago, last time it happened, it got done under warranty.... {A very long time ago}

I'm going to put it on a lift in the morning and have a look,

what's the best place to order from ? and are there differences between the brands ?

thanks,

 

[NEFG]

Thanks for the post! I just did mine a couple of days ago and printed out your directions and it made everything easy. I picked up my hub from Napa for less than $130 and it came with the cable clips. It seemed like good quality, now I will see how it holds up. Sounds much better especially in corners.

 

[amxrick]

I would like to find some info on hub bearing and both CV joint noises. I have just replaced the ball joints & tie rods, which where cracked and very loose. This made the steering a lot tighter but now I can hear some humming & quiet growling from the R side. I have read that this is most likely one of the CVs or hub bearings. But I have also read that it could also be Transaxle bearings (not sure where these are at). When I replaced the ball joints the outer shaft end seemed to spin stiff but didn’t check for side to side looseness. I see above write-up says that the new hubs come with a new ABS sensor and cable. There is a certain tone freq / level that each model car (02 Mountaineer) is setup for. Does the ABS air gap clearance need to be checked? Is there a common type of connector on the opposite (car harness) side of the ABS cable? Is there any input on these items?

 

[NEFG]

Mine was doing the same thing. I changed upper and lower ball joints and the tie rod ends but still had a rubbing noise from the right side especially in corners. When I changed the hub bearing it went away. I could also tell from taking the wheel and brakes off and when spinning the axle it sounded like something rubbing.

 

[sipesk]

Hi!

I used this post to change the hub on my 1996 Ford Explorer XLT. I would like to thank you for the detailed information and pictures added.

What i want to add for those who are going to do the same is that you have to use 3'' deep 1'' 1/4 socket. I tried with 1'' 1/2 inches deep socket but it was too short to do the job.

All the other tools are exactly what you need to have the job done. It took me no more than 2 hours.

Thanks again!

Sipesk

 

[GuardianSport]

Just did this change, the guide was a huge help. Thanks for saving me about $200.

One of my caliper sliders were seized too, so I went ahead and bought a new one for $20 and changed that too.

 

[1999 XLT AWD]

do i need to buy the whole hub assembly to change my wheel bearings.

 

[brianhiggs1]

Awesome job

just did mine last weekend and followed these directions, saved alot of $$
thank you

 

[lsweetback]

Thanks! I will try real soon.

 

[sarahsdaddy]

Everyone keeps referring to grinding noises. What I have is rapid thump-thump-thump like an out of balance or out of round tire, the same noise I'd always get when my VW wheel bearings went. The guy I bought it from assured me the noise preceded the current set of tires so that seems not to be the issue. He claimed his mechanic couldn't find what was wrong but maybe he said that because he didn't want to do an expensive repair on a vehicle he was looking to sell, and I took my chances it wasn't anything too expensive since the price was great. Does the Ex have different symptoms? Also, on my VWs whenever the bearings went the noise would either get louder or go away depending on which way I turned, whereas with my Ex that seems to make no difference.

You also are scaring me with stories of wheels breaking off. I drive for thousands of miles on my VWs and while the noise got louder to where it was too annoying I never heard of them breaking off. I've drive the Ex close to 3k since I bought it and the noise is getting a little worse, but still not as bad as the VWs could get. Now I'm afraid to drive it. Luckily it's my backup car.

 

[gordon.e.maness]

Replace hub assembly.

I used your directions on the mother of my kids 2003 Explorer. They were very good as a guide line. There are some minor differences in the 03. I did not have to remove the backing plate.
I did have to buy an offset 15MM box-end wrench and promply cut it in the middle so I could use a socket and extension as a cheater to remove those 3 bolts that hold the hub in place.
The new hubs came with new hardware for both the hubs and the calipers, the new hardware has motion activated epoxy on the threads, so no need for lock-tite. I got these hubs from Carquest at about $150 each. Perfect fit including new clips like yours had for the wire harness.

 

[tlestan]

Awesome write up.

Very clear and easy to follow. Luckily my axle nut was not too bad. However, a word of warning. Following conventional logic, I thought my passenger side bearing was bad because the growling stopped when I turned right, shifting weight to the left. Not so. Growling was still there. Parts shops were closed, so I just put the old right side bearing on the left, and all was good, for now. When it goes, I know I can swap it in less than an hour.

Thankfully I just did rotors six months ago, so they came off easy. Had to beat them to death last time.

Thanks for a great post.

 

[sarahsdaddy]

Ah, so both sides are the same. I would have thought so yet I thought I remembered reading some place they weren't. Now I feel better about guessing which side is bad knowing I can swap them around.

 

[muskegolake]

Any idea how to break the hub loose from the steering knuckle? Mine is in there good and I can't seem to break it loose.