How I changed my 05's Front Wheel Bearing

[Oldwolf]

Best price on the Timken SP470200 Front Hub Assembly that I have found is about $125 shipped from StockWiseAuto on Ebay. These do not come with the three bolts.

The "BOLT FRONT HUB" is Ford part #1L2Z1107AA and at SilverStateFordParts they are $6.64 a piece, $52.79 with shipping for 6.

Their price for the the Ford OEM hub assembly (with bolts - I verified this) is $188.22, $423.50 for 2 with shipping.

I need both front hubs so I am going to order soon, once I figure out if I can get the bolts cheaper somewhere.

Bottom line is:
$250 for two hubs from StockWiseAuto
$53 for the bolts from Ford.

About $303 for Timken Hubs and Ford bolts.

This is the best I can find for OEM parts...so far.

I just ordered the Motorcraft hubs from RockAuto.

$164.23 each delivered using a 5% off code.

These include new bolts too.

I'll be glad to get them installed and "hear" the quiet again.

 

[farsscf]

I have an 04 2wd Explorer. Are the 3 mounting bolts the only bolts holding it on?

 

[unc25]

once the caliper and the disc are removed...yes the three bolts on the backside are the only thing holding it on. Once the bolts are removed, there might be a black silicon type sealer between the knuckle and the hub. I was able to loosen mine with a couple of taps with the rubber hammer.

 

[farsscf]

Thank you, just making sure. Has anybody tried Federal Mogul brand bearings?

 

[fusseli]

I just ordered the Motorcraft hubs from RockAuto.

$164.23 each delivered using a 5% off code.

These include new bolts too.

I'll be glad to get them installed and "hear" the quiet again.

how did it go?

 

[farsscf]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...0405517774&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Found this on Ebay. Seems like a great price. Has anybody used them?

 

[forcemac]

Did my driver side front bearing today....another happy customer (sort of)......those three bolts are a "B!TCH".

Great write up, the most I have ever done to my car is change the oil and filter, and rotate the tires. I can't believe I made it through today....it took me 7 hrs becuase I got stuck with the front left and top bolt....I could NOT get them out.

Luckily i had the luxury of the base auto hobby shop with some experienced guys...they had me separate the upper control arm joint, and the lower ball joint and steering rod....the whole knuckle should have come off...but the bottom arm would NOT separate....I am sure it wasn't good for the drive axle to be flopping around with the knuckle attached to it....but they assured me it was ok.....we'll see I guess. Hand torqued the last two bolts out after trying everything...heat...wd-40, impact wrench...in the end it was the offset wrench that ended up finishing what it started....

I put it all back together...and it drove home ok....just a little worried if something happens once we drive it more. Kinda scared to try other passenger side....I was very uneasy about undoing the control arm and stuff....especially when it didn't come apart...

 

[bluebeast]

Thanks for the write up i just changed my driver side hub bearing this mourning took me about an hour and didnt have any problems thanks to your write up now no more roaring noise so use to hearing it driving with out it is kinda weird to get used to but definetly pieceful and my explorer definetly accelerates a lil faster with the new hub on the old one caused alot of drag between 50mph and 70 thanks again. and to you guys looking for good quality hub assemblies look on amazon.com i got two 116.00 it was like 54.60 each they are sold by tko auto parts no cheap quality at all

 

[farsscf]

Thanks to this thread and awesome arm strength I changed both of mine in 1.5 hours. About 30 minutes was probably devoted to finding tools and pb blaster in my garage. I couldn't remember what to torque the hub bolts to so I went ahead and put them back to about 1000 lbs. Having a 2wd probably helped tremendously. I kept expecting those bolts to break as they screeched most of the way out.

 

[kj558]

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[kj558]

I'm working on replacing the passenger front in my '03. I got the hub nut off and the 3 retaining bolts off with little drama. I was thankful for that after reading some posts. The hub seems to be seized to the knuckle though. I've tried using a sledge hammer, crow bar (pretty much took the bed out of it) but it will not even wiggle. I have it soaking in PB Blaster now but I don't think that is going to help much.

Do you guys have any suggestions on how to get it out?

For those having problems getting the hub assembly separated from the knuckle....

I used a duck bill spreader on a portapower type jack. I placed it between the knuckle and the lug flange. It took just a small amount of pressure to pop it free. I did it that way because I didn't have a slide hammer, but did have a portapower.

 

[Infinity08]

If I am changing the UCA's at the same time as the hubs, would it be beneficial to just remove everything and disassemble/reassemble on a bench? It LOOKS that way, but I could be missing something.

 

[DouglasABaker]

Did 2002 Explorer and a 2003 Mountaineer today. First one (the Explorer) took nearly 6 hours, including 3 trips to Autozone (1 because I couldn't find my threadlock and 2 more because 2 of the 3 torque wrench's I borrowed were broken). Spent nearly an hour trying to get the hub out before we finally decided we were just going to hit it with the 5lb sledge. With that decision made we were done in about 30 minutes.

The 2nd one took 1 hour start to finish.

Explorer hub bolts had yellow thread lock, Mountaineer had none.

Thanks to everyone in this thread for all your posts and to 1AAuto for the awesome video that persuaded me to use the sledge!

 

[grn03exp]

Has anyone tried the GMB hubs from RockAuto? They're only $89 and the picture looks like the hub with the sensor and cable attached.

 

[maruefer]

first, thanks for all of the postings, these helped greatly. Over this past sunday, I replaced both front hubs in a 2003 explorer with 57,529 miles on them. Just to put this explorer in perspective. Always garaged, and just a small town go to school and grocery vehicle. Purchased the metric offset wrench set from harbor freight, the 15 mm worked great. also purchased from harbor freight was the wheel hub deep socket set, 1/2 breaker bar, 1/2 torque wrench and 4 piece gear puller set. Already had the jack stands, 3 ton floor jack, impact sockets and impact wrench (electric version from HF). The axle nuts came right off using the electric impact. used the offset 15mm wrench to loosen all three bolts behind the hub then pushed the axle back with the 8 inch gear puller. Finished unbolting the hub from that point. the difficult part was the separation of the hub from the plate. A good buddy of mine suggested to me before I started to have a chisel set and forgot to purchase. Used a heavy duty screwdriver and hammered the hub near each bolt connection a little at a time to the hub separated. As my father used to say, Easy peasy. Hope this helps the next person that wants to try this and save some money.

 

[maruefer]

BTW, purchased the timkin hubs from rockauto for around 240 for all. side note, they included two extra hub bolts and one caliber bolt.

 

[Yamaha101]

I got the 3 bolts outta the hub but I can not get the hub outta the dang housing....Is there a trick or tool????? Axle is free from splines....any ideas

 

[eddie baller]

i just did my front hubs on my 2wd xls. it was easy. thanks for the info

 

[tjgorn01]

Great post... Just replaced front hubs on 03 Aviator AWD. First thing - 29mm deep socket for the axle nut. 3 hub nuts were a piece of cake compared to the two bolts for my front calipers. Evidently the dealer doesn't know about torque specs just impact wrenches on max..... Below is the link for the hubs I purchased on ebay which included ABS sensor and bolts but the caliper bolts were too short. Autozone hub puller was worth the rental.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...0449726997&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

[icepickjazz]

Very noob question. Where do you place the jack stands when replacing the front hub assembly?