I have a peugeot 205 Diesel. There is a rumbling noise audible at all speeds which is coming from the front left hand side. I suppose this means that the wheel bearing needs replcing. I have a donor car and was wondering whether it would be easier to replace the whole hub with a part from the donor rather than fitting a new wheel bearing.
If not - Is it difficult to replace the bearing with a new one? From what I have read in the Haynes manual it sounds like it might be a bit of a pain to get the old one out and I think I'll need a special tool.
(...assuming drum is removed from car...) First you need to remove the big circlip on the wheel side of the bearing, then you turn it upside down, place a suitably large drift agaisnt the inside face of the bearing and belt it very hard with a big hammer until it pops out. (you can do this since you don't care about the condition of the original bearing).
To insert the new bearing, put it in the freezer for a couple of hours, and use a blow torch to heat up the drum (concentrating on the middle bit, which the bearing sits in). The hotter the drum the better. Take the cold bearing and drop it into the hole (make sure it goes in square, otherwise it might jam, which would make life awkward). It should drop straight in. Once the new bearing is in place, drizzle water on the bearing until it stops fizzing, to stop the heat from the drum boiling the grease in the bearing.
Alternatively you could take the hub and new bearing to an engineering workshop and get them to press out the old bearing and press in the new one - this is how it should be done, and they'll probably charge a few pounds.
I did this recently (replaced both drums and fitted new bearings). The bearings were quite expensive (~£18 ea), so it might be cheaper to pull the drums off a donor.
Thanks, it sounds like it would be easier as you say to pull the drum (wheel hub right? Excuse my ignorance) of the donor car. I don't think I'll go to the trouble of heating / cooling to fit a new one, if I were to fit a new bearing I'd probably remove the drum and take it to an engineering firm as you suggested.
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