I have a rear wheel bearing failing on my '91 318is. I normally do my own maintenance but reading the procedure in my Bentley manual makes it sound like I will have to rent a puller to get the axle out, remove the trailing arm from the body to get the old bearing out, and that I would still be at some risk of ruining the new bearing if I don't have a press to do the installation. So I'm looking for guidance from someone who has done this job at home. TIA for any experience out there.
e30 rear wheel bearing
Sep 15, 2006
4 Replies
Did the front on my car a couple of weeks ago and it was a piece of cake. I rented a puller from autozone, and bought a *very* special tool to press the bearing back in. A piece of 1 1/2" (or perhaps 1 1/4") pipe and a hammer. Pulled the old one off with very little more than my fingers for a wrench on the puller, tapped the new one on with my special tool... if the rears are the same, then... but if not, then...
Matt
Thanks for the Haynes reference Psycho. I forgot I have a Haynes manual as well and I see it recommends pulling the hub into the bearing inner race using a threaded rod, nuts and washers. This was the part of the job that seemed high risk to me as I thought it required hammering the hub into the inner race (forgot the hub is hollow). So I'll scedule the job for next weekend as I guess I'm still too tight to pay someone $250 labor to work on my car if I think I can do it myself. Thanks again.
Good for you! You can relax about the threaded rod trick. It has been used for many, many years. I think that the first time I saw it described in print was in one of Carroll Smith's books -- maybe "Prepare to Win" -- some years ago.
Ed
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