Wheel Bearings Going bad.

[enash99]

So i took my car to Mastro subaru in Tampa today to have a grinding noise looked at in the front driver's side. I have about 1/2 inches of play in my wheel. So they say I have a bad wheel bearing and bad CV joint and if i drive my car my wheel will most likely fall off. Just to drive it a few extra miles to work they had me sign a release to drive the car without the work being done. So first im towing to get it fixed but my question is this.

They want 100 for the part and almost 500 for the whole job to fix just the bearing, then about the same for the CV.

I have a friend with a press to do the wheel bearing, but he hasn't work on a wrx before he mainly just works on hondas and acura's.

Is this something that i can take a chance with and save 400$ for the bearing work and another couple hundred putting in my axle? Im not trying to be cheap but money is tight with a child being born in 2 months.

My circle of friends are very good, we have torn down most of our cars (M5, TL's, My rex) but none of us have ever tried to do a wrx wheel bearing and CV. what should i look out for? other than the press for the bearing any special tools?

Thanks for any input.

[frunko1]

Have you ever changed a cv joint before? Also do the bearings come as complete pre pressed, pre lubed set up like some chevies i have worked on, or are they more like some fords where you have to press them together?

Well one quick tip for anyone who ever changes a cv joint, only take out one side at a time or your gearing will fall out of place

[tomdooley]

feel free to email me for details. I'll be brief. I bought new wrx driveshafts for about 100 each. PARTSTRAIN I think. I bought several sets of low mileage used front knuckles on car-part.com and craigslist.com. R&R tips. here is a magenetic camber guage. You attach it to your knuckle. Set it to zero. After re-assembling it, set again to zero. No alignment necessary. Get a low cost tie rod end separator (not the pickle that ruins the dust cover). I bought one for about $20. THere is a great pictoral on replacing bearings on the internet. I also bought bearings and a press. You have to be careful not to use too much force. I plan to put some spares together and pack with high pressure high temp grease. Some bearings probably go because the seals start to leak. So, maybe R&R every 60K and replace seals. In any case, this may not be the last time you do this, so, better to get some spare parts and do it yourself. Unless you have plenty of money to feed SUBARU.