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Follow-up just in case someone else wants to give this a try. I've gotten so much from this board over the year, it's my time to contribute back. The job is done and went pretty smooth. Start to finish in 1.5 hours and that involved a good bit of "think time". It's amazing how much more quiet the car is now, I guess this is one of those things that goes bad slowly and you don't realize how bad it is until you actually fix it!
My car is a 2003 9-5 Aero for reference.
A couple of pointers for everyone:
1: the bolts that hold the calipers to the steering knuckle are E20 Torx and are held on with Blue Locktite. They are VERY tight. Someone before me had tried to get one of them off with something other than the Torx socket and made a mess, I had to hammer the socket onto the Torx screw to get it on. After you get the caliper off, take the rotor off. Since I was replacing the rotor anyway, I could hammer on the back of it to get it off. It was stubborn, but a mini sledge did the trick. If you're worried about damaging the rotor, then you may need a puller, especially in those climates where you have to think about salt and rust.
2: the bolt on the axle is a 32mm but an 1-1/4 inch socket fit it perfect. If you don't have the metric and have the big english one, don't worry about it. The dust cap has a very small ridge that presses up against the hub on the flat part, a screwdriver and a bit of work pulls it off.
3: My model was the later wheel bearing that is not pressed into the steering knuckle but bolts in from the back. More expensive but makes this a DIY operation. You can't touch the bolts with the splined axle in the wheel bearing (that would have been WAY TOO easy!) The bolts are Torx E18 but a 9/16 english 12-point socket fits it perfectly. I had ordered the E18 on line but the silly thing had to come from Hong Kong and I wanted to get the job done. Now I have the E18 and nothing to to with it.
4: Unbolt the main axle from the bearing using the 32mm socket. Now, to get the bearing off unbolt the steering knuckle from the strut, two easily accessible 17mm bolts. Also take out the tie rod end (also 17mm). Push the splined axle through the bearing and muscle it out of the back of the bearing. When you have that done, the three E18 bolts that hold it in are easy to get out.
That's pretty much it. Like I said, start to finish was an hour and a half. Putting it back together was probably 20 minutes or so.
posted by 71.204.16...
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