TrinidadLR4
Full Access Member
A question to those of you who have replaced your front wheel bearings. I replaced mine a couple of months ago as preventative maintenance/100k thing, especially since I had a new pair laying around that I got from the UK(Optimal bearings from Germany with some long warranty, etc). When wrapping up the job, you have to tighten the 32mm axle nut. However, since the front is in the air, you can't get a good torque reading on it and the torque is supposed to be 268lb/ft or something nutty like that. So, I hammered both sides with an air ratchet for a while(like the AB video shows), and then renotched both bolts. About three weeks ago, I started getting a clunk when going over minor bumps. This past weekend I jacked the front up and started wiggling the wheels around to see what was loose. Looks like there is some looseness in both wheels from the 12/6 o clock position, which looks like it's coming from the bearing itself. I undid the notches in both axle bolts and tried air ratcheting them again, noticing that they seemed to tighten some more. The car feels better now but still clunks and there is still some looseness from the wheels in the same position. Since the bearings themselves are new, I am thinking I didn't tighten the axle nuts enough when I did the job. Is it possible that both bearings were damaged by not tightening the nuts enough and I need new bearings? Thanks!