Wheel bearing change.

[PRJIM]

I just wanted to confirm that this is the appropriate part for the roadster wheel bearing. I am going to order this in the next couple of days. I was just asking because I read on a facebook post that the part is suppose to have 4 bolts. Can anyone confirm? Thanks.

I haven't done the job as yet but I plan to in the next few weeks. It looks like a pretty rudimentary job to swap out the hub assemblies.

Hopefully I have some time to experiment on pressing out my original bearings and pressing in a ceramic hybrid bearing assembly.

BTW how did you determine your rear bearings went bad? Did you hear an audible noise or did you jack up the roadster and check for play with the wheel/hub assembly?

 

[Vip]

I haven't done the job as yet but I plan to in the next few weeks. It looks like a pretty rudimentary job to swap out the hub assemblies.

Hopefully I have some time to experiment on pressing out my original bearings and pressing in a ceramic hybrid bearing assembly.

BTW how did you determine your rear bearings went bad? Did you hear an audible noise or did you jack up the roadster and check for play with the wheel/hub assembly?

Rudimentary for you!
I like doing things on my own and learning new things. A little hesitant about doing it in the roadster. Never pressed out a bearing.
Either way I am going to order the part and try it.
I can hear a noise from the back.which increases when you drive and round corners.

 

[PV-EV]

I bought a hub from Tesla Service in Seattle for my 2.5. No need to press in the bearing as it comes as a unit.

 

[Vip]

So I thought I would give people here an update on my wheel bearing replacement.
I ordered the part as mentioned earlier in the thread from Ebay. Took about 8 days for shipping as it was coming from Germany.
I decided to tackle the problem today. FYI I was working on the rear driver side. Also I like doing things on my own and learning but I haven't done anything like this before.

After taking off the wheel I needed to take off the brake calipers. I was able to get the top bolt off no problem. The second lower bolt was behind the parking brake wire. No way I was getting to the bolt without moving the wire. I was initially afraid to take apart too many things but I threw that out the window pretty quickly. Unscrewed the bolt holding the parking brake wire and moved the wire out of the way.
Unscrew the lower caliper bolt.

Then remove the screw on the front of the rotor. Once you do this the rotor and brake caliper will come off. So be careful to have a hold on both.

Now the pain in the ass part comes up.
There is a very large axel nut right in the center of the wheel bearing. It is very large something like 32mm. (I had to go to autozone and rent their tool box that had that size). I found out that is on at 250Nm so you will also need a breaker bar for this.

Disconnect the ABS wire harness. This will be obvious. Of note before removing the wire the connecting tab comes down and then you have to shift it to the left a little.

Then you have to remove the 3 bolts that are located on the back of the bearing. As you can see from the pic by Rolf68 the axel is threaded through the wheel bearing which makes it almost seem impossible to remove the bolts with that in the way. What I ended up doing is putting a thick piece of wood over the end of the axel and smacked on it with a rubber hammer. This pushes the axel back and gives you more room to work with.

These bolts were rusted on and I nearly broke my back trying to get them off. I sprayed the bolts with oil lubricant to hopefully loosen them. After much work I was able to undo the bolts. My breaker bar was was too big to fit in that space but if you can get one small enough that could fit in the wheel well it might make it easier. Honestly spray the bolts with the oil before you start taking the brake calipers off then it will give it time to work by the time you get to that part.

After the bolts are off then the bearing should just come right off but mine was rusted on and would not budge. Using a hammer and a large socket I hammered at different parts of the hub towards me to loosen it. It took awhile but it worked.

After removing the bearing I sanded the inner part of the ring where the bearing inserts to get the rust off.

From this point it is all about going backwards. Slip the new bearing through the axel and line up the bolt holes. PLEASE BE CAREFUL HERE: The bolts that came with my new bearing were longer than the bolts that were already on the car. When I tightened them they were touching the back of the bearing hub. I knew that this wasn't right or good as that part of the bearing hub is going to rotate with the rotor and the end of the bolt is going to be in the way. So decided to just put on the old screws. At this point (2 trips to autozone and breaking my back to get the bolts off) I was too tired to figure something else out. But if you can do it yourself or take the screws somewhere and get them cut to the proper length.

Bearing bolts suppose to be tighten to 90Nm. There was no way I could do that with that little space I had so I just tighten them well.

Connect the ABS wire harness

Now from what I was told when putting on the large axel nut you need to torque to 150Nm and then loosen to 45 degrees and then re-torque to 250Nm. I do not know why you have to do this or what it does.

When putting on the rotor make sure you line up all the holes properly so all 5 lug nuts will fit.

Put on the brake caliper. I did have an issue with a spring that wraps around the bolt holding the parking brake harness. It took some work but you have to make sure the spring is on tight.

I have uploaded some pics that I took along the way. If you don't know what you are looking at or have a question about the pics let me know.

 

[Rolf68]

Hello Vip, thanks for the feedback. Glad you managed to change you wheel bearing , awesome work !!

Just a tip for next time : you don't need to remove the brakes completely. When you have removed the upper bold, the whole part can rotate and free the rotor.

The trick to do this, is to push / pull the part where the bolt was in (the one with the arrow). It slides a bit in the direction of the trunk and then you'll be able to just rotate the whole thing around the second bolt as seen on this picture.

have a nice day

 

[Vip]

Hello Vip, thanks for the feedback. Glad you managed to change you wheel bearing , awesome work !!

Just a tip for next time : you don't need to remove the brakes completely. When you have removed the upper bold, the whole part can rotate and free the rotor.

The trick to do this, is to push / pull the part where the bolt was in (the one with the arrow). It slides a bit in the direction of the trunk and then you'll be able to just rotate the whole thing around the second bolt as seen on this picture.

have a nice day

View attachment 409169

Thanks for the tip! I was trying to figure that out. I wasn't sure how much I could play with it. Also just clarify, I would still have to loosen the lower bolt on the caliper to make it rotate or could I just leave it alone and just loosen the upper one?

 

[Rolf68]

Thanks for the tip! I was trying to figure that out. I wasn't sure how much I could play with it. Also just clarify, I would still have to loosen the lower bolt on the caliper to make it rotate or could I just leave it alone and just loosen the upper one?

Hello. I didn't touch anything at the lower bolt. The piece did rotate easily as soon as the upper bolt was removed, and the part was slided a millimeter or two to allow the rotation. It took me some time to figure that at first

best regards

 

[Vip]

Hello. I didn't touch anything at the lower bolt. The piece did rotate easily as soon as the upper bolt was removed, and the part was slided a millimeter or two to allow the rotation. It took me some time to figure that at first

best regards

Have you changed the suspension? Was wondering if I am going to do this much work for the wheel bearing I might do a little more to change out the suspension. Again I have never done this before so do I even have to mess with the brakes and wheel bearings to change the suspension?

 

[PRJIM]

I bought a hub from Tesla Service in Seattle for my 2.5. No need to press in the bearing as it comes as a unit.

I am going to salvage the old units and press in new bearings to keep them as a spare; rather than having to buy a new hub assembly (at some point in the future). It seems like a waste to toss them in the trash when only the bearings are bad. The bearings, themselves, are readily available in the states.

 

[Rolf68]

Have you changed the suspension? Was wondering if I am going to do this much work for the wheel bearing I might do a little more to change out the suspension. Again I have never done this before so do I even have to mess with the brakes and wheel bearings to change the suspension?

Hello VIP

Yes my suspension where changed. I didn't do it myself but you'll have all info needed in those 2 threads that were updated very recently:

Initial impressions: Nitron 46mm NTR Race 1-way shocks

Alignment knocked out of whack...

If you have more question feel free to ask

 

[jeremyz]

The service center told me one of my front wheel bearings needed to be replaced. I ordered two of them (to replace both front bearings) using the link German Amazon link that Rolf68 posted in this thread. I just got the bearings in the mail. The box got a pretty good beating during shipment and the goofy plastic pieces in both bearings were broken. What are those plastic bits for? Are they necessary? Or are they just for shipping to protect the abs sensor wire?

IMG_20190919_164542

• jeremyz
• Sep 19, 2019

 

[Vip]

The service center told me one of my front wheel bearings needed to be replaced. I ordered two of them (to replace both front bearings) using the link German Amazon link that Rolf68 posted in this thread. I just got the bearings in the mail. The box got a pretty good beating during shipment and the goofy plastic pieces in both bearings were broken. What are those plastic bits for? Are they necessary? Or are they just for shipping to protect the abs sensor wire?

IMG_20190919_164542

• jeremyz
• Sep 19, 2019

Must have been there to protect the wire. I don't think mine even came with that. I wouldn't worry about it.

FYI, if anyone wants to buy a spare wheel bearing I have one. Couldn't get the bolt off the other side t o change it so I gave up.
I am available to mail it out in the next week. After that I am gone for 9 months!

 

[jeremyz]

I can confirm that the little plastic bits were just for shipping and aren't needed. I had the Tesla service center replace my wheel bearings because they only charged $78 per wheel bearing to replace them. I felt like that was worth it because I was expecting to spend a lot of time spraying the old ones with liquid wrench and beating them with a hammer to get them off.

 

[ML Auto]

I can confirm that the little plastic bits were just for shipping and aren't needed. I had the Tesla service center replace my wheel bearings because they only charged $78 per wheel bearing to replace them. I felt like that was worth it because I was expecting to spend a lot of time spraying the old ones with liquid wrench and beating them with a hammer to get them off.

Except the front ones come right off as there are no drive axles to contend with. About an hour for both sides.

 

[Vip]

I can confirm that the little plastic bits were just for shipping and aren't needed. I had the Tesla service center replace my wheel bearings because they only charged $78 per wheel bearing to replace them. I felt like that was worth it because I was expecting to spend a lot of time spraying the old ones with liquid wrench and beating them with a hammer to get them off.

See that irritates me. I asked my service center if they would do it and they said they can't put on third party parts. They have to order them from their warehouse. I would have gladly paid $78 for them to change that.

 

[jeremyz]

Yeah @Vip , I feel like the service centers are pretty random when it comes to things like this. They said they were fine putting on the OEM parts even if I got them myself.

 

[ICON]

Contextual, they wont touch non OEM parts in Hong Kong SC