legacycentral bbs

Is it hard to put in a front wheel bearing in my 1990 Subaru Legacy AWD?

yes

Thanks now im scared thank god im selling the car so i guess i wont put it in.

just had it done and I needed a new spindle because the bering seized. Cost me 600$can to get both sides done. You need a press to do it yourself.

I have done one. Thank God I had a giant sledge hammer, plasma cutter and various metal hammers.

Yeah, they are a SERIOUS bitch. I have yet to hear of an easy wheel bearing in a Subaru. Not to say they can't be done, it just that they are a bitch.

douglas vincent wrote:Yeah, they are a SERIOUS bitch. I have yet to hear of an easy wheel bearing in a Subaru. Not to say they can't be done, it just that they are a bitch.

I had a noise I was sure was a bearing at the back; harmonic howl at 60mph, metallic grinding/rotating sound: got all ramped up to get the bearing changed and then an expert did a test-drive. Turned out that someone lifted the car with a trolley-jack by pumping up on the diff mount point (just in front of the rear wheelarch, out by the sill) and twisted it enough that it was in contact with the body, bypassing the bushing.

Hammered this little stamped-steel triangular mount back into the right shape, and bingo: bearing noise/diff noise all gone. I guess the noises are still down there but now there's no bodyshell contact through which they can amplify... the moral of the story is, don't let the tyre bay guys lift your 4WD Subaru on that bracket!

for my wheel bearing problems i just got a new spindle (or junkyard one for that matter) and swapped out the whole damn thing. did it so fast last time we got it done in like an hour.

it sounded like a rear bearing, but only on cold and very wet conditions.

The cold water chilled the SS exhaust pipe on one side and the
contraction shrunk the pipe on that side. The brief bend caused
something to rub. Once the splash was over, uniform heat restored
the line of the pipe --no noise.

A hanger was adjusted with no further problems