Cross-Post: Wheel Bearing Replacement DIY Instructions (B8 S5)

[Europa S5]

Hey, guys - cross-posting this because the steps are substantially similar on your cars. If you wanna DIY your front wheel bearings, here's a comprehensive instruction set for a 2008 S5 (V8). Some things may be different from this 2008 S5 V8, so you'll want to do a little confirmatory diligence on things like fastener sizes, and of course, part numbers, but it should be directionally correct on A4s and other B8 cars. Hope this helps.

**FYI: This schematic and part numbers are for an S5**

[Lemuren]

Good link, bookmarked.

[Lambda13]

Adding to the DIY link compilation.

[A4 Centaur]

Thanks for this! Much appreciated!

Getting ready to do mine soon. Gonna replace with Timken bearings if possible.

[Europa S5]

Thanks, guys, and you're welcome.

[zokissima]

We needed this, thank you sir!

[Q-DawgVFR]

Just wanted to share my two cents on the experience. I have been blessed with owning a couple vehicles known for killing wheel bearings now, LOL. A Ford Explorer, and now the B8 S4. I'm starting to get good at doing them. I take my time and work slowly. Slower than many people, but I have few broken / stripped fasteners and prefer manual tools that I can feel what is happening. Power tools have their place, but I don't particularly recommend them for this job.

I followed the S5 wheel bearing DIY guide listed in the above link but want to let everyone know a few things from my experience:

1 - The step of removing the axle shaft is completely un-necessary. I just did both fronts and started to loosen axle bolts on driver's side before I realized. Anyway you can work around it. It is a bit of a PITA to clean up the bore of the control arm with the axle still in there, but totally doable using small wire wheel on drill and a small wire brush. I also used old screwdriver to chip / scrape off heavy deposits before the wire brushing. One or two of the fastener sizes was different also: I think it was either the brake dust shield or the brake rotor retaining screw ended up being one size bigger Torx than listed in the write-up. And I also use a quality penetrating oil (Kroil is my favorite) on the fasteners and let them soak for a bit before I try breaking loose. I take my breaks at each stage of removal (stretch, have a coffee, change up the music in the garage). But otherwise, these instructions should work pretty well. I should also add that leaving the axle in place does make the bearing hub assembly bolts more difficult to access, so it is your call on axle removal. I personally didn't think it was worth the effort, as the axle flange bolts are difficult to access in their own right.

2 - Removing the axle bolt: I do mine by inserting the biggest bolt that will fit in the cooling slots of the brake rotor and butt it up against the caliper so the hub / axle doesn't turn when you loosen it. But if you have a partner standing on the brakes, that is for sure the easiest way. Make sure you do both sides at this time: you won't be able to use the brakes on the other side once you pull off the caliper if you do one side, then the other.

3 - Actually getting the bearing assembly out of the control arm by hitting with a hammer. Trust me there is a bit of an art to this. You don't want to beat up the hub flange if you are re-using them. And even if you aren't, I find the following method works best: Grab a large bolt or something suitable to use as a drift pin. Shorter is better, so you can get a good swing with the hammer. Line it up with one of the "ears" at the top of the bearing assembly flange. You want to hit it hard from the side. Keep going until you see some rotation of the bearing assembly. Now you have it free, simply a matter of alternating sides and top / bottom until it starts to work itself out. If it rotates pretty easily then you might be able to gently pry it out. If you live in a winter climate, you will probably have to work at it a bit. Driver's side took me a while the passenger side basically came out in three blows. Maybe that bearing was done before?

4 - Take care not to nick the splines on the shaft with anything sharp or heavy, but honestly it is more the ones in the bearing hub that you need to concern yourself the most with. These ones are much softer metal. I have a hydraulic press at home but ended up paying local shop to press the hub assembly out of old bearing and into new one. They weren't as careful as I would be and not happy with the way it was done. I could see marks from the flat bar they used to support and they nicked a spline inside the hub so small you couldn't even tell for sure which one was bad. I spent an hour with a small triangular file cleaning up every spline twice around, cursing the freaking idiot who banged things up. Finally got it to fit. Which brings me to #5

5 - If you have option to buy bearing hub assembly pre-loaded with new hubs, this may be worthwhile. No need to press out old parts, which may or may not be in great shape when you remove them. Also look for new parts which have Torx bolts, instead of the dreaded triple square. I went with what was available at the time (Audi OEM, non-loaded, containing triple square) as price difference was same as other places. I took my sweet time with them and had Lisle brand triple square bits. Lisle was inexpensive, but I know they make OEM quality tools, so it was a good choice. No stripped fasteners this job!!!

6 - Now is a great time to chase the threads of the hub where the wheel bolts run into. Grab an M14x1.5mm thread tap (I saved $30 by getting mine off eBay and shipped from China - that's where the hardware store taps come from anyway) and run the tap through each of the holes. Bolting up the wheel after the job was completed was SOOOO much smoother!

7 - Re-Installing axle bolt (24mm hex) Use a 3/4 inch breaker bar. Or a very sturdy 1/2 inch and pray for the best. Did I mention I hate torque to yield fasteners? I honestly fail to see the point of weakening them that way. Thread locker should be sufficient if you don't want it to come out. Anyway end of rant. I was able to get my 145lb-ft of torque (or whatever the value is, I forget) plus 90 degrees (of the required 180) extra turn required before the 1/2 inch breaker bar I was using yielded. I was sort of expecting this, and I had been working back and forth on both sides of the car, going progressively tighter. I talked to my friend at a European car repair shop and got his advice. "Good enough" was his answer, along with another rant about how insanely tight that bolt is. (I did timing belt on my '96 4 runner and crank pulley is torque to 240lb-ft. This axle bolt is tighter!) FYI I tighten mine as tight as torque value using torque wrench with wheels off the car, then do final tightening of the half with the wheels bolted up (center caps removed)

Anyway, I hope these extra bits of information will be useful to someone doing the job themselves!!!!

[A4 Centaur]

^Thanks for the updates! Now on to the rear bearings :(

[Q-DawgVFR]

Need to do rears on my Explorer now, LOL!

Sent from my HTC One using Audizine mobile app

[B8Brit]

I call these “never fucking again”....Image1538685983.279877.jpg
It is so seized, it won’t budge after heat and the slide hammer all damn day.


2011 Audi A4 2.0T Quattro Auto
IE Stage 2 tune, CTS high flow cat, EC inlet pipe and AFE dry filter, Neuspeed springs and KYB sport shocks, slotted rotors w/ SS lines, RS4 grille with CF wrapped badge.

[Europa S5]

Ugh, that sucks. Sorry, and good luck. I have a spare - but bent - spindle and hub if you want pics of clearances, etc., from different angles.

I just did the clutch on my car, and pulled the engine + trans assembly as a unit to do it (per the manual on V8 cars through VIN 8T-8A-023117... although, after actually R&I’ing the damned thing, they’re wrong), and ran into a dozen pain in the ass issues, including having to grind-off stripped triple-square bolts on the output flange. But I don’t envy you in this task. Good luck.

[mtroxel]

It is so seized, it won’t budge after heat and the slide hammer all damn day.

Both of my fronts came out by loosening the bearing bolts a couple turns, then banging on the bolts from the inside. But mine was a Texas car....NE Ohio see road salt and that changes the game.

[Theiceman]

Yup this is a-miserable job. I just did it on my b7.
Get out your cold roll chisel and 5lb sledge. And start working around it
Use a block with emery cloth to flatten out the Marrs you make after.
Then use a wire wheel on a drill to get out the corroded aluminum crap in the bore after ( wear a mask there is tonnes )


Sent from my iPhone using Audizine

[SSSSS5]

Thank you ALL for this thread! I replaced all 4 wheel bearings this past weekend on my 2013 B8.5 S5. 111,500 miles. One bearing was a little noisy, but service records indicated no sign of any wheel bearings ever being replaced. So I decided to do some preventative maintenance and do all 4. I would like to add a few things I wish I knew before pulling the job off. Also, I do not claim to be a high quality mechanic. I am simply just a DIYer who got the job done to a non-professional level I consider good and quality, while avoiding the shop.

Pre-job steps=

Go to your local AutoZone (or similar) and rent the following tools. You get 100% of the money back when you return them within 90 days.
27033 - Slide hammer
27032 - Slide hammer head (this head is too large for our 5x112 hubs, but I made it work with some spare bolts)
27271 - 5-7" ton gear pullers
27232 - Large Bearing splitter
27205 - Wheel bearing press kit

Soak up the bolts with a good penetrating oil. Everybody has their preference. Mine is good ole PB Blaster.

Fronts=
Call me crazy but they were a piece of cake. As stated above, removing the axles is not necessary! I did fronts and rears with the axles in place.

-I loosened the axle nut, pulled the caliper, zip tied it up to the spring, removed rotor and dust shield, then attached a (rental) slide hammer to the hub and pulled the hub out. As noted above, the slide hammer head I rented did not line up with the 5x112 bolt pattern. I put one lug on attaching the solo hole, and a smaller bolt on each of the top holes. These bolts will get beat up, so toss them when you're done. Better yet, find a tool that fits!
This a photo of the tool on a rear hub, but I think it fits here.


-The inner race from the bearing stuck on. I also rented a bearing splitter tool, and large gear pullers. I tightened up the splitters behind the collar of the race, and tightened the gear pullers down. Just make sure you have something sturdy the pullers can push against. I used some old nut on a flat metal plate.


-Next I sneaked behind the spindle with the 12mm triple square and loosened all 4 bearing bolts with ease. Just move the axle out of your way with each bolt in order to get the head of the wrench in.

You'll probably need a cheater bar. The lower right wheel bearing bolt was a bit pesky. I had to pry the two lower control arms apart so my socket could fit in place.

Also a home mechanic tip = You can use sway bars as great leverage on things! I didn't have enough space in the wheel well to get the cheater bar on the wrench, so you can see below, I wedged my cheater bar under the sway bar, and over my socket wrench to get enough leverage to loosen the bolt. If you do this, USE EXTREME CAUTION TO NOT STRIP OUT THE TRIPLE SQUARE! It is very easy to do, and I was very careful with this.


-Once you have removed all 4 bolts from the rear, throw the slide hammer on the outer face of the bearing. Attach it with two of the bolts you just took out, but thread them unto the bearing from the outside face. Each side cam came out in 1-5 slides.

-Clean up the spindle! I used a small wire brush, and an old t-shirt. There's a lot of gunk up around that wheel speed sensor.

REASSEMBLY TIME

- With a rented wheel bearing press kit, configure something like the photo below. The bearings should only fit one way onto the hub. I used an adjustable wrench to hold the bottom, and a 30 mm socket to tighten from up top. Impact gun makes this fast. Just be sure to keep everything aligned so you don't cock the bearing on the hub.
[IMG][/IMG]
- You now have a loaded hub and bearing to put on your car. Throw it on, use the torque specs listed on the first post, reassemble the rest, and you're done.



Rears=
The rears are a process. I found the most promising way was also the longest...removing the entire spindle. You can get the top two wheel bearing bolts out just as easy as the fronts, but there's such little room to remove the bottom two. I spent an hour or so trying to find the right combination of wrenches to get to them without a total disassembly, but I just didn't think I could make it happen. I'm sure its not impossible, but I would have sat there and wasted the whole day getting pissed off at it.

This is my half assed diagram that shows what bolts you need to remove to get the spindle out.



- Firstly, same as above getting the hub off. Do this while spindle is still on the car. Don't forget to unclip your wheel speed sensor! Tuck it out of the way.

- Next I removed the 18mm camber bolt on top, then the 21mm strut bolt below, then the dogbone mount bolt. Its the one on the forward side of the hub (left on driver's side, right on passenger's side).

- Next is spring compression. In my experience these springs aren't under a ton of load, so not too dangerous. I used these spring compressors and they worked great, relative to other types. Its heavy and hard to maneuver in place, but once it is, its a piece of cake.




- Ok so spring is compressed and you have the long ass bolt left. Try to wiggle the spring out at this point. If you can, yo wont have to worry about it falling when you remove the hub. Get a wrench on each side of the long bold, and loosen. Mine seemed to go easily. Slide the bolt out, and pry the hub off. The long aluminum spacer will fall out too so don't be alarmed.

- You now have full access to the back of the hub. Remove the wheel bearing bolts. My rear wheel bearings fell right off with no fuss. Install your new loaded hub and wheel bearing, and torque them down. A bench would have been nice at this point ( I need my own garage).

Once that's good, it's REASSEMBLY TIME. Everything seemed to go smoothly in reverse. Just be easy with some of these bolts. You are threading into an aluminum hub. Cross threading is easy, so be sure you aren't doing it!

-I will probably get some flack for this, but I don't have torque specs for the spindle bolts. I am sure they are out there, but I did not find them. They all were very snug after I tightened. I am confident they are tight enough, with just as many threads showing as before I disassembled.

Again, I am no certified mechanic so don't flame me. I'm just posting my experience, hoping it helps some of you DIYers in the future.

Cheers

[A4 Centaur]

Thanks for posting!

[mtroxel]

Nice write up. I did this last summer, all 4 corners. I agree with you, your spring compressor is great for the limited access you have in the rear. My neighbor had these, and I made them work without too much drama, but that one is better. I didn't really compress the spring with these. I jacked up the right front of the car, then put these on the left rear spring. Then drop the right front and jack up the left rear, and that "compressed" spring damn near falls out.

[SSSSS5]

mtroxel hey if it works! Honestly our rear springs are not under too much load so its a relatively low risk job. I just have had too many close calls with shoddy spring compressor rigs. As long as they grip and dont slide around, youre good.

[mtroxel]

just have had too many close calls with shoddy spring compressor rigs.

You're not calling my neighbor's spring compressors "shoddy" are you?

I even saw one guy.....I think it was here at the Zine....do my method and put 1,300 lbs rated zip ties on the spring. I just couldn't talk myself into that one. Ten is a really good number when it comes to fingers.