How to change FWD wheel bearing?
“Looking for front VW fwd wheel bearing change tips”
They’re pretty much the same as other front wheel drive cars. You must remove the brake callipers, the brake rotors, and then the drive axle and front strut. Then you have the axle assembly in your hand (or, on the ground.) From there, it’s the hard part. Those bearings are press fitted into the axle. I have a thousand dollar bearing puller kit and a fifty ton hydraulic press to do the job myself. You may be better off just taking the axle assembly to a machine shop and paying them to press the old bearings out, and the new ones in. For them, it’s a ten minute job. Don’t even think about hammering the old ones out and the new ones in, you’d probably damage both the seals and the bearings themselves. On old rear wheel drive cars with solid axles, we used to use long pipes to hammer the new axle bearings back on, but those days are LONG gone. Good Luck,
Thanks for the reply on the VW fwd bearings. I am going to give it a whirl. Going to try and press the new bearings in and out with a loaner bearing tool from Murrays Auto Parts the brand of tool is Powerbuilt. It looks like it should get the job done with the bearing support still on the car. Just with the axle removed and skip the step about removing the whole bearing support assembly and going to the press. I will let you know if the bearing puller- installer will press in the new bearings I don’t see why not. No impact or hammers though I understand that the wheel bearings on the VW’s are roller bearing and anything other than pressing them in on the OD will damage the bearing. I have heard of some guys doing the bearing install with this type of threaded puller on the fwd VW cars and having some luck at it. Thanks.”
Yes, there are many different varieties of tools that let you do the job on the car , BUT you’re probably going to have to be REALLY strong pressing those bearings in and out by hand. I have such tools, and normally can never get the bearings out without using my 1 inch diameter air impact wrench that puts out 750 ft lbs of torque to the bolts. Doing this by hand with a wrench can be a stinker on the car, because things will keep wiggling back and forth as you try to tighten them without an air impact wrench (I’ve tried in the past, and more than a few cuss words came flying out.) But, good luck giving it a try, and if it does wiggle too much, just remove the whole assembly like I said and do it on the ground or in a vice (or find a guy with a big impact wrench like me.)