Here are the tools you're going to need:
Jack (the one for your spare is fine)
Jack Stand (always think safety)
Lug wrench / tire iron
Ratchet 3/8" drive
Ratchet 1/4" drive (unless your 10mm fits a 3/8)
Breaker bar 3/8" drive (not needed, but saves some wear and tear on your ratchet for those hard to break free nuts and bolts)
Socket (1 1/4", 10mm, 17mm, and 22mm)
2-3" extension 3/8" drive
22mm box wrench
Pliers (any will work, but I prefer to use needle nose for this application)
Impact driver w/ "3 Phillips head (if you don’t have one, you can borrow them from any decent parts store)
Hammer
Long pipe (to put over your breaker bar for torque)
Pry / Crow bar
Either WD-40 or some kind of penetrating lube
First things first, be sure you need them. If you have wobble in the front end, you probably thought like I did. “Oh I threw a weight and just need a tire balance.” That didn’t fix it, now what? Checking your bearings is easy! Here's how:
Lift the tire off of the ground with your jack.
Grab a hold of the top and bottom of your tire.
Your tire is supposed to have a little play right to left, but not up and down. If you can pivot the tires top and bottom, there is a problem with your bearings. The good news is that for about 125 bucks, you can keep your wheel from popping off and passing your now mangled car on the highway.
To replace the bearings, first start with the car on the ground. Make sure your parking brake is engaged... and well! You want to break your lug nuts free but leave them on the studs. Lift your car so the tire is off the ground, and then remove your lug nuts completely. Pull your wheel straight off and set it aside. You won’t need it again until your car is ready.
In the center of your hub, there is a brass nut. This is the nut that holds your axle, hub, and spindle together. Using your 1 1/4" socket and your breaker bar, remove that nut.
Now you need to remove the brake caliper from the disk. In the back there are 4 bolts. The inside two are all you need to concern yourself with for this. You'll be able to see the brackets that hold it to your spindle, and they are the only ones that are 17mm. Grab your 3/8 ratchet, your extension, and your 17mm socket and remove these bolts. This might be a little tricky since you don't have room to get the pipe on the ratchet (or breaker bar). What I did to give my self more room was I cut the wheel all the way to the other side so I could get in behind there and get some leverage. Once you get those out, you can pull your caliper off of the disk and set it out of the way. I set mine on my makeshift jack stand (cinder block). You don’t have to remove the brake line for this job, but if you want to paint your calipers, this would be a great time to do so!
Top
Bottom
Now this is the fun part. If anything can go wrong, it will be in this general section.
To get your brake rotor off, you need to remove the two retaining screws. They are probably rusted in there. Here’s the trick so you don’t strip the heads. Spray them down with your penetrating lube. Take the impact driver, line up the tip in the screw, and whack the back of it with a hammer. Make sure you have it set to ratchet off. They're hard enough to get free. You don’t want to tighten them any more.
When those are out, you should be able to just pull off your rotor. If not, then you can insert two bolts into the holes provided, and slowly turn each a turn or two at a time. They will push your rotor free. I didn’t have this issue, so I have no clue what size bolts they are, but that’s what the holes are for. Set your rotor down on something soft like a towel. You don’t want to damage what stops you from hitting the SUV that just cut you off!
At this point in time, you might want to inspect your pads, rotors and calipers. You already have it apart; if they need replacing, do so.
At the top of your spindle assembly, you have two bolts that go through the bottom of your strut. Make sure you're springs are fully extended before continuing on. Place your 22mm box wrench on the bolt side, and the 22mm socket on the other. This is going to be pretty tight, so I would recommend a breaker bar with your long pipe for more leverage on it. Take both of those bolts out.
Next you need to remove your speed sensor. Its just one bolt, so take it out using your 10mm socket and what ever ratchet you have to fit it. The sensor should just pull out after that.
At the very bottom of your assembly, is your ball joint. Remove the cotter pin from the nut using your pliers. Using your 17mm socket, remove the nut on the bottom of your ball joint.
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Default DIY Wheel bearing replacement (04 Civic)
I recently had to replace my wheel bearings on my 04 EX, and thought that while I can't necessarily make a complete DIY on this, I could save you a ton of $$$ by DIY all the pre work. Our bearings are press fit, actually kind of double press fit, and unless you have some serious equipment, not something that can be done by your self. Everything up to and after the pressing, can be done with simple hand tools while your car sits on a jack stand. That being said lets get started!
Here are the tools you're going to need:
Jack (the one for your spare is fine)
Jack Stand (always think safety)
Lug wrench / tire iron
Ratchet 3/8" drive
Ratchet 1/4" drive (unless your 10mm fits a 3/8)
Breaker bar 3/8" drive (not needed, but saves some wear and tear on your ratchet for those hard to break free nuts and bolts)
Socket (1 1/4", 10mm, 17mm, and 22mm)
2-3" extension 3/8" drive
22mm box wrench
Pliers (any will work, but I prefer to use needle nose for this application)
Impact driver w/ "3 Phillips head (if you don’t have one, you can borrow them from any decent parts store)
Hammer
Long pipe (to put over your breaker bar for torque)
Pry / Crow bar
Either WD-40 or some kind of penetrating lube
First things first, be sure you need them. If you have wobble in the front end, you probably thought like I did. “Oh I threw a weight and just need a tire balance.” That didn’t fix it, now what? Checking your bearings is easy! Here's how:
Lift the tire off of the ground with your jack.
Grab a hold of the top and bottom of your tire.
Your tire is supposed to have a little play right to left, but not up and down. If you can pivot the tires top and bottom, there is a problem with your bearings. The good news is that for about 125 bucks, you can keep your wheel from popping off and passing your now mangled car on the highway.
To replace the bearings, first start with the car on the ground. Make sure your parking brake is engaged... and well! You want to break your lug nuts free but leave them on the studs. Lift your car so the tire is off the ground, and then remove your lug nuts completely. Pull your wheel straight off and set it aside. You won’t need it again until your car is ready.
In the center of your hub, there is a brass nut. This is the nut that holds your axle, hub, and spindle together. Using your 1 1/4" socket and your breaker bar, remove that nut.
Now you need to remove the brake caliper from the disk. In the back there are 4 bolts. The inside two are all you need to concern yourself with for this. You'll be able to see the brackets that hold it to your spindle, and they are the only ones that are 17mm. Grab your 3/8 ratchet, your extension, and your 17mm socket and remove these bolts. This might be a little tricky since you don't have room to get the pipe on the ratchet (or breaker bar). What I did to give my self more room was I cut the wheel all the way to the other side so I could get in behind there and get some leverage. Once you get those out, you can pull your caliper off of the disk and set it out of the way. I set mine on my makeshift jack stand (cinder block). You don’t have to remove the brake line for this job, but if you want to paint your calipers, this would be a great time to do so!
Top
Bottom
Now this is the fun part. If anything can go wrong, it will be in this general section.
To get your brake rotor off, you need to remove the two retaining screws. They are probably rusted in there. Here’s the trick so you don’t strip the heads. Spray them down with your penetrating lube. Take the impact driver, line up the tip in the screw, and whack the back of it with a hammer. Make sure you have it set to ratchet off. They're hard enough to get free. You don’t want to tighten them any more.
When those are out, you should be able to just pull off your rotor. If not, then you can insert two bolts into the holes provided, and slowly turn each a turn or two at a time. They will push your rotor free. I didn’t have this issue, so I have no clue what size bolts they are, but that’s what the holes are for. Set your rotor down on something soft like a towel. You don’t want to damage what stops you from hitting the SUV that just cut you off!
At this point in time, you might want to inspect your pads, rotors and calipers. You already have it apart; if they need replacing, do so.
At the top of your spindle assembly, you have two bolts that go through the bottom of your strut. Make sure you're springs are fully extended before continuing on. Place your 22mm box wrench on the bolt side, and the 22mm socket on the other. This is going to be pretty tight, so I would recommend a breaker bar with your long pipe for more leverage on it. Take both of those bolts out.
Next you need to remove your speed sensor. Its just one bolt, so take it out using your 10mm socket and what ever ratchet you have to fit it. The sensor should just pull out after that.
At the very bottom of your assembly, is your ball joint. Remove the cotter pin from the nut using your pliers. Using your 17mm socket, remove the nut on the bottom of your ball joint.
For more room to work, cut the wheel toward the side you're working on. You need to pry the top out of the strut, and lift the ball joint out. You can wedge the pry bar under the metal lip of the ball and pry it out. Be very careful not to disturb the boot though because you'll probably end up replacing the ball joint too! It’s going to be tricky to get out. You’re going to have to play around with it a bit. If you hit the lower control arm with your hammer, it jars the inside loose. I had to hit mine a few times and pry it up from a few different angles, but it came out pretty painlessly. If you can’t get it using these methods, then you need to get a pickle fork and an air hammer. That will almost definitely land you back to replacing the ball joint. So put in some time trying to get it out my way.
Now you should have the spindle and the hub in one piece with your axle running through the middle. It won’t just slide right off either. You have to hold the assembly in one hand and knock the axle through with a hammer. You can use your extension as a punch to send it all the way through after you've banged it flush with everything else. Once the assembly is in your hand... You've done the first half of your work, and DIY part is done for now.
I bought my bearings from a local parts store for $85, and they pressed my old ones out and new ones in for $35. Here is what’s involved for those of you who are fortunate to have all the tools you need.
First bang the hub out of the bearings and off the spindle. You're probably going to have to cut the inside of the old bearing off the hub with a P grinder and a chisel.
Using a hydraulic press, press the old bearings out of the spindle. Flip the spindle over and press the new bearings into the spindle. Then press the hub into the bearings. It took the guy doing mine about 10 minutes. The nice part of press fit bearings is they come sealed and packed with grease.
That’s it! All done. Bearings are in. now you just have to put your wheel assembly back together. It’s the reverse of everything you just did.
A few key points would be:
After you put the nut back on the axle with your 1 1/4" socket, bang the edge inside the groove like in my picture so it doesn’t come loose.
Switch your impact driver to tighten and smack those screws in a couple of times. I mean they only hold your brakes on!
Get your wheel back on, and check out for self how sturdy you made that thing! It’s your work, be proud. Then let your car down and drive it around the block to see what difference it makes.