Replacing A Rear Bearing Hub Assembly On A 2004 Lexus Rx330

[Hajoca]

It is the same.

 

Bad hub bearing is a gowoling / howling sound and not clunking though. check your sway bar bushing, end link, or strut mounts first before you replace a hub bearing that is still good.

[TitusKing]

1 hour ago, Hajoca said:

It is the same.

 

Bad hub bearing is a gowoling / howling sound and not clunking though. check your sway bar bushing, end link, or strut mounts first before you replace a hub bearing that is still good.

Thanks for the heads up!

[river]

I thought bearing has to be pressed in to the hub via knuckle. Which meanes I have to take hub + bearing and knuckle to the pshop to get it pressed. please confirm.

Thanks

[Hajoca]

The front bearings will need to be pressed in / out. Try using some large bolts, plates and pipe to make your won press

[filmteknik]

This guide is a great resource; thank you.

I have a 2008 RX350 with 172K miles.  I am hearing something starting at about 39 mph which then goes away as speed increases and then comes back and then goes away repeatedly as speed increases.  Is there anything besides a wheel bearing that this could be?   Putting it in neutral and letting the RPM drop has no effect so it's not the engine but I suppose it could be trans or xfer related.  I leaning to it being a rear bearing but not sure.  I had one replaced years ago but the paperwork is ambiguous as one place it says left and another place it says right.  That cost over $600 at a small shop.  I've been doing brakes for years so this seems like something I could do.

The other day I jacked up right rear and then left rear with the wheels chocked and car in neutral.  Turning right rear took some effort but I did not notice any roughness.  Left rear took effort and I thought I felt some roughness so that might be it.  No play noticeable on either so maybe it's not that far gone.

If I had or could borrow an IR camera, I would drive a while on some back road; avoid using the brakes, and just coast to a halt and get out and see which bearing warmed up the most.  But I don't know if that would be visible externally but maybe from underneath.

I saw a video where a runout gauge was used but there must be an easier way.  My attempt to record audio near each wheel just gave me a lot of wind noise.

Some questions:

Are the rear hub bearings the same for both sides?  Seems like it from looking up parts.

Real quick, I jack it up, remove and tie up caliper, remove caliper bracket.  Remove disk rotor.   What is the best way to pound out the dimple in the nut?   
Then bar the hub to keep from turning or replace wheel, lower it to ground and do it through the center hub.
Then remove the four bolts.
Could someone elaborate on how that part that holds the parking brake fits into this situation?  Is that just held by the four bolts.  I realize this might and hopefully becomes obvious once I am into it.

I don't think I want to pound the shaft but I do have a puller I hope to use.

How difficult is it to get the new part seated on the splines?

Anyone know the torque requirement for t he four bolts, and even more important, the big nut?

[Hajoca]

The dimple in the nut - just pry at it with a screwdriver or an awl.

Then put wheel back on with a couple of lug nuts and lower it so tire is on the ground and loosen the nut.

I used a piece of wood between the shaft and hammer. You want to push the shaft inward, Puller won't work.

Jack it up and take tire off, disc off, and remove the bolts holding the hub on. Tap the flange and it should come off.

[jasperaxle]

On 8/25/2012 at 4:19 PM, Lakeeffectsledhead said:

Good write up. I googled and found this to confirm my suspicions on my car. Very helpful!!!

I performed the repair on the right, rear wheel this morning on my 2006 rx330. I already had both a 30 and 32mm deep well twelve point socket in my arsenal, and it turns out you will need a 30mm for a 2006. The entire job took me about an hour. I did a couple things a little different. To loosen the axle nut, I placed a long pry bar between two of the wheel studs and let the pry bar push against the garage floor, at the same time prying on the breaker bar with the 30mm socket on the end. This saved a lot of time and lifting as opposed to putting the tire back on and letting the jack down to keep the hub from spinning. I also used a small torch and heated 6 areas around the axle nut to break it free, as i had no success with my first attempt. Heating the nut allowed it to spin off with almost no effort.

After the nut was off, rather than hitting the end of the axle shaft with a hammer, I used a $30 gear puller. The gear puller popped the hub and brake dust plate off with just a couple turns.

Lastly, I know that this will make some of you cringe, but I opted for a hub/bearing set that cost only $58.00. Only time will tell, but I've changed a hub bearing or two in my lifetime, and they always outlast the car after being changed. The OEM hub lasted until about 107,000 miles. If this one goes out before the next 107,000, I'll just change it again. If it only lasts 10,000 miles, then I will upgrade to the $150 Timken hub I found.

As a side note, prior to deciding which side needed to be changed, I sat in both sides of the rear seat while my wife was driving. The noise was twice as loud on the right.

The best sound I've heard in the last few months was actually silence from the rear during my test drive after repairs. What a relief that was. "Honey, do you hear that? Hear what? Exactly."

Dealer quote: $1250

Total cost: $58.00

Tony

I used a gear puller like you did but all it did on mine was push the spindle back into the bearing assembly.  I ended up just hitting the sides of the hub and it came off.  Then I turned the bearing assembly and backing plate over and hit the bearing a few times and it popped out. 

[Cuao]

I am looking to replace the rear wheel hub assembly on my 2004 RX330 AWD.  There are several assemblies available.  NSK has one with the built in sensor ($110) and one without the sensor ($85).  My question is which one does the car take?

[Brad F]

Yes. My 2005 RX330 used a 30mm deep socket. My local Auto Zone store in Columbia SC rents out these high impact sockets for free if you put down a refundable $80 deposit.

[Ankush]

Thanks, these instructions were very helpful. I replaced my driver side rear wheel bearing. 30 mm socket for me too as others have said. Everything went pretty smoothly. Was difficult to get the bearing to release from the axle, but keep hammering it and try wedging something from behind the bearing - i think that is what finally got it. My Lexus is quiet again. It was tough figuring this out because my transfer case recently failed and had to be rebuilt and I thought they didnt do the job properly. But when I sat in the back while someone else drove, the sound was clearly coming from the rear on the driver side. 

[2004RX330_19]

Not sure who is still doing this job, but I just completed replacement of rear passenger bearing / hub assembly and thought I would add a few notes.
 

I have 2004 RX 330, AWD made in Japan for reference.  

TLDR:

- rear spindle nut is 30mm 12 point on this model.  (people report success using 32mm socket as well, but 30 is best fit).  I used husky deep socket 1/2 drive from Home Depot.
- If you need to put car in neutral, use emergency release for shift selector.  No need to turn car on.  Saves battery.  
- I used a three-arm gear puller for two separate steps.  (on loan from O'reilly auto)
    * First to separate drive shaft spline from hub assembly.  
    * Then, to separate backing plate from hub, but this time in reverse, i.e., as a pusher.  
Whole job took over 4 hours with less than ideal working conditions.  
Total cost - approx $120.


Details:

The 12 point spindle nut was 30mm.  A 32mm socket might have worked (it appears to have worked for others) but 30mm was definitely a better fit.    You are definitely better off with the deep socket.   Most likely you are going to have the wheel on the car when you first break the spindle nut, and you need the deep socket to reach in through the center of the wheel to get to it.  I used a regular Husky brand socket from Home Depot, 1/2 inch drive.  No issues.  OReilly also had an impact version at the location I went to.  But that was unnecessary. Lifting the lip on the spindle nut took a moment.  You can find reports online of people damaging threads.  Be careful!!!

Not sure if this was the original bearing, but my car was at 230,000 miles, and lives in Chicago, on the street, so it gets a lot of salt.  In other words, a lot of rust to fight through.   The brake disc itself separated fine because I did a brake job a year ago and used a lot of never seize between the hub and the disc.  But the 17mm bolts on the caliper were still a bit tough to break, even though they had anti seize as well.  

Regarding the bolts that hold the hub to the axle carrier...you need to be able to spin the the hub to get at each bolt through the access holes in the hub itself.  You need to put the car in neutral to do that.  IF you simply turn the ignition on to unlock the gear selector, you cannot turn off the car in neutral.  Someone else earlier in the thread mentioned draining their battery while the ignition was on for this purpose.  Also happened to me.   When it came time to put everything back together I realized that  you can simply use the emergency release on the shifter.  Pop the little plastic cover off at the top left of the gear selector, push down on button inside.  That allows you to select neutral without turning on car. Thus no risk of battery drain.

There were three difficult separation steps, made worse by rust.  

 - First, getting the drive shaft spline loose from the hub assembly.  I used a 3 arm gear puller.  Pretend the hub is the gear you are pulling.  Super easy.  There is video of one guy hammering on the end of the spindle to get it to release.  He does not succeed AND he damages the spindle and therefore has to replace the drive shaft as a result.  

 - Second, removing the hub and backing plate from the axle carrier.  Needed a pry bar to get them apart.  Took a moment to get it done.  I tend to work cautiously.  But it finally came off.  

 - The third and typically the worst / hardest / most common task is separating the backing plate from the hub.  Lots of people set it on brick or jack stand near the car bang it out (they do next to car because the parking brake cable is still attached).  I had no luck in that regard.  Since my Emergency brake is seized and worthless, I cut the cable and took the whole assembly off.  I put it on the ground for easy access, and still couldn't bang them apart.  Finally I improvised using the 3 gear puller.  I removed the arms from the gear puller, so It was just the screw bolt and the frame that holds the arms.  I placed the arm holder*between* the backing plate and outside of the hub.  The top of the bolt went *through* one of the access holes in the hub.  THen I slowly turned the the bolt to separate the backing plate and hub.  I worked my way around the hub, and it finally came loose.  You can probably come up with something similar using some combination of a long bolt, washers and nuts.  

THe job took me a little over 4 hours in the end.  (plus more time to recharge the battery and test drive).  I did it in the driveway, at night, with a flood light above, a head lamp, one jack, one jack stand, and a pile of bricks for some redundant safety (not recommended!).  I was missing certain ideal tools, most notably a breaker bar and various pipes to extend leverage.  Delays included: breaking bolts and separating rusty parts in general, carefully raising the bent edge of the spindle nut prior to removal.  Trying to to find a pipe that fit over the handle of my 1/2" drive ratchet for spindle release. One notable delay involved removing the last bolt on the axle carrier -- I was using a normal socket with an extension along with a pipe to extend leverage.  The extension between the socket wrench and the socket snapped on the last bolt, so I couldn't reach the bolt head.  You might be able to reach it with a deep socket, but I didn't have one in the right size.  I tried to use a regular wrench to break the bolt, but I could not get enough leverage.  Eventually I came up with a solution --  I attached a short length of pipe to the wrench.  I had 5-6 feet of old speaker wire that I wrapped around the wrench and the pipe piece to secure them to each other.  I used a lot of wire and it manage to hold enough to give the leverage I needed.  I also got stuck trying to separate the plate and hub.  Then it took time to recharge battery after it ran down while I left the car in  neutral.   Just putting the car in neutral took some extra time and care because I didn't have normal blocks to keep the car from rolling.  I had to search around the house to find some scraps of wood and I was very careful to make sure it was properly blocked and wouldn't move.  

It is theoretically a relatively easy job -- if all the parts were new, and you had the right tools, you could probably knock it out in a hour.  In practice, with less than ideal tools, it was a real b*tch, especially with rusty parts.  

Parts and tools that I purchased for this were"

 - NSK HUB (59BWKH09) - Rock Auto - $76 plus tax and shipping
 - Spindle nut - Rock Auto $6.00 + T&S
 - 30mm deep socket from Home Depot - $15
 - 3 arm gear puller on loan from O'reilly auto - $40 refundable deposit
Total out of pocket about $120.  

 

I found this forum thread helpful and wanted to add my own experience for others' benefit. 

Good luck to you all!