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!