hike4life

I have a 2005 XA, about 125,000 miles. Recently it sounded as though it had mud tires on. The back tires looked worn so I went ahead and put new ones on it. The noise continued. After much research I figured out that it was the wheel bearing. Now when I made a sharp left turn the noise would stop, it would continue when I made a sharp right turn. When I jacked up my car, turned out the back left wheel bearing had gone bad. To replace it I bought a MasterPro from O'Reily Auto Parts. Now, if you live in the south the wheel bearing and hub should come out pretty easily. But if your car has been driven in snow like mine you are going to need WD40. I had driven it the winter it had rusted because of the salt they would put on the road. I had to bang it out.

-Secure the car and jack it up.
-If you turn the wheel you can hear which one it is. If its good it will be silent, if its bad you can hear the roughness.
-Take your lugnuts off and pull off the tire.
-take off the brake drum.
-You are going to have 4 bolts to take off from the side where the brake sensor is. These bolts hold the wheel bearing and hub to your car.
- Next is the brake sensor, it will take a bit but you need to pull it off. The clip is in the inside of it on the top.
-Once the brake sensor is off it should pull right off if its not rusted.
-If it is rusted use the WD40 and then bang it out. But do not use excess strength.
-The new one should just slide right in, and put everything back together. Remember to connect the brake sensor to the new wheel bearing.

Honestly this took about 45 min and I was taking my time since it was the first time I had ever done this. It was pretty easy. If you have changed your oil before you can do this. Someone who has done this before can probably do it in 25 min or less. I am so glad it was a easy fix. The part was $95 with tax (MasterPro), the local mechanic wanted $300 to do this for me.

Over all my XA has been really good to me. It goes to show that if you take care of your car it will take care of you. I encourage all of the ladies out there to learn as much about your car as you possibly can. It will save you money if you can do things yourself and it will help keep the mechanics from selling you something you do not need. I had no choice in this matter, my dad told me if I was going to drive a car then I had to learn a few things. Turns out that I am good at it and I really love it. Fixing my car is relaxing to me.