KonaRX

Aloha Fellow RX'rs,
Had a loud rumbling/growling/vibration from the front end of the car. Most notable at 40MPH. Diagnosis, wheel bearings after reading and viewing much info here and on Youtube.
I've read through some of the other posts on how to do it, thought I'd offer my $0.02 on shortcuts I learned. Did both sides of the front in under 3 hours. The first one took almost 2 hours, the second one and cleanup took an hour. The drivers side was the most noisy and confirmed once I had it off the car. I spun the hub and even at hand spun speed it was noisy and grinding. But the passengers side was worse and the debris it left on the axle was much worse than the other side. It was almost as loud as the drivers side.

Tools needed:
30mm, 12 point, impact socket. This is for the axle nut that is torqued down to 217 ft/lbs.
A heavy duty torque wrench that can torque to 217 ft/lbs. Picked up a Tekton model 24340 from Amazon.
A good Air impact wrench. Picked up a new one as my old one died. A Cambell Hausfeld TL140200AV, good up to 550 ft lbs. (but it still wasn't enough for a few bolts, more later.) I have a 25 gallon compressor and something like will need something more than a "pancake" compressor.
Impact sockets, extensions, universal joint will help.
A 3' cheater 1/2" driver bar with a piece of pipe for extra leverage.
Tie rod or other puller, see the one I used for the tie rods and to remove the steering knuckle from the axle.
Nut penetrating solution
New axle nuts as you can't re-use the old ones.
Dremel tool with metal cut off wheel
Hardened metal punches, one of those can opening tools for paint cans from Home Depot.
Jack, jack stands.
Wine, to ease my aching 58 year old back.

I ordered two new complete steering knuckles from Advanced Auto.
Part numbers are LK023 and LK024 for Moog parts.


They come complete with a new axle nut. So shiny !



Here's the factory diagram and some of the torque settings:



With the car safely jacked up, on jack stands, rear tires chocked, parking brake on, remove the front tires.
Remove the small nut holding the ABS sensor and the nut holding it's cable and the brake line. Undo the plastic clip holding the ABS sensor and move it to safety on the top of the shock.
Some say to disassemble your brakes by removing the sliding caliper bolts. I didn't and there is really no need. Remove the 2 caliper bolts. It helps to turn the wheel. E.g. if you are working on the drivers side, turn the wheels to the left. Use a bungee etc. to tie the caliper safely up and out of the way. I used a piece of thick copper wire I had laying around from the brake job I did. I posted that with pictures so maybe search for it if you are doing brakes ?
Remove the rotor. I just did my brakes (see prior post above) and they just fell off (used anti-seize on the hubs so that helped too). If you have never popped your rotors off, there are 2 bolt holes. Using 8mm x 1.25 bolts, alternate tightening each one and your rotors will pop free.



Drivers side, caliper bolts

Next, remove the steering tie-rod. Remove the cotter pin and remove the bolt. You'll need a puller to pop it free.


Tie rod free

Here's a tough part. The 2 bolts that hold the steering knuckle to the shock are held in with Locktite. My new air impact didn't budge these. Use a long cheater bar and a piece of pipe. Don't worry about holding the bolts, they won't move and you'll need all your strength to pop these suckers (nuts) free.



These don't look so bad. Loctite holds them on.



This is the top part of my jack handle, came in real handy for this part !

Once you break them free, your air racket can do the rest. Push down on the hub assembly to free the pressure on the bolts and slide them out, be careful not to grind the threads on the way out.

Here's where I'll offer 2 options. Because I live in Kona, shops are SUPER expensive. Even to press out the old bearings, cut off the races from the spindle, press in a new bearing, etc. was $400 at my local shop. And I still had to remove the thing. The Toyota dealer wanted $1,200 a side to do the whole job.
So, I purchased new complete steering knuckles with new bearings already in. I'll highlight what I did to put these new ones in and note if you are going to take your old one to a shop to press out/in new bearings, what the differences are.

Remove the two nuts and 1 bolt holding the lower tie rod to the bottom of the steering knuckle. Trick- lift the steering knuckle up to free the two bolts from the lower control arm.

Now the part that took me a long time to figure out.
The axle nut is "punched" to keep it from backing off. You have to ensure that depressed area doesn't jack up your axle threads on the way off or you get to replace your axles. After much trial and failure, I pulled my dremel tool out. With a metal cut off wheel, I cut two lines on either side and the top of the area (see pictures cuz I can't describe it well). With the "punched" part of the axle nut freer to move, I used a punch and that little can opener tool from the paint department at Home Dept (it fits perfectly) to lift this section up and off the threads. A little nut penetrating spray and the 30mm 12 point impact and it came right off. Surprised that the impact could pop this off when it's torqued down to 217 ft/lbs but it couldn't budge the shock bolts (locktite, love it to hold things, hard to fight to take things off lol).





Punched part of axle nut, ground down with dremel tool with cut off wheel.


Make sure you clear the "punched" part of the axle nut so you don't tear up the threads on your axle.


Remove the whole thing from the axle with a puller.


Had this puller since high school to remove timing chain pullys lol. Came in handy for sure !




This little guy pulled the hub off the axles and the tie rods.

Now if you are going to take this to a shop to press in/out you are good to go and can avoid the next steps.

Since I was going to install new steering knuckles, I had to remove the tie rod from the old assembly. How do you break free a nut that is torqued down at 91 ft/lbs off a free standing assembly ? Tried all kinds of things then 'ding' florescent bulb goes off. I installed it onto the tire. Also- the tie rods won't go on to the new steering knuckles as the shield is in the way. I bent the old one out of the way. Undo the 4 10mm bolts that hold the shield in place, rotate out of the way, pop in the tie rod end, torque, install cotter pin.



Here's the new assembly and how I torqued the tie rod bolt to 91 ft/lbs.

Assembly is the reverse of removal. What ?? Sorry, this is not Chiltons....

Now if you took your hubs to a shop, please join back in the thread as the reassembly steps will apply.

The first side I needed my wife to help me wrestle the new one in and it took a ton of pushing and shoving to get the 2 bolts from the lower tie rod to the lower control arm in and the axle and the upper arm to the shock. Well, it's way easier if you just do one thing at a time.
FIrst, clean the axle cuz if your bearings went like mine, your axle splines are covered in crap. Used WD40 and a wire brush but at a minimum, make it slippery.
Next, slide the axle onto the hub. Then lift the whole thing up and drop the 2 studs into the holes in the lower control arm. Don't worry about the upper part to shock mount yet.
Lift the whole assembly up so that the triangular tab that has the two studs and the bolt hole are flat against the lower control arm and install the bolt. Use Loctite on these as the factory did. Torque them to 94 ft/lbs.

Use a pry bar (delicately) against the axle to align the shock bolt holes with the steering knuckle bolt holes. Slide the 2 bolts in and using Loctie, torque those suckers to 170 ft/lbs and hope you never have to do this ever again. But if you do, you know how to pop these puppies off.

Install the steering tie rod, torque to 36 ft/lbs, install cotter pin.

Reinstall the brake caliper. Note that your pads/inner bracket may have moved, align them (while keeping any greasy appendages clear of the pads). Torque the two bolts to 75 ft/lbs. Again, turning the wheel in your direction makes this much easier to do.

Reroute and reinstall the two bolts holding the brake line/ABS wire, re-attach the plastic ABS sensor wire clip, clean the ABS sensor end (why not ?) and bolt it back on.

Now another hard learned lesson. How do you torque down the axle nut ? Well, prior posts on this subject a few folks offered pearls of wisdom.

Pop off the center Lexus logo cap from your rim. Install the tire. A trick I learned in high school, use your "X" tire iron to lift the tire into position.



Lift your tire into position with one hand, while the other hand starts the lug nuts.

Use your impact wrench to tighten the axle nut as far as you can go. Lower the car so the tire touches the garage floor. Torque the axle nut to 217 ft/lb. Jack back up the car, reinstall the jack stand (safety third ? lol). Remove the tire and using a punch, make the next guys life miserable or yours not so bad by punching down the axle nut part into the channel in the axle super deep (like the factory) or just enough so it won't move.

Install the tire, torque the lug nuts to 76 ft/lbs. And after 25 miles or so, re-torque them, just to be safe.

Hope this helps you tackle this job yourself. Hopefully with my pain and suffering as your guide, you can do this much quicker than I did (the first side is where all the lessons came).

Appreciate any feedback to improve this thread for all of us that have Gen 2 RX's as we are all going to have to do this !

Of course the wife goes. Nice, it drives like it used to. Should you do the rears ? Well, that's another time and when I do it, another thread. I think they are WAY easier than the front for sure.

Aloha and Mahalo from the island that is covered in lava (according to the news).
Cheers.

ukrkoz

Nice.
Flat head screwdriver, ground down to suitable width, gently punched into the axle nut groove, will open the nut. Yours came with new one, imagine cutting it with Dremel for one who has to reuse it.
Interesting on axle nut vs strut nuts. I had them popped easily with my air gun. Many times. Then again, I have OLD school air gun. Has some horrendous torque.
Part stores rent what they call "front end socket set", that will have one suitable size for axle nut.. There's little point to buy $30 or so socket for one time job.
Another way of doing that axle nut, as it's the worst DYI hindrance in entire job, is to drive to a close by tire shop, ask guy with air gun to pop that nut loose for you and then hand torque it back. In this manner, you can drive back home, do the job, hand torque nut, go back to shop and let them have it with their air gun.
Reminds me of 94 Corolla I had to remove pass side axle. Axle nut was torqued soo much, that even with breaker bar and cheat pipe on it, I'd simply lift car off jackstand, it won't budge. I ended pulling axle out with the hub, then reinstalling it back again as such. Fried clutch plate, he he.

sertimins

Looks like you took the time and enjoyed the DYI process as well to document. I found the personal method to bend back the axle nut is by crafting my own tool using a wrench and a grinder. I would hook the notch and using a cheater bar, bend up the nut minimizing damage to the nut. To dent back, I use a needle nose clamp pliers to bite the nut and hit it with hammer. Hitting the nut with screw driver cuts up the nut and messy.
Thank you for your detained post. enjoyed viewing it.

joedaddy1

iTrader: (1)

how much is this job at a local mechanic?

I am too lazy these days to attempt.

KonaRX

KonaRX

joedaddy1

iTrader: (1)

i can believe that..

C40carbon

To KonaRx
I’m considering to get that Moog knuckle for my RX. A local mechanic told me that Moog parts don’t last long. Can you update on how your Moog knuckle has been performing ever since it got installed ?

KonaRX

Hi there,
I installed the Moog knuckles on July 22, 2018. So far so good. Although I only have put 14k miles on them. The knuckle has National bearings which (from what I could find) is owned by Federal-Mogul. The reviews on their bearings was quite good. I also didn’t have much choice in the matter because of my location and the cost to have a new bearings installed was more than putting in a new knuckle. And the process of removing the old, cutting off the old race etc. just seemed too labor intensive to me to pay a shop to do. The finish is great. Even in Hawaii and the salt air, they still look new.

Would recommend you torque the axle nut down correctly and you should get plenty of life for your money. Good luck!

pharmrdan

Thanks for the detailed write up! gonna try and tackle this job myself instead of allowing the stealership to do it

Margate330

I inquired last year at a local shop what it will cost to press in new wheel bearings on the front of my car.

I can't remember the price but it wasn't too bad but they wanted to put in aftermarket wheel bearings.

I asked if I could supply the oem Timken bearings and they said no, so I passed.

Was only thinking of doing it for preventative maintenance.