M35 Rear Hub/bearing Creak Noise

[hutchwilco]

Just been round and round figuring out an issue with my 2002 m35 thought I'd share the journey:

Since I owned it the car always had a slight pulse when braking, so I knew I had to get the rotors turned down at some point. Eventually I started hearing some brake noise so I took it in to get the rotors skimmed and new pads put in (front and rear). Apparently only a small amount needed to be turned down on the rear rotors.

However the sound was still there, from the rear left. A scraping/creaking sound in time with the wheel revolution and only really noticeable below about 50kmhr when coasting or decel to a stop. Eek eek eek eek etc Applying the brakes made no difference.

Worried it was a catastrophic bearing waiting to go I took it to a mechanic near my work, who reckoned it didn't sound like a bearing, removed the entire rotor, clamped off the lines, and drove it brakeless in the rear, without eliminating the noise (that cost me $180, thanks for nothing). By now, a few weeks in, the noise was getting louder.

This was doin my head in, others were suggesting a delaminated tyre, or flat spot on the mag...

Took it back to the original brake shop, and they reckon it's a bent flange or munted bearing, most likely from a lateral impact, kerb or pothole. They ran it up on a hoist with the wheel removed and you can see a 1mm wobble of the rotor in the caliper as it turns.

They'd just had a similar problem with a vehicle that had an insurance claim from hitting a kerb sideways.

Think the easiest and cheapest option is to replace the hole assy with another (so, parts in Christchurch anyone?) and hope that's it.

Genuine bearings and flange will apparently cost me a packet and take a while to change out.

Use to have a goto wrecker in ChCh for m35s, hurst dismantlers, but just found they sold up and moved on. No idea where the bodies went. Any chch people know of m35 dismantlers?

[Brick]

The bearings can be bought quite cheap from the USA. Search g35x as they use the same bearings. A local seller here in sydney aus sells rear bearings new for $130. It does sound like a bearing to me

[hutchwilco]

ok, that's cool. Driving to work today, loading up the left side (right turn) definitely makes the sound worse, so I'm sure it's a bearing now.

Couple of questions about replacing the bearing myself then that I hope someone can answer:

1. I've seen the DIY wheel bearing replacement post on SAU, for front wheel. How much of this is the same?

2. I see the Genuine nissan PN and searched on ebay - some return just the bearing, some have the hub too. (assume 7 (below) is the bearing?)

eg http://www.ebay.com/itm/NISSAN-OEM-43210AL505-Rear-Wheel-Bearing-Wheel-Bearing-43210-AL505-/121293432203

going by the picture below, which parts need special tools to remove? Bear in mind this is my daily driver, so I need to prepare EVERYTHING for the job on the weekend.

3. Do I need a puller, and if so for which parts? What special tools do I need to insert 7 into 6 etc? I'm fairly capable just don't want any surprises...

4. Do I need to beware of 4WD bearings being different to RWD? (Mine is RWD)

thanks

Edited December 7, 2014 by hutchwilco

[hutchwilco]

Ok, managed to answer a few of my questions looking at youtube for USA infiniti and Nissan Maxima bearing replacements.

I'd need a puller and a press to separate the old hub and bearing and a press in the hub to the new bearing.

However, suspect my hub may be bent as there is runout even after rotor has been turned down.

That means I may as well buy a second hand hub/ bearing assy ($130) from local dismantler. That way I don't need puller and press, I should be able to just bolt up the assy.

My new parts options are that it seems locally, (NZ) the front bearings come with hub fitted but rear bearings come naked. There are some rear hub- bearing assys online ( Amazon has them for $65us! Dodgy?).

Wondering if this assy is known to be same as any other RWD nissans in nz, xtrail, fuga, skyline? Anyone know? That way I could look around pickapart for some options...

[KiwiRS4T]

Have you tried Dan at Cockram Nissan? He gets me parts at a good price (fellow SDU member).

There are plenty of M35s being wrecked (ref TradeMe) but with the amount of labour involved I'd rather use new parts.

[hutchwilco]

Have you tried Dan at Cockram Nissan? He gets me parts at a good price (fellow SDU member).

There are plenty of M35s being wrecked (ref TradeMe) but with the amount of labour involved I'd rather use new parts.

Yep, have called cockram ( don't know if it was Dan or not- good to know though) but $300+ for a bearing and 450 for a hub.... Not gonna go there. Since I suspected the hub itself, I was resigned to a secondhand assy from roscoes in ashburton.

Turns out a mate had trade account with saeco bearings and got me a new hub and bearing assy for less than $200 which really can't be beat. (Although when I called saeco myself they were useless on the phone and literally just said 'nah' to an enquiry about stagea bearings).

Anyway, hope to get the new bits in tomorrow, will try to take photos for a diy how to.

[hutchwilco]

So the new part I had lined up turned out to be just the bearing. With suspected bent stub axle I went with the secondhand axle and bearing assy.

Inspecting the spare it looked like the outermost rim had been bashed by a crazy person, but didn't look like it affected fit or function.

Removing the old and fitting replacement was actually a piece of cake. Didn't have to remove handbrake shoes or anything. Just need to push back the driveshaft to allow room for ratchet on each of the four bearing bolts round the back.

Here is the hub with bearing/ stub axle removed and driveshaft poking through. You can see the four bolt holes where the bearing is held on. Had to thread the bolts back in a bit and tap the bearing out using the bolt heads:

However, once I had it all fastened on and fitting the wheel back on it wouldn't seat onto the face of the rotor. The damn inner of the alloy wheel was meant to be a perfect fit to the old stub axle, so the beaten up area was slightly splayed out making the diameter too great to fit the wheel on. Solution: angle grinder. Three rounds of it.

Anyway the awful bearing noise has gone, and I guess I've learned a lot about sourcing M35 parts in the process. Plan to get the old stub axle checked for runout and perhaps press a new bearing onto it one day if it checks out.

Edited December 11, 2014 by hutchwilco

[Hertz Donut]

Nice work, it's always satisfying getting rid of annoying noises. I keep meaning to do something about the creaking bushes in the front of mine (4WD) but alignment is still fine and it's passing WOFs so I cbf. Maybe I'll just go nuts with some grease when I'm under there changing the oil and filter this weekend.

Was the assembly from another RWD M35? I suspect the rears are the same as 4WD ones, would be nice to think they're the same as other FM platform ones too (V35+ Skyline, Z33, Z34, Y50+ Fuga, maybe even E51+ Elgrand).