Hub Assembly
 

Hello all,

I'm looking at replacing hub assemblies based on the amount of play I have in mine at the moment. I see that Centric and Moog have some reasonably priced parts that fit the bill, but wanted to consult the gurus here on what manufacturers to avoid and which ones are the industry standard for this part in particular.

I didn't see any threads specific to this topic in my searches. If I missed one that has all the answers to what I'm asking, please link.

Front or rear?

Yes. If I'm doing them I'd prefer to do all 4 at one time. I guess the front are the ones that take most of the abuse though.

Rears are a pretty quick swap and come with bearings installed. I just put some Durago's from Rock Auto on and they seemed good build quality. Replaced the OEM after 117K miles (+60K of that tracked) and don't intend to track the car anymore so they should work fine.

Fronts are a pain and require pulling the axles and pressing out/in new bearings. Replaced just the passenger front bearing with OEM 50K ago and don't want to do it again.

Rears ~1 hour per side.
Fronts ~1 day per side.

time depend of your skills and tools. im very well equipped but i don't rush on doing it and it take less than 2 hours per side. Don't get hub assembly for front because you will have to dismantle it to install the bearing alone anyway. so unless your hub studs are broken, there is no benefits. Take an abs bearing and check to install it the proper side. (Magnetic towards the sensor).
If you never did it and don't have much tools and access to an hydraulic press, i would suggest to have it made by a mechanic. You may/will need some specific tools and there is few steps where a newbie could fail and have to do it again.
Bearing quality is there but better have a cheap one correctly installed than the best one not seated or tightened correctly. i usually pic one with the middle price with a name i can pronounce...

for rear 3, it is a matter of 4 torx (or allen) bolts not sure. it get easier with a small size 1/2 impact and extensions. For the 6, the rear is the same pita as for front...

All that being said I think I'll hold off. Or just purchase parts and have some one do the labor on the front and do the rear myself to get some experience. Had someone, not a speed3 owner, reassured me changing the hub assembly wouldn't that difficult. I'm not an idiot, but still on the novice side of wrenching.

Follow up question: would it be worth it to do hubs when I do axles? It seems, based on what your saying, doing them separately ends up being more work than doing axles and hubs at the same time. Am I off base with this?

it may get different for other brand even if fwd are basically all the same but the hub assembly you get new from a part store for the front, come with the center hub installed inside the bearing. You have to install it in your own spindle (the cast part connecting to shock and direction)
To do so, you have to separate bearing from hub to install it alone to be able to put back the locking ring that seat in the spindle between bearing and hub..then press back the hub into it. if not, i don't see how you can install the locking ring...
On the other hand one that would get a complete assembled spindle from a junk yard would be able to install it without special tools...but you already have used bearings....

And yes replacing axles alongside a bearing job will just add few minutes to the total because you almost get them apart to do bearings....