Focus wheel bearing

Front wheel bearing, 07. Seems to be a 3 step process. Remove knuckle, press out hub, press out bearing. The hub and bearing are available in a 2-pack or you can buy a bearing alone. Online the bearing are $15-22 and the hub/bearing is $25-35. Can you reuse the hub? A new hub seems nice but why change it if it appears ok?

You have to remove the snap ring before you press out the bearing. You can reuse the hub but if the lug studs are worn or messed up in any way, you may want to either replace those while the hub is out or just replace the hub.

With everything going modular, I wonder why they don’t sell a complete steering knuckle with the bearing and hub installed.

Get the hub. It will make your life easier. These type of assemblies leave the outermost bearing race still on the hub after you push the hub out of the knuckle. It is a bear to get off even with a bearing splitter and hydraulic press. If you break your splitter, the cost will be more than a new hub. You DO have access the a hydraulic press right??

The new bearing will slide right into the knuckle if the knuckle spends a little time warming up to about 250 to 300 degrees in your gas grill or oven (ask the wife FIRST if she’s likely to catch you in the act!) and the bearing in the freezer. Should slide in with a small press-in force. Push the hub in right after letting the bearing completely warm up. It won’t take too much force either if you put it in the freezer, too.

I drove the car to tire store. The right front seemed to rumble a bit. After tires were put on, it seems to rumble on left front now. Shop said nothing about loose wheel bearings. Which is a sure chance for more work/money. Car has 70k miles. And it’s a tin can. Car seems to roll smoothly but there is a lot of wind noise/ rumble. Maybe both front bearings are bad

You may not have looseness yet… if the bearing is going bad it can make noise before the looseness is apparent. But it will come if it is indeed bad.

Drive by someone standing close and have them listen to each side. It might pinpoint the bad side. I once changed the wrong side because I didn’t do this. Course, you may want to change both now to make a day of it.

@Cavell‌

A lot of bad bearings are never loose

A rough bearing is also a bad bearing

Food for thought . . .

Most of the bad bearings I’ve replaced were rough, not loose

It’s easier if you buy a replacement hub. But ask your parts store if you bring the old parts (hub, etc) if they’ll remove the old bearings and races and press in new ones for you. My local inde auto parts store has a small shop in the back and provides that service to their customers for a small fee.

Almost all focus reviews mention noise. Road noise, wind noise. General buzz box issues. And a tendency to chew thru tires fast. We got 70k miles on 2 original tires. 2 were replaced due to alignment issues. Tire tech said 1 rim has a slight wobble but it’s not excessive. Maybe former owner hit something?

@Cavell‌

If the “rim has a slight wobble” it needs to be straightened . . . yes, there are actually professional ways to do this, but I’m not sure it’s economically feasible . . . or replaced

Perhaps the bad bearing is on the same side as the rim that has the wobble . . . ?

I found a seller with 4 focus rims for $40. But he won’t sell 1. I have seen them at boneyard for $19 but it’s snowy out now. Of course now I have to remount/balance 1 of our new tires. At least tech mentioned rim was a bit off. Since we just got car, we had no way of knowing of course.