Vinniety

iTrader: (1)

I changed the front diff, rear diff, power steering and transfer case fluids on my wifes 2004 GX470 about two months ago. Lately i noticed alot of road noise. The tires look great and are only about a year old. Does the front diff need an additive? I dont see why the front tires will have noise all of a sudden. All help would be appreciated.

Thanks

nbeihl

I had a similar issue. My noise was a roar that got louder with speed. Come to find out it was the front bearings. I replaced both of them and that was the issue. Rides as smooth as glass now! It is kind of expensive, but totally doable by yourself. I can post a how to with pictures if you want. Let me know.

Vinniety

iTrader: (1)

Thanks and yes please post pictures.

Randy20g

I would be interested in seeing these as well. I think I am hearing the first sounds of this as well. Sounds like a low groaning at highway speeds.

nbeihl

Sorry it took so long to get back with you guys, I have been on vacation.

I have done bearings on a few cars and I thought this was going to be a 2 hour job max, but it ended up being about 2 hours per side. I always get stuck on little stuff, that is why it took so long.

The total cost was around $400 (All ballpark prices... I did this a while ago)
$200 or so for the bearings ($100 per side)
$100 in seals from the local Toyota dealer ($25.00 seals... inner and outer on both sides)
$100 to have the bearings and seals pressed (I do not have a vice)


There are 2 ways to do this job

1. Easy Way:
Do most of the work your self, but have someone at a shop press in the bearings. ($150... 1.5 hrs of work) I stopped at step 11 in the attached PDF. How To Berings.pdf

2. Hard way:
Press the bearings in your self. Quite difficult and requires tools the commoner may not have.

Special Tools:
I had to barrow a puller from Auto Zone. It was a free rental.
32mm or 33mm socket for the hub bolt. I can not remember which... I bought both.

I could type a long how to, but I just posted the How To.PDF How To Berings.pdf The only issues I had along the way was getting one of the rotors off. What I ended up doing was tapping around the rotor with a rubber hammer. The rotor should come off without removing any bolts or anything, but mine was stuck on there with 100,000 miles of grime. When I say tap around the rotor, I mean, I tapped the outside of the rotor 90 degrees to the direction to pull the rotor off. This created a sheering force and then it came right off.

Another thing that took a while was getting the center hub cap off. I started with a tiny flat head screw driver (Broke 2 of them) and slowly tapped it off. As I got further and further, I used bigger screw drivers. It took me a while to get these off without bending them. If you have questions here, just reply back to the post.

Other than that, it was a really easy job (because I paid someone to press in the bearings)

Contrary to popular belief, you do not need an allignment after you do this job.

Bearing Overview.pdf
How To Berings.pdf

Here are some photos.

There is no reason to jack with the CV Boot like I did. Oops...
This is what it looks like when everything is off.


Some of the nuckles that need popped off

nbeihl

Hubs with different angles.

FlzRider

How many miles did you have on your GX when you replaced the wheel bearings?

nbeihl

Just under 100,000.

AVnGX

I have the typical bad wheel bearing noise, so I replaced both of them.
But, it was not the wheel bearings!!??
What now? Could it be an axle joint? I really want to avoid the dealer as they are really expensive.

ruhroh

Has anyone done this job using Bluepitbearings.com complete wheel bearing assembly? I have the dreaded wheel bearing hummmmm at speed. BluePitBearings video installation on a Toyota 4Runner looks super easy. Much easier than what is shown in this thread for Lexus.

Thanks.

2OnyxLexus

I pressed out and in a new bearing a few months ago. It's pretty easy if you have access to a press. I was looking into the bluepit bearing option too, but it was too expensive. I am now looking into doing the rear bearings now. Has anyone done them before?

amherstma

For wheel bearing, do you have to replace in a pair? I am having some noise from the left rear, like to know if I have to replace both as it is kind of expensive if the job is done a dealer.

BlackCat81