Hi, getting a nasty grinding kind of sound from the rear end, assume its the rear wheel bearings so looking to replace them - can anyone tell me how easy that would be and is there any guide on doing it or best to just buy the replacement part and take to a garage?

Jack the car up and wobble each wheel. If there's any movement in it, then the bearing is duff. If not, it'll likely be the brakes.

I had absolutely no movement. (MOT'd 2 weeks ago) No noise when turning the wheels by hand. So I thought my tires (Dunlop Fastresponse) were to blame. After changing to my winterset the noise was still there.
So ordered 2 new ones and changed them.
Socket 32 for the nut. Imbus (Allen)8 for the brakebrackets. Deepsocket 12 for the discs and done in less than an hour per side.
The car has never been this quiet (at least on wintertires).

gr J

PS make sure to buy the ones with ABSrings!

Cheers for the info, I don't have movement on my wheel but it don't sound healthy even turning by hand in comparison to front wheels, I may look at replacing rear discs while I'm on as well, is there a special tool you need though for doing the rear brakes?

You'll need something to turn the pistons back in the callipers. Years ago I bought a special socket at my local FIAT dealer. This has served me well the past 3 cars.
If you only change the bearings, you can leave the calliper around the disc by just loosen the bracketbolts.

gr J

When the discs wear the brake pad backing plates can grind on the unworn rim of the disc. But if the wheel wobbles you have the answer.

knackered rear bearings will only show wobbling when they are absolutely ****ed.

they start by making a dull whirring noise, then the noise gets worse, then it starts showing play. none of the wheelbearings i have ever done on any car had shown any play before i replaced them.

And - 3x out of 4 you'll change the wrong wheel bearing. It can sometimes be really hard to work out which bearing is failing.

Is it best to replace bearings in pairs? I.e. both rear bearings? I've only ordered one at the mo but i'm considering waiting til pay day to do a full make over on back end - bearings, discs, pads and new koni dampers but the grinding noise is driving me mad so I might just go for the bearing straight away and that will allow me to fully inspect state of the brakes as well and then decide from there but I'd rather get majority of it all done around same time then it should all last equally as long.

It's nearly impossible to determin which one makes the noise. I did the one I suspected the most (left) first (in the rain) and went for a testdrive.
The car was pretty silent untill I went about 80 Km/h. When it started to rain again mad I did the other side. I think it has never been this quiet since I bought it So despite the rain all in all I'm pretty happy.
For the price I paid (€ 55 delivered for two bearings) I didn't take the risk and did them both.

gr J

Yeah basics first then look at dampers.

Well trying to crack on with that wheel bearing and got stuck at first hurdle, can't get the dust cap off for love nor money, tried everything!! Any tips??

Mrarteest said:

Well trying to crack on with that wheel bearing and got stuck at first hurdle, can't get the dust cap off for love nor money, tried everything!! Any tips??

Click to expand...

I just used a hammer and an old chisel...there should be a new dust cap with the new wheel bearing so doesn't matter if you smash the dust cap to bits

Sharp ended medium flat screwdriver. Tap it into the groove agains wheel hub and twist. Repeat at opposite side. Gradually ease it off.

You will need a proper breaker bar and heavy duty socket for moving the hub centre nut. Cheap sockets will crack if not 100% aligned.

DAMHIK

So just to update: turned out it wasn't the wheel bearing (yet). Took everything apart, well loosened it all off, apart from the brake caliper because the 8mm hex key i have was never gunna budge such rotten rusted bolts and it was too late to pop and get an 8mm hex socket which is what I should have had in 1st place.

Anyway, copper greased the pads, reassembled everything and the noise has gone. Can only assume it was brakes binding.

I did learn in the process that my rear dampers are knackered (the top bush where the bolt goes through is just a big gaping hole so the hole thing just knocks about freely as it pleases) so it's time I replaced them I think ... struggling to find any decent specific 100hp rear dampers online though, all the koni str.t's say excl. 100hp??

You may well find they are Torx head fasteners. Get yourself a Hex/Torx kit.

It's not going to suit a full time mechanic but does the job for DIY
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40-piece-...270278?hash=item3ab769d806:g:mogAAOSwnipWVXdJ

If the rhyl nearing becomes and issue and (probably won't) its the same back end brakes etc as the Punto Mk2 HGT (very likely) you will need an F-OFF breaker bar to shift the bearing centre nuts. The tightening torque is something monstrous.