changing a front wheel bearing

Ok I have a 2012 awd manual deisel Antara with classic drone wheel bearing noise that was difficult to assign to a side . Gets louder wth speed ,uneffected by brakeing gear change some variation on sweeping bend.

So I took my best guess ( 70 - 30 best guess no play in either side) and got a new bearing knowing i will probably end up doing both but what can I say i am an optamist.

So after some trial and error here is what worked best for me
.
Remove wheel

Get someone to apply brake and loosen hub nut. -These can be tight and shafts can get stuck corroded in but not in my Antara. The assembly seems well put together and was rust free anfter 9 years use.

Disconect ABS conector- very straight forward and accessable but do it now so you dont forget.

Remove brake caliper leaving pipe attached - Tie this whole assembly to spring out of way with pipe still attached. I just took the 2 calliper mounting bolt off and used a big screwdriver to ease it off . no need to take it to bits.

Disconect Track rod - One nut and a tap but beware, clean threads carefully before you start and give it a good spray of your favourite magic oil. If you rush it nut get stuck half on half off and the whole thing turns.I know these things have two flats or some sort of alan key so you hold bolt and turn nut but in my experience they rareley work. Dont panic too much if it all goes wrong you can grind off nut and replace track rod end for less than 20 quid.

Make sure shaft is loose in the hub- Do it now while all is still held firm and dont damage shaft. MIne came off easy just tapped the big nut. It wont come out yet but should move back and too.

Undo 2 x 21mm bolts that hold strut to hub Knuckle , These are tight but very eay to get too.Udo nut not bolt there is a spline on bolt end to hold it (like a wheel stud)

Pull hub away from strut while removing shaft. - The lower ball joint will allow this and support the whole thing. A bit of wiggling and pulling but there is room to get drive shaft out of hub leaving it attached to the car

Seperate lower ball joint - Now it is easy to get at the nut you can drop a socket and rattle gun on it from here. Before you seperate the whole hub and bearing assembley you have free the ball joint with a splitter, Mine was a pig! When you put steel fittings in an alloy cast they tend to oxidise and sieze in place. Go slow and dont panic. After comming close to danaging the ball joint soaked it in easing oil. You can create a little pool on top of the nut. I went for a brew and when I came back Tap and off it came.

Take the whole assembly to vice and remove Bearing- Now the fun starts. Hopefully you are now stood up with good light and access. Take out 3 bolts and support bracket so you can knock the bearing out (i have a nice big vice) soak in Some easing oil then its hammer time! Again alloy with steel fittings stuck in what could go wrong? Mine came loose with tree good hits from a small sledge hammer .
Now reassemble If you got this far this is a breeze.Torque and threadlock as you go

Now noise is still there! but a bit less and bearing looks ok I have ordered another bearing.and will take pics when i do the other side and let you know if it sort it out.Not too worried I have had this before on other cars over the years. Somtimes its difficult to say wich side or both have gone (they are usualy same age so not impossible) and a bearing can look ok but make a row at 50+ mph. Hope this helps somone

Jack car
Wheel off
Get someone to put foot on brake and then remove drive shift nut.
If doing right hand wheel turn steering to the right
Unbolt the 2 main bolts on caliper and tie it to the spring
Remove disk
Unclip abs sensor
Push the hub of the drive shaft back as far as it will go
Remove the 3 nuts for the hub holding the bearing and a s sensor
Hammer and cold chisel to remove hub from wishbone.
Chuck the whole thing in the bucket
Hopefully you would have bought a new one with the abs sensor for 40£ on ebay.
Put it all back together, (new one fits in without any force)
Plug in obd2 to reset the new abs sensor
Takes less than an hour and works perfect

Just thought I'd add to this having changed one myself on a 2012 4x4 yesterday following the advice on here, what an absolute swine to do. Worst wheel bearing I've ever changed. Found it impossible to remove the hub and bearing from the hub carrier whilst still on the car, no amount of chiseling or lump hammers would shift it. So removed the entire hub assembly from the car with the lower arm still attached as couldn't split the lower ball joint. Then had the fun of getting the hub / bearing assembly out of the carrier. I have a 12 tonne bearing press which was incredibly difficult to get lined up with the awkward shape of the parts and then found it wouldn't press out. So as a member stated above took to the vice and sledge hammer approach and it did eventually come out when I thought I was going to crack the hub carrier I had to hit it that hard. I guess this could well of been the original bearing on the car so was well seized in, others may not have the same experience when changing one. I'd advise people to really know what they're doing before attempting it. I lost the best part of a day doing it and wish I'd just paid a garage to do it.