blan

Hi guys,
I'm new here. We are the proud owners of a used 8th gen 2006 Civic LX. The wheel bearing(s) was making alot of noise on the front drivers side when I bought it. I ordered the only front wheel bearing that was listed at Advance Auto and today when I took it apart I realized that there are actually two different types of bearings in the hub...one inner sealed bearing (which has alot of play) and the other is a two race/caged bearing design (almost like a trailer hub). It's impossible to make any assessment on the condition of the outer caged bearing because you have to take it apart just to see it. The bearing they sell at the auto parts stores are the inner sealed bearing and there's no mention anywhere about the outer hub bearing....even on the Honda OEM sites that I visited.

So, my question is, are people changing both bearings (and races) while they are in there or does the outer bearing rarely have wear issues? The seal seems hard to come across. I'm temped to repack the outer bearing with grease and replace only the inner sealed bearing.

At this point, the inner bearing (bad) and race (looks decent) are still in the hub (because I don't want to damage them but everything else was removed pretty easily with a slide hammer puller. I think the inner race has to come out to remove the inner bearing because it looks like a fixed lip on the inner side of the hub that the sealed bearing rests against. Please tell me if I'm wrong. Anyone changing those outer hub bearings??

Thanks in advance for the info.

m_shake

I am on beyond confused....on hondas, when you press the hub out of the bearing, one of the races stays on the hub and must be removed to install new bearing. hopes this helps

blan

That was my suspicion all along. That's what it looks like to me but the real question is do techs commonly change the races and outer bearing? It's kind of tough to know if it's bad or not once the inner spindle has been removed. The races look alright. I can tell there is alot of sloppy play in the inner sealed bearing so I know it's bad.

I read somewhere that there was a TSB about front wheel bearings going bad because water is seeping down into the bearing through the speed sensor.

Which part of my post was confusing...I tried my best to be descript?

Thanks for the confirmation that the race has to be removed.

m_shake

Yes, they always cut off the old race to replace the whole bearing

blan

I wanted to come back to clarify my post. You're right (of course) that there is only one large front wheel bearing. Within that one large bearing is two seperate bearings. Mine had split so perfectly in half that it looked like there were two seperate bearings but the outer starts to look more like a "caged" trailer bearing after it splits. Now I understand your reply alot better. It wasn't until I had the correct part in hand that I could see what exactly had happened. I was originally sold a rear wheel bearing which is completely different so I had nothing to compare it to. Now I know why you were confused when I said there were "two bearings" when really it is one huge bearing (with an inner and outer bearing within it).

I just wanted to come back to say thanks and explain myself in case others see the same wierd split that happened to me. It's confusing if you haven't seen that before but I guess it's pretty common. Live and learn I guess. It's changed out now and works great.
Thanks