Above is a picture of the issue I have run into after replacing my wheel bearing. The rotor seems to be rubbing on the caliper resulting in a grinding noise and scoring itself when put into drive or reverse. I checked my brake pads and caliper bolts and everything seems to be tightened and in correct position. I followed the DIY in the FAQs, torqued everything to spec, and I had my bearings pressed at a local shop. Has anyone ran into the same issue? Can this be a problem with the wheel bearing being pressed incorrectly or an alignment problem? I really need your help guys. Thanks.

 

If the axle nut is tightened correctly then you probably didn't press the hub all the way.By any chance,did you wacked the caliper bracked by mistake with a hummer?Did you tighten the caliper bracket?

 

It could be a bad hub or bearing isn't pressed right

 

You know what... now that I think about it I never checked the caliper bracket bolts because I removed the whole caliper by removing the two bolts that connect to the knuckle. Is it possible the vibrations from the bad wheel bearing loosened the caliper bracket bolts? I'll check the bracket tomorrow and keep you posted. Thanks.

 

The only thing I can think of is that the wheel bearing is too thin, or they didn't press it all the way into the knuckle. There should be a retaining ring that prevents them from not pressing it all the way in unless they didn't re-install it.

 

Okay well I checked all my caliper bolts and they were all tightened, but I did notice something after comparing the side I took to get pressed and the side that hasn't been removed. Not only does the rotor look crooked, there seems to be too much space between the rotor and shield. The bearing had to be pressed incorrectly right?

 

remind me to reply to this, I have to go to class but I can help you out. kinda in a rush.

 

Reply to this.

I would compare left and right side. I'm surprised you even got the caliper back on.

 

I get it now....the hub wasn't pressed all the way into the wheel bearing, or it came out a bit. I kept thinking it was rubbing the inside of the spokes on the rim.

 

cant really tell from the photos but the caliper position is on the knuckle. so if the bearing wasnt pulled all the way in with the axle nut, it could be out too far. take it out, see if you have gap. and look behind the knuckle where the ABS ring is to see if it sits flush inside the knuckle against the bearing.

 

I went ahead and removed everything again and took some photos to see if it was possible to tell if the bearing wasn't pressed correctly. Is it pretty obvious?

 

take a photo of the back of the kunckle. where the teeth are, that area. same amount of distance as you just did those two photos.

 

is that close enough? or do you need a better pic?

 

Well guys I'm pretty stumped on this project. Took my spindle to another shop and had it pressed again but ran into the same problem again. I observed that as I tighten the brake caliper bolts on the knuckle the rotor gets closer to the brake caliper and results in them making contact again. What's going on? Can it be that it was pressed incorrectly once again? I need your help guys because I'm hitching rides and its getting really frustrating.

 

Check the heat shield, if they don't setup the press properly they can bend it, happened to me a couple months back on my EM2. It sounded exactly like a brake grind only it was constant.

Mine was rubbing in the middle where the heat shield attaches to the knuckle. I had to do some bending and got it fixed, it's not perfect but it'll do.

Er just saw the first pic of the rotor, something is not right, it shouldn't grind like that if there's meat left on the brake pad. Something metal is rubbing against the outside of the rotor, how do the pads look?

If you don't use the rotor retainer screws the rotor will move around a lot until you get the tire on.

 

There seems to be nothing wrong with the heat shield. The brake pads have plenty of meat but as I tighten the caliper bolts the rotor gets closer to the bracket and eventually makes contact. When I purchased the vehicle the rotor retaining screws were removed so I just used lug nuts to hold it in place when putting everything back together. I'm not too familiar with the process of replacing wheel bearings but is pressing the wheel bearing and wheel hub two seperate jobs? Should I take it back and ask them to press the hub in more or is it something with the bearing again?

 

Yeah it's a two step process, press the wheel bearing in, then press the hub. I noticed the mechanic grinding on my hub, I assume to get it to fit in the new bearing. It sounds like its the same problem as before, the hub just isn't in all the way. Is there a big drop from the wheel bearing to the hub when you're looking at it from the back? I seem to recall the hub being almost flush with the wheel bearing on mine, I could be wrong though.

Did you get a new bearing when you had it re-pressed or use the old one? What brand did you use?

 

the hub (inner part) isnt pressed into the inner race of the bearing far enough. the hub should be almost flush with the inner race. since there is like 1/8 of an inch clearance with the caliper bracket to the rotor, that little bit makes a difference, if it wot go any further, the bearing is too thick and is the wrong one, however, if the shop re-installed the retainer, that is not the case. can you take another pic of the back side so i can see how close the hub is from being flush?

 

the race bearing looks a tiny bit too far in, from behind, so its too far towards the out of the car

I think the hub and the race bearing have to go back towards the car more.

or it could be the wrong bearing

 

I took it back to the shop this morning and asked them to make sure it was pressed correctly. They pressed it again and said that's all it would go without smashing the bearing. Put it back on once again and still no progress. I've taken it to two different shops already and purchased two new bearings, what the hell is going on? Should I replace the hub as well? I'll post a few recent pics in a bit.

 

Here are the photos after a new wheel bearing was installed a second time by a different shop. Looks like a better job done than the first shop, but as you can see it's still scraping. New hub? Warped rotors? What can it be?

 

iono maybe change the pads? -__- im stumped too. I've been keeping up on this thread and reading other forums about this problem and still haven't figured it out... sorry to hear =\

 

I can't tell if it's the photo making it weird or what but is the inner ring of the wheel bearing like half flush and half out with the outer ring? That inner ring is supposed to come up a bit.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...l/S5002608.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...l/S5002609.jpg


There are some good pics on how the back of the knuckle should look.

Have you figured out what it's grinding against? Look at the caliper/caliper bracket, there should be a score mark where it's grinding.

 

yup agree with this!

 

So the ring that the red arrow is pointing to should come out a little more then the one the blue arrow is pointing to? If so, I don't think it is. I think it sits flush with the outer ring. I'll take the spindle back off again and tell them that. Is there a special adapter they would need for the press or something?