Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Suspension Front wheel bearing replacement

I took the plunge and ordered a set of front wheel bearings and front lower control arms. Over the weekend I had the knuckles out of vehicle ready for the machine shop. It took about 4 hours that included a trip to Murrays to rent some tools.

It would have taken shorter had I known a few tricks. Here are my lessons learned/tricks for your benefit.

1. Buy 2 control arm bushing bolts/nuts. You will be cutting two of them to remove from car.
2. Do not attempt to separate the knuckle from control arm on vehicle. It's a whole lot easier to take them out together and separate them off of car.
3. Rent the following tools, you will need them: hub nut sockets( 32mm socket needed for Contour )and hub puller.
4. PB Blaster before you begine.
5. Wear dust masks as there are a lot of brake dust and road grime when working on the suspension.
6. Buy a set of stabilizer bar end links. It's hard to tell while installed but once off car you can tell they are worn.

Some cost estimates:
Parts: lower control arms $35/ea (two vertical busing type)
control arm bolts/nuts $8/ea set
wheel bearings $33/each
stabilizer bar end links $20/ea
bearing pressing at machine shop $40/side
metal cutting blade for my sawzall $3

The front lower control arms needs to be replaced because the bushings go bad. It's a known issue and the bushings are not replaceable by themselves.

When the bushings go bad you know it by the slight wandering in steering, looseness over small bumps and shake when braking. What happens the rubber material separates from the metal parts. It's hard to tell on vehicle but off of the vehicle you can see the separation.

When replacing the bearings, it's very small additional work to replace the arms and they are only $35/ea, so I did it. My Contour has 90K miles btw.

Addendum to original instruction:
During removal loosen strut top mount nut 5 turns then follow this sequence:
take off tie rod -> sway bar end link -> lower arm bolts -> press half shalft from knuckle -> knuckle from strut and off of car, knuckle from lower arm

During installation, install new arms first in vehicle. Then follow the following sequence:
Knuckle -> half shaft -> strut -> lower arm -> tie rod and end link.

New bearings are in, new lower arms are in. What bliss to be without the hum/roar of the faulty bearings. And the ride improved over bumps and exit ramps.

Took a look at the bearings that machine shop pressed out of the knuckles. Both were shot, and turning by hand the grittiness was very evident.

It's strange, like walking into anechoic chamber to be without the constant noise of the bad bearings. It's doable repair at home( I did it ) and worth the investment.

One other thing, the driver side control arm front bushing bolt will be installed upside down( nut on top, bolt head on the bottom ) the excess thread of the bolt will need to be cut off. It may hit the transmission otherwise. Again, with sawzall and metal blade, it's 1 minute operation.

how many bearings do our cars have

one for each knuckle?

Yes. Actually they just put wheel bearings randomly on cars.

I thought that there were two bearings on the front passenger and front driver sides totalling four just for the front.

You are right and so is others who said one bearing per side. You see the bearing units contain two separate bearings in one big housing. One of the sub units will be detroyed when pressing the bearing module out of the each knuckle.

Where did you get the control arms for $33 each?