I've got what I can only assume is a bad wheel bearing in the front left on my '97 Civic Sedan. This has been an issue since last summer and I bought a bearing back then thinking I would get to it, but I haven't yet. I recently have noticed that it has gotten much louder and more annoying. If I don't get this taken care of ASAP, what's the worse that could happen? Wheel falls off or what?

 

Pretty much the wheel could come off. I would definitely recommend replacing it soon... if you got a wheel hub assembly it's extremely straightforward to replace it.

Off topic, but is that an R1? I've been looking at your avi for like 5 minutes trying to figure it out lol

 

I kinda figured that was what I was going to hear. I don't have a slide hammer, or any experience taking the wheel assembly apart (aside from doing the brakes). To make matters worse, money has gotten extremely tight so I can't afford to bring it in. Grrr.... I only need one kidney, right?

That's my old '03 R6, actually. That pic is about a week after I finished up my last upgrade before I binned it into a turn at 55mph, totalling it. I just miss it so much that I haven't changed the pic.

 

Ahhh... I was trying to figure out if it was a 6 or a liter-bike. I feel you on missing it, though... selling my CBR was, hands down, the biggest mistake I've made to date.

Anyway, did you get the wheel bearing by itself or did you get the hub assembly?

 

I hear ya, man. Worst mistake I ever made was not using the insurance money to buy a new bike. I paid off the loan, had kids, haven't been on two wheels since. I will ride again...eventually.

I bought just the bearing, by itself, banking on that being the problem.

 

Yeah, unfortunately you'll need a slide hammer to pull the bearing out =/

And hopefully I'll be back on two wheels next spring. We'll see how things go financially though.

 

Yeah, wheel bearings are a little tough to do by themselves. My local shop guy does good work for cheap and even he charges $300 a side for wheel bearings.

Cheapest route is probably to look for a lower mileage wrecked 96-00 Civic and snag the whole hub off it. Swap hubs (it's easy if you have the tools, harder if you don't but it IS doable). Get a copy of the service manual from www.hondatech.info and start reading. You'll find that there's a LOT of stuff you thought was hard to do that's actually easy if you have the instructions.

 

Thanks for the help, dude. You know, my insurance company actually docked me for having too many miles on the bike when I wrecked it, lol. 10K miles in just over a year (in Minnesota) I guess means I like riding too much.

 

Just to give you an idea, me and a buddy did 2 front wheel bearings on a 97 in about 6 hrs. We had a press available to us, but once the bearing was pressed out of the knuckle, we had to cut the bearing off the inner hub... which is what took so long. If you know someone with a press, or know someone who works at a machine shop then your best bet is to strip everything off the knuckle, take it over to get the old bearing pressed out and the new one pressed in. You will pay a bit for that but probably save yourself quite a bundle taking everything apart yourself!

 

Now if only I had access to a very good how-to, with pics. This seems like a dicey job and I really don't want to mess it up as I rely heavily on my car.