Very nice! I'm needing to do this soon myself.

 

Good pics and walkthrough. Wish I owned a press.

 

Great write up.

Where did you get the endlinks from? Were thay 16 ea or for the pair?

 

Endlinks were $16 each, bearings $32 each. Got both items from a local car parts wholesaler. Not sure how they compare to the Moog that alot of guys use, but were readily available to me from local vendor.

 

Great write up.. sticky nomination...

 

Sticky'd [thumb]

 

All I have to say is THANK YOU! I have to do my drivers side and was a little confused on doing it. But this will help a lot!
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Wow...how did you EVER get your Strut Pinch Bolt loose? Looks like you managed it with a 3/8" ratchet with a 15mm socket...I'm on my way out to Sears to buy a 15mm 1/2 drive socket and a 18" breaker bar! I've tried WD-40, PB Blaster, Heat, hammer, and just wow...it won't budge. I figure we will see how it holds up against the laws of Physics!!

Otherwise a GREAT write up so far! Despite your warning I'm doing this in my drive way with the help of a local shop (who is going to press the actual bearings for me)! Hopefully if I can liberate this bolt I will be back on track!

Breaker Bar and Socket worked, bolt is loose! I still can't get the lower control arm to pop out OR get the rotor to come off (I feel really stupid, but the thing won't BUDGE!)

 

Breaker Bar and Socket worked, bolt is loose! I still can't get the lower control arm to pop out OR get the rotor to come off (I feel really stupid, but the thing won't BUDGE!)

Do you have the bolt out of the knuckle? The ball joint end that inserts into the knuckle has a groove that the pinch bolt goes through, so the ball joint won't come out unless bolt is out of knucle.

A prybar carefully positioned between the knuckle and LCA will pop the ball joint out of the knuckle. Remember with the LCA bushings it is always tensioned up. Careful to not damage the dust boot on the ball joint.

 

For the control arm, tie a bar to the control arm using a chain wrapped around both. Get it good an snug then just stomp on the bar. I think I got that out of the Haynes manual.

 

And the rotor is probably rust welded to the flange. A wack with a DB hammer should free it up.

 

I had the bolt out of the knuckle, it was just a bit stuck. I free'd it with a 4lb rubber mallet giving the arm a few taps.

Thanks again SOOO much for this write up, I have the hub assembly sitting on my table out back right now waitin' to be taken to the shop tomorrow to get new bearings pressed in!

As for the Rotor: An hour of whacking it with a hammer and half a can of PB Blaster did the trick!

 

Well now that the job is 95% finished I thought I'd throw some additional info on here! Here are all the torque specs for reassembly!

Strut Tower Pinch Bolt - 66 ft/lbs
Lower Control Arm Pinch- 37 ft/lbs
Tie Rod End - 35 ft/lbs
Sway Bar Links (optional) 37 ft/lbs
Axel Nut - 214 ft/lbs

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks for adding the torque specs! Glad the info helped!

 

Great write up! I'm picking up a new bearing from the dealer after work, $48 with my discount. I have access to all-data (motor on-line) at work and the procedures for the knuckle then bearing is 14 pages and requires 9 special tools! Haha. I knew this was way off so I came here.
Both of my front coil springs broke (just after the 150k warr ran out, I have Oasis as well), I checked alldata and it was showing to be overly complicated as well but turned out to be the easiest struts I've ever replaced.

 

Just finished doing this one today. Thanks for the writeup. In my case, I also found out that a CV joint had gone bad, so I replaced the axle at the same time. Some tips..

Soak the LCA pinch bolt with Kroil or PB blaster and let it sit before removing

Remove the LCA bolt BEFORE the strut pinch bolt. Once the bolt is out, use a prybar to carefully pop the LCA from the knuckle. This took more time than anything.

Put the new wheel bearing in the freezer overnight to shrink it. It just slid into the knuckle in my case.

Check your wheel hub for straightness using a dial indicator before removal. I suspected mine was slightly bent when i noticed that the inboard brake pad wore at an angle and I had developed a pulsing brake pedal. Sure enough, warped rotor and bent wheel hub face.

So, for me, it was

new axle assembly
new wheel hub and bearing
new brake rotor
new brake pads

 

About to do this. Have a question: do I need just the bearings? On RockAuto I see where they sell the bearing but there is no mention if the ring or anything else comes with it. Amazon sells a kit that includes the hub which I don't believe I need to change. Thanks.

 

You might get lucky, but some folks struggle to get the race separated from the old hub. Some hubs are molded fatter than other's, making it impossible to grab the race lip with a puller. This leads to cutting and grinding headaches. If the hub is bent or the spline is damaged or worn, new is obviously better. The kit with hub costs $20 more but it simplifies the job, reducing uncertainty and manhrs in all cases. I'd rather not find out I need a hub after teardown then have to pay top dollar for one at a dealer. If you are in the rust belt with 5+yo Focus, good luck removing the strut pinch bolts and figure on a dealer visit to buy new ones.

 

Your best bet for bearings would be the old reliable, Timken brand. Ford is OK too, but more costly. Either lasts at least 75K to 100K mi. Anything else is a potshoot. Lots of horror stories about Autozone and various reboxed Asian generics that last 3-6 months. Some kits with hubs are cheap as $50/pair but I could care less about the parts warranty or saving more money....don't want to do this job twice a year lol. Ebay has the complete genuine Timken kits with hub and circlip for about $55 or the Timken bearing alone for about $35. A dealer even with 30% discount will be a lot more and it's likely the same OE mfr. For example, I recently bought Timken bearings for my Chrysler minivan and they had the factory pentastar and Chrysler part# on them.

 

Great info & pics! I'm subscribing... mine are due soon! Rep'd!

 

Timken part number for the whole kit which includes the flange is HA590263K. I ordered them from rock auto for just under $50/ea. Over here, a bearing by itself would have cost me $60-70. The Timken kit is high quality as one would expect. I did a lot of internet research before I finally confirmed that Euro- and US-spec cars use the same bearings.

 

I tried to provide the mfr name for the bearing sold by Timken, but the forum thinks it's a slur. It is the german bearing mfr F-A-G who supplies BMW with all their wheel bearings. The are good quality, but I must say BMW wheel bearings are nothing to brag about. They always seem to go bad in under 100K mi , but maybe that's to be expected when you're turning higher G corners all the time.

 

can anyone recommend a cheap drift of the proper diameter to press against the outer race of the new bearing to press it in the hub? I noticed the biggest metric socket in my 3/4" drive socket set is a bit too small.

The bearing outer race surface is quite thin, so the OD of this drift must about 2.7 to 2.8 inches. If you use the old bearing outer race as the drift to press the new bearing in, it may get stuck in the hub. I guess you could get it out with some fiddling, since it'd only go in as deep as the circlip groove. Maybe I'll just grind the OD of the old bearing down a bit with grinding wheel so it doesn't have interference fit.

 

Lscman - go ahead & use the old bearing shell as a drift, it's a common procedure to get exactly the right size.

Wouldn't grind it down any, since you want that outside area to do most of the work.

Not hard to remove when 'stuck" after pressing, so little is in the "hole" that a light sideways tap is all that's needed to release it.

Luck!

 

will do, thanks

 

Cool write up! I remember doing this to a customers Focus a while ago at work. You're right about that rust belt thing. I had to get a couple grade 8 bolts to replace the BJ pinch bolts on the LCA. :/ I'm gonna send a link of this over to my buddy, who's struggling with is but refuses to let me help... lol.

 

I used the original bearing as a drift to press the new bearing OD shell into the spindle. The hole in the spindle is not press fit sized on the inboard side of the retaining circlip. It is larger than necessary so the drift does not get stuck at all.

Also I'd like to state that my 2007 bearing and hub were easily pressed out with my $120 10 ton hydraulic press. I'm sure some folks with 10yr old rusted cars may need a 15 or 20 ton press, but mine was not the least bit rusty on the od or id of the bearing shell. This, despite running the car every winter on salted roads.

 

I noticed that aftermarket bearings for '00-'07 Ford Focus come with end seals in varying colors. Also I noticed that Ford sells two front bearings, one for ABS cars and one for no ABS. Aftermarket bearings don't specify ABS or not, so I am guessing they are all ABS-ready. However that might not be true!

The Timken bearings come with a red seal on one side and black on the other side. TCZX3's fine write-up for an ABS car shows black seal inward toward the circlip. This worked for him so the orientation was obviously correct, but unfortunately, there is no mention of the bearing manufacturer used.

I sure hope the rule of thumb that "the black seal points inward, toward the transmission halfshaft, circlip and ABS sensor" is true for Timken!! The bearing manufacturers don't seem to provide this information, so it's a bit of a potshoot.