I have not really posted on here much at all, more lurking and learning, so bear with me.

I made a terrible mistake last week. I've been really stuck for time with my work commitments so I put the XKR into my local (trusted) garage for service. I was going to put it into the local independent Jag specialist but when I rang them and asked for a service and wheel alignment check the guy said "we don't do wheel alignment". I'd have thought with all the grief Jag owners have that every Jag garage would do 4 wheel alignment, so I didn't go there. Anyway I put it into the local garage for service and wheel alignment plus full valet as I was feeling generous to the wife. What I got back was an oil and filter change and a wash but got charged for a major service (I got an oil and filter change, the car has K&N filter and Iridium plugs...) full valet (for £75+vat) that did not even clean the the glass, no alignment at all as the guy forgot to sort it, and a note to say a front wheel bearing was worn. I paid £485 to have an oil and filter change plus a set of rear brake pads. I've never felt so fleeced in my life.

I was quoted over £250 for the labour to change the front wheel bearing so told them to forget it, I would do it myself.

I must thank all on the internet and Jaguar Forums for the info they post, hence I hope this message will give a bit back.

First step was to research how to change the front wheel bearings. The bearings are cheap, about £30 each, so it is hard to justify nearly 10x that in labour to change one. Seems okay to do it yourself from searching on the net but lots of comments about how tight the ABS nut is to get off.

The Jag socket to get the net off is about £150, but Laser do a copy for about £40, but I called laser and they said they are totally sold out for around 2 months. Okay, in that case I'll just make one. The next thing is how to hold the hub as if the nut is reputably 330Nm then you need to hold the hub well. I figured if I put the hub in the vice then I'll just rip the vice off the bench so I needed to fix it to my 4 tonne milling machine somehow.

First I took the upright off the car. No problem here, just slacken the top ball joint, bottom ball joint, track rod end, remove brake caliper, disconnect ABS wire, then liberally apply 3lb hammer to shock off the tapers. 10 min job provided you've wire brushed off and oiled the ball joint threads first.

Next take an 8mm or thicker steel plate, 6" by about 18" & mill out a centre hole and 5 stud holes on a PCD so you can bolt the hub to it through the wheel studs. I drilled a hole in each corner of this plate so I could bolt it to my milling machine bed with 4x 1/2" studs.

Next take some 8mm x 4" wide plate about 18" long and mill a dia (34mm?) hole in the centre to go over the inside end of the wheel hub, and mill 12x 9mm dia slots, 4mm deep, to fit over the 12 raised areas of the ABS nut. You obviously need to wire brush off the ABS nut so the spanner fits well.

Now bolt the hub to the plate using the 5 wheel studs/nuts, bolt that plate to something solid, and put your spanner on the ABS nut. You need to stop the spanner riding up off the ABS nut so I used the spindle of the milling machine and locked it to stop the spanner slipping off. Now when people say these are tight, they mean it. I tried with the 18" handle on the spanner, no chance. I then used a 4 foot long kart axle, no chance. I then used a 6 foot length of 80mm box section and with all 75kg of me behind it I got it loose.

Once off you need to press the centre hub out which is easily done, but the circlips were well rusted in. You need to hit/shock the circlip in the axle axis direction to loosen it, then you can use a big pair of circlip pliers to get one end out and work your way round with a screwdriver from there. You will probably knacker the circlips so when you order new wheel bearings do yourself a favour and order an ABS locking pin/spring thingy and 2x circlips at the same time.

With the circlips out I had to use 15 tonnes of my 20 tonne press to get the bearing out of the hub so have a decent press handy for this job.

Installation is easy, just clean it all up and it goes back together in about 30 mins from starting to having the car driveable. The torque setting for the ABS nut is "f-tight", ie use the same 6 foot bar you used to get it off. Attached should be some pics of the tooling and setup I used to get the ABS nut off, if you have access to a milling machine it is a simple job and can save you a fortune. Hope you find this useful, it would have cost me £300+ for a dealer to do this but in the end it cost some scraps of steel, £45 delivered for bearing and circlips, and a couple of hours of my time.

Just a note that in the pic 6/6 the long box section steel sticking out from the milling machine is the one I finally used to get the ABS nut off and to tighten it back up. Man tools......

Cheers,
Rich

 

Great write-up.

An Australian member came up with a similar approach for his XJ8 a couple of years ago but the 'steel plate tool' wasn't such a tidy job.

I know which door to knock on when my bearings need doing.

Graham

 

Ah yes, you cannot be far from me. Well the tools are here if you want to borrow them.

Sory about the poor pic quality I had the camera settings wrong on my phone and had not realised until I downloaded them to my computer.

It is jobs like this where the labour costs 10x the parts, and the tooling costs more than the parts too, that stop people buying these cars but I hope sharing this info will help others save some money and do the work themselves.

Now the wheels are not wobbling about I'm off outside to do a 4 wheel alignment using a £30 digitial spirit level, 4 axle stands and a ball of string!

Cheers,
Rich

 

Trump that?

I ended up cutting off my abs nuts, and bought some second hand ones.

Took the hubs plus new bearings and circlips to a garage that normally services trucks, I guessed they would be used to tricky jobs.

I went back a week later to pick up the hubs and they said no charge, I ended up forcing £25 beer money into they guys hands.

 

That's great work! I'm going to have to take mine to a garage, as I just don't have those sort of tools in my workshop :-/
I'll ring for a price tomorrow!

 

I just spend $1,300 USD to replace both front bearings, so I'm a little jealous of your post!

 

I was quoted £260 for a front bearing today, which doesn't seem too bad considering how much effort it looks to change one.

 

Diablo.....Superb post, excellent write up thanks for sharing.

In all probability should be in the "How to" section, we must get it added.

Thanks

 

Don't you just love wheel bearings, I have done too many to count, always nice when you get an easy one, I have my vice bolted to a 2 foot 1/4 inch thick and 8 inch wide metal plate which is then let into my bench...... Had enough of keep having to refit it!

 

Glad to see the original post is still of interest. Changing the wheel bearings is not a long job, but you do need the right tools. You can do it in less than an hour start to finish as really there are only the 5 wheel nuts, top/bottom/steering nuts, 2x caliper bolts, the ABS sensor and the 3 backplate screws. It took me a further hour to make the tooling but of course I've got it now, and Laser have probably got stock back in for their £40 socket which I would have bought had it been available.

Cheers,
Rich

 

I have had one bearing take me 5 hours, I ended up removing the upright with the lower wishbone attached and the top wishbone removed via an angle grinder...... The ball joints were siezed the top fulcrum pin was seized, everything was a PITA...... I ended up replacing the lot with the help of my breaker....... Sometimes things do not go to plan, which is in fact a normal day!

 

Rich, the tool you made for the abs nut is much better than the laser one which is designed for a 1/2 inch breaker bar.

The problem with that is that the torque needed to get the nut off is greater than a 1/2 inch bar can take.

Laser should have designed it for a 3/4 inch bar.

If you made up a few of these I am sure there would be interest here/ebay etc.

This 1/2 inch breaker bar bent and then sheared off. The hub studs went through the bench the had the nuts tightened to hold it in place.

 

Ah, I thought the laser socket was 3/4" drive. I wouldn't want to put 330Nm through a half inch bar! Using a flat plate is better as you have a much larger moment of area to take the stress. Rather than putting it through very close to the axis you move the load path to the largest possible radius and that means much lower forces in the tool.

I'd never throught of making tooling, I'm an engineering consultant and probably make more doing that than selling machined bits of sheet plate. My other concern is letting members of the public (as frequent fleabay) loose on tooling and knacking themselves by using it incorrectly. I don't want the lawyers calling me saying it was my fault their client was stupid and trying to sue me. Not worth going there for what might amount to a grands worth of sales in a lifetime.

Cheers,
Rich

 

Which is why you have product liability insurance... Costs me a small fortune but you have to have it....

I have one of the laser tools as a backup, however I fitted a 3/4 to 1/2 reducer and welded it on, it has not let me done yet.....