Watch the replacement dust covers. 3 of the 4 I’ve seen have hung over the edge of the hub due to an non-concentric edge trim and actually physically interfered with the centerbore of the hub centric our wheels. A little belt sander work fixes that up quick if you do it before you install the dust cap.
front wheel bearing
ilateapex
#22
I replaced a front bearing before the last race weekend. The bearing just slid off by hand and the new one slid on. I reused dust shield and nut. No problems. I am sure they are the same nut and dust shield that the car came with that I reused when I first built the car.
Michael
kishg
#23
ilateapex wrote:
[quote]I replaced a front bearing before the last race weekend. The bearing just slid off by hand and the new one slid on. I
[/quote]
lucky! go buy a powerball ticket 
King_Tut
#24
Pelican Parts always has everything in stock. It just sucks they are in Cali and we are in Florida.
http://www.pelicanparts.com/BMW/catalog/shopcart/BE30/POR_BE30_SUSaxl_pg2.htm
49 in stock wheel bearing $135
28 in stock axle nut $5
24 in stock dust cover $3
mahoneyj
#25
The dust covers often get bent when removed. Better safe then sorry for 3 bucks.
If the nut is installed correctly the nut should be deformed into the notch on the stub like Ranger mentioned earlier. So when you remove it that part of the nut is toast. When you reuse the nut there may be nothing to re-deform into the stub if torqued the same.
That deformation is the mechanical lock to keep the nut on the car. Not worth taking a chance on loosing that nut and all hell will break loose if you do.
If you are on the east coast and in the Philly area www.bimmerparts.com has all the parts you need and ships fast. Chis at bimmerparts knows his stuff and wont send the wrong parts.
FishMan
#28
Good tip on sanding the dust covers! I replaced bearings recently and had the same problem with the covers. A dremel does the job as well…
BigKeyserSoze
#30
I am going to answer a few of my own questions here for those doing this in the future.
First, as noted herein, you need a 36mm socket. I got an entire set of huge metric sockets from Harbor Freight for $39. I did not need to trim the socket at all.
Take off the caliper and bracket. Take off the dust cover. Take off the rotor, making sure you take off the little 7mm bolt that holds the rotor to the hub. Inside the hub you will find the 36mm nut. The bolt will laugh at sissy little electric impact guns. My air impact wrench with 135 psi of air pressure laughed at the sissy little nut. I didn’t need a puller to pull the hub off, I just hit it a few times with a mallet and it came off.
Going back on, just start the hub on the spindle by hand, then take the same 36mm socket, hold it on the bearing face, and start hitting it with a metal hammer. I didn’t have to kill it, but I did have to hit it probably 30 times to get it to go. Once that is on, I put the air gun on kill and hammered away at it. The torque spec on the nut is 270nm which is 213ft/lb or so. The little safety catch on the nut rides in a groove on the spindle, and there is only one groove, so when the air impact had it that tight, I stopped, checked it with a 150lb torque wrench, and I couldn’t move it. I don’t even have a 213 ft/lb wrench, but I muscled it with all the wrenches I have and it didn’t move. Put the rotor back on, install the little 7mm bolt, put the dust cap back on, put the caliper and bracket back on and you are done.
Regarding sourcing the parts, I called my local Carquest and they had the hubs for $129 each, in stock. FAG bearing and all. The dust covers were $1.25 each, those had to be ordered in and were there in 5 hours. The axle nuts were $2.00 each, but they didn’t have the safety catch, so I just re-used the OEM ones and all is well.
I hope this helps.
-Scott
jlucas
#31
There is no built in safety catch. You use a chisel or punch to knock down that area of the nut once it’s torqued.