How to replace front hubs

**TomOfTarsus** · 08-09-2010

Newbie here, 2003 GTP, 98K relatively trouble-free-miles. My front sway bar is close to failing as well as needing the front hubs, for which I give the man my hearty thanks!

I guess while it's up I should do the sway bar as well, right? I'll check for procedures elsewhere, but has anyone done this? I appreciate any feedback, I don't know if it's a pain in the backside to get that sway bar in and out or not.

Best, and thanks to all,

Tom

**TomOfTarsus** · 10-07-2010

I'm back, the car is up, rotors off, PB Blaster soaking on everything overnight. Stupid me, I had it up to change the oil, saw the brakes needed attention, so I just started in to the whole mess - without re-reading thios, so my 36 mm axle nuts are still in place...

Somebody upthread asked about variations in the hub designs. The Advance Auto man told me that(at least for '03) there are two different ones, depending on whether you have 4 wheel or 2 wheel ABS.

I guess we'll see! Thanks again for this write-up. Man - even socket sizes!

**TomOfTarsus** · 10-09-2010

Originally Posted by mystic231

Thanks for the write-up with the excellent pictures. Makes it much easier to jump into something you haven't tried before.
I would add to this that GM recommends replacing the (3) hub mounting bolts when changing the hub:

The hub mounting bolts are GM Part No. 11570580 and come with red loc-tite already on them. My local "stealership" charged me $3.51 each plus tax. The new hub bolts get torqued to 96 lb ft.

The two bolts on the brake caliper bracket get torqued to 133 lb ft.

The 36mm wheel driveshaft nut gets torqued to 159 lb ft, not 118 as mentioned earlier.

Okay, so we do have good info that the hub mounting bolts (those three M10.9 12 x 50 mm 1.75 thd flange head machine screws) must be discarded. Funny, I just ran them through a bolt design program, and it seems like, unless GM used some pretty low thread friction factors, the 96 ft-lb mentioned upthread does not torque them to yield. And it doesn't look like they were assembled with threadlocker or other lubricant, so I don't how they could justify the low thread friction factor, but I may be wrong. And this is very important; a wheel coming off is indeed possibly fatal. So don't go re-using the things on my word, I haven't done fatigue or other detailed stress analysis on the thing. Those torques are there for a reason, I've calculated many of them.

But no parts stores have these things, all the dealer parts stores are closed, Fastenal is closed. I found three that met the size & grade spec at the hardware store, but the heads were bigger, and I figure GM made a custom head size so you could get the socket in - which makes me PO'd at GM again...