After getting a laughable quote of $1100 to replace the RF wheel bearings and ABS sensor, I thought I ought to take the hub apart and see if it really needs them.

I would say it could use a tonering -- shop that made the estimate didn't mention that. Not available new, so I expect I'll have to buy a whole used hub.

The "Water Shield" is available new and is pretty cheap, but it's not really functionally compromised.

The races are looking a bit worn, and the hub turned slightly roughly. I think the factory calls for bearing replacement at 60k. I'll let them be until I get parts in (and summon the initiative).

Of course, lots of the tonering turned into swarf and stuck to the ABS sensor.

The sensor cleaned up pretty well. It seems fine; it only set the ABS and TRAC lights once. I replaced the missing Torx dust shield bolt with a new M6-1x12mm Phillips pan head and copious threadlocker. The other two felt tight, so I elected not to remove them and risk getting dirt into the bearings.

tl;dr: Defo needs work, but good to go for now.

 

Parts arrived yesterday. Bearings, shield, seals, and tonering.

 

I've been putting a lot of miles on the car lately. Rockstar parking at Portland Night Market.

 

I addressed the RF hub today, which was starting to whine a bit. Also rotated the tires front to back while I had the wheel-offing tools out.

Old ABS ring knocked off without too much trouble.

Outer races got pounded out similarly.

New ABS tonering seated.

New water shield installed, spindle cleaned and ready to accept new seal and bearings.

I'm not hugely confident that I was able to set the bearing end float within the design tolerance. From what I have read, the front hub is supposed to have a ONE to THREE thou clearance, with the small end of that being preferred. As I understand, a credit card is about 30 thou thick and office paper is about 4. I left it with the big nut just barely past finger-untight, but I suppose it would be a good idea to recheck it after it's been run-in for a hundred miles or so.