How to Replace Wheel Bearing Hub 2004-12 Chevy Malibu

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In this video we show you how to replace a front hub on this 2006 Chevy Malibu, same as any 04 to 08 Malibu as well as the Pontiac G6. You know if you have a bad hub if you jack the front wheel off the ground, and you can grab the top and bottom of the wheel and shake it and feel play and then you can also grab each side left and right, shake it and feel the same play. That kind of four-angled play is usually because of a bad hub. Tools you'll need are jack and jack stands, various sockets 13 to 19 mm plus a 35 mm socket with ratchets and extensions. You'll need a breaker bar or a pipe for some extra leverage, flat blade screwdriver, large hammer, wire brush and a torque wrench.

Start out by using a 19 mm socket or wrench and loosen the plastic covers and then remove the wheel cover. You're going to remove the lug nuts, and if you don't have air tools, you'll want to have the wheel on the ground, loosen the lug nuts. Also at this point, you'll want to loosen that 35 mm hub nut. I do have the benefit of having an impact wrench, so I'm able to do that afterwards, but if you don't have an impact wrench, you want to use a breaker bar and a 35 mm socket and loosen that center hub nut now while the wheel is on the ground.

Grab hold of the steering knuckle and turn it to make it easier to reach the back of the caliper. The first thing we're going to do is remove these two bolts here. These two bolts are 14 mm and they should come off pretty easy. I'm just going to speed it up as I remove those two bolts. Now your disc should come off, but since there are some pretty decent ridges here. What you want to do is take a good size screwdriver and pry out with this hole and that kind of loosens up the caliper, and the caliper comes right off. Put it up there for now, and you can just kind of pry out your pads.

Now we need to remove this caliper bracket, so we'll remove two 15 mm bolts here and here. These are going to be somewhat tighter, so I'm going to use my ratchet. If you have a breaker bar, that's the best thing or use a piece of pipe, put it on your ratchet, gives you extra leverage and it comes apart pretty easily. The same thing top one. Get it started.
I'm just going to speed it up here again as I remove those bolts. I found that once I turned them probably three or four turns then they actually came out by hand. Comes over, pulls right off. Right up here is your ABS harness with a little tab pull that down, disconnect that, then just use a screwdriver, push these tabs down and pull the plug off. I take a 35 mm bolt here for the hub. As I said earlier, if you don't have the benefit of impact tools or air tools, you'll want to loosen this hub nut while the wheel is still on and the vehicle is on the ground.

Now your axle you don't want to make it a habit to just beat on this mercilessly with the hammer. What I do is I give it one good tap, and I watch closely, and if that axle moves with one good hit, you know it's broken loose. You don't have to worry too much about it. Okay, the axle moved, so I should be able to get it apart, no problem. If the axle doesn't move with the tap of a hammer, then you'll need to use an axle puller which bolts onto your lug and then use the bolt to push the axle through.

Next we're going to remove the three bolts that hold the hub. Okay, one is up there, one there and one around the back side is kind of hidden tucked right in there. These bolts, especially the top one, you're going to want probably 3/8 drive tools, because they're skinnier, and they allow you go get in there. I'm going to get a pretty good-sized flexible handle and try that. I can use my pipe for a little more leverage. These should come apart pretty easily. At this point I'll speed it up. Use the pipe for the extra leverage, get the bolts loosened up and then you can go at it with the ratchet and remove them the rest of the way. You'll want to turn your steering knuckle so that you can reach the third nut on the backside and then just remove those bolts. Once you have the bolts out, good there. I'm going to speed it up here. Basically you just hit it side to side, up and down and you'll see the hub start to separate from the steering knuckle and then eventually it comes loose, then you can pull it right off. Take the hub off, and your backing plate off. Just kind of wire tied my brake caliper up there. Use a screwdriver and a wire brush to just kind of clean the corrosion from the steering knuckle.

It may need a light coat of grease. It really helps things go back together. You can use some penetrating oil or just regular oil. Take your backing plate and I'm just going to put that in place. Your connector one you want to have that up toward the rear, through the backing plate and put your connector up and through and push on the CV a little bit. Make sure that your electro connector is toward the rear and get the hub onto the axle, spin this around in the correct position, put one of your bolts through. Push everything into place. I'll speed it up here again. You push the hub on, make sure it's in place correctly, start the other two bolts. All the time you're doing this just make sure that ABS wire doesn't get pinched in there anywhere and tighten up those bolts.

Make sure your wire is pulled through, and it's free and put the receptacle right up and clip it into place and I'll reconnect it. Tighten these bolts to hold the hub to the steering knuckle with 65 foot pounds. I'll just speed it up here. Turn the steering knuckle and tighten up the other two again to 65 foot pounds.

New rotor from 1A Auto. Put it on. Take a lug nut. Bolt it into place here. Now take your bracket and it goes basically between the knuckle and the disc, put your bolt in, find its way. These bolts you want to tighten up to 85 foot pounds. Put this one on the front. You want to make sure that your slides are pushed in here, bring your caliper down right on top, two bolts. These two bolts you want to tighten to 35 foot pounds. Once you have the wheel back in place, then you put the lug nuts on by hand, and then I'm just use my impact wrench to just tighten them up preliminarily.

Now with the vehicle on the ground, torque the lug nuts to 100 pounds using a star pattern, now torque your center hub nut, the 35 mm nut with 159 foot pounds, put your wheel cover back on, there's a hole for the valve stem, then use a socket to tighten up the retainers. Last but certainly not least before you drive your vehicle, make sure you pump the brakes a bunch of times, get the pedal to feel nice and firm when you have to reset those caliper pistons, then do stops from five and ten miles an hour before you road test the vehicle.

We hope this helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the internet. Please feel free to call us toll free 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the internet and in person.