2003 Cadillac CTS with RPO Code FE3 (Sport Suspension) Front Ceramic Brake Pad & Rotor Kit TRQ BKA10986

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In this video, we're going to show you how to replace the front wheel bearing and hub assembly in this 2006 Cadillac CTS.

Here are the items you'll need for this repair: 18mm, 19mm, socket, ratchet, socket extension, torque wrench, breaker bar, pry bar, T30 Torx bit, 18mm wrench, hammer, penetrating, bungee cord, wire brush, brake grease, jack and jack stands

Using your 19 millimeter socket and breaker bar, crack the lug nuts loose. Just about a turn is fine. You just want to make sure that there's no tension on them when you jack it up. Obviously, you can't remove it with the weight of the vehicle on the tire. Once your lug nuts are loose, you can jack up the vehicle and secure it with jack stands.

You'll see on the rocker panel, there's a small arrow. This indicates where the jack point is on the pinch weld under the vehicle. We'll place our jack under there, bring the vehicle up until the wheel is off the ground, and we have enough height to get a jack stand underneath the car. Directly in front of your jack, you'll notice this boxed, frame-like piece of the unibody. That's the point we're going to use for our jack stand.

Slowly lower the vehicle onto the stand. Once the vehicle has been raised and supported, then finish removing the lug nuts. Remove the wheel from the hub.

We're going to use a lift to make this easier to show you guys at home. You should be able to do this in the driveway with a jack and jack stands. Use a T30 Torx bit to remove this bolt securing the rotor the hub. Remove the two 18 millimeter bolts securing the caliper bracket to the spindle. This way we can remove the caliper and carrier as an assembly to save time. Be sure to support the caliper and carrier when you remove the last bolt. Remove the caliper carrier and secure it to the upper control arm with a bungee cord or mechanic's wire. Remove the rotor, place it face down somewhere clean and dry.

Push in on these tabs to release the connector from its retainer on the backing plate. Undo the tab. Disconnect the ABS sensor. Remove these three 18 millimeter bolts with a socket and ratchet. You may need to use a wrench or a ratcheting wrench to remove the top bolt. This bolt may not come out all the way, but as long as it's unthreaded from the hub, we'll be able to remove our wheel bearing. Remove the final 18 millimeter bolt with a socket and ratchet.

Tap on the back of the hub to release the wheel bearing assembly from the spindle. You may have to tap the bottom ears, get behind it with a chisel or pry bar. Just work it out however you need to. When tapping your wheel hub out, be sure to keep a hand on the dust shield, as it usually falls of as the hub comes out. We'll also have to tap out this backing for the ABS sensor. We're using a pry bar, but you could use a screwdriver or a long, flat punch to tap the back of the ABS sensor out of the spindle.

Here we have our old part that we removed from our vehicle and a new part from 1AAuto.com. As you can see, the hubs are identical. Comes with new studs. You have the same bolt pattern here. Same three bolt flange on the back. It even has a new ABS sensor already installed on it.

Our old ABS sensor got stuck in the hub, which is not uncommon, so we had to break that to get it out. You can see these little teeth on the back are what allow the sensor to pick up the rotational speed of this wheel bearing. What happens with these is the sensors can go bad or the bearing itself can go bad. This one's actually got a little bit of play in it, so it makes a whirling sound when we're driving. This new part has a nice, tight bearing in it, brand new ABS sensor.

Use a wire brush to clean the bore of the spindle, as well as the contact surface for the flange to make sure that everything goes in smoothly and sits nice and flush. These surfaces don't have to be perfect, but you do want to make sure you remove any heavy build up. Line up your dust shield. Send the ABS sensor through. Line up your flange. The ABS sensor is going to sit here at about the 11:00 position. Start by lining up the top bolt that we weren't able to fully remove. Start your other two bolts before tightening anything down. Tighten these bolts down with a socket and ratchet, a wrench on the top if you need. Again, that top bolt is pretty tight access, so you may have to start it with a wrench before you can get a ratchet in there. Torque the wheel hub bolts to 100 foot-pounds.

Reconnect the retainer to the ABS harness and the electrical connector. Apply a thin coat of brake grease to the hub to make sure that the rotor doesn't seize on there, and make sure you get it around the actual bore of the hub as well. Install the brake rotor onto the hub. Be sure to line up one of the beveled holes with the thread for the brake rotor screw. We're just going to start that right now to make sure that our rotor stays on nice and flat when we install the rest of our brake components with a T30 Torx socket and an extension.

We'll just spin it in by hand for now. Remove whatever you used to tie up your brake caliper. Line up your caliper carrier. Start your two 18 millimeter bolts. Tighten these down with a socket and ratchet. Torque these bolts to 96 foot-pounds. Reinstall the wheel onto the hub.

We're going to bring them down as tight as we can, while the tire is still in the air. We'll finish tightening them once the vehicle has been taken off the jack stands. Always be sure to tighten your lug nuts in a cross pattern. We'll jack our vehicle off the stands. With the weight of the vehicle back on the tire, if you don't have a torque wrench, get them as tight as you can by hand with a breaker bar.

It takes a lot of force to break one of these lug studs, so you don't need to go crazy tight, but don't be afraid to put a little bit of your weight into them to make sure they're tight. Of course, if you do have a torque wrench available to you, you'll want to torque your lug nuts to 100 foot-pounds. You can see with the breaker bar, we actually got it pretty close.

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