How to Replace Wheel Bearing Hub Assembly 2005-11 Toyota Camry

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

Use a pry bar or large flat bladed screwdriver to remove the hubcap. Just going to slide it under the edge. Put that aside. Take a breaker bar and a 21 millimeter socket, and loosen the lug nuts while the car is still on the ground. Raise to support the vehicle, then I can finish removing the wheel. These lug nuts are pretty loose, so I'm just going to use the socket to take them off. I'm removing the last lug nut. I'm just going to hold onto the wheel, so that it doesn't fall off. Take it right off.

Start by removing the two caliper pin bolts. There's one on the bottom and one on the top. Use a 14 millimeter. Actually broke free without having to use the mallet. If it's tight, you can take a mallet and just tap it to break it free. Just going to squeeze the caliper a little bit by pulling it out. It should slide right off the pads. Take a bungee cord, and just hang it up and out of the way.

I'm going to use a small pry bar, or you can use a flat bladed screwdriver. You need to pop them away from the brake rotor, out of the caliper bracket. Remove the caliper bracket bolts. There's two at the back. One at the top, one at the bottom. They're 14 millimeter. They can be in there pretty tight. Use the box wrench and a mallet to break them free. When you get the bottom one loose, then work on the top one. They're broken free. You can switch to a ratcheting wrench. Get it pretty loose. Remove the bottom one with my fingers. Put that aside, to reuse it.

Got to get the top one out. Pull the bracket out, the bolt out. This car is missing a rubber plug that goes in the rotor here. The rubber plug is so that you can access the parking brake mechanism to release it. Somebody just put some duct tape over it. I'm going to peel it off. Inside here is the mechanism. I'm going to try to pull it off first, though. Sometimes it's loose enough you don't need to release it.

Parking brake's not on. It is spinning free. I can spray some rust penetrant around the hub. A little bit in here. Take our dead blow mallet. I'm going to hit around the edge here to try to break it free. Sometimes you'll get lucky. These might come off, but they usually get stuck on the parking brake shoes. You need to release the adjustment. It's very hard to see right now, but through this opening that normally has a rubber plug on it, it had some duct tape on it that we removed. Take a flat bladed screwdriver. We're going to spin it. Try to grab the little tabs on there and spin it up. It's in a little wheel. Make sure I'm going the right way. You can check. See? I went the wrong way. It locked it. It's going to actually be spun down.

Basically, you just have to spin that wheel down, and keep retracting the parking brake shoes in, so the rotor will come free. When you adjust it you're going though the rotor and into this hole. Then, you're pushing down on it. That spins the parking brake shoes in to release them. Before we remove the rear wheel bearing and hub assembly, it has an integrated ABS sensor, it needs to be unplugged. On the inside of here there's a lock. I'm going to use the small flat bladed screwdriver to push the lock in, and then I'm going to grab the sensor connector and wiggle it back and forth.

It's probably jammed up with dirt. It gets stuck. You just have to wiggle it back and forth, and it'll come off eventually. You want to be very careful not to break this. Release the dirt coming out of it. Put that aside.

Going to use these openings in the hub, so that I can stick a 17 millimeter socket and extension in through, and break the bolts free that are holding the hub on. That one wasn't too bad. Just going to spin it around here. Find this little one. Just going to keep spinning the hub around into the different bolts. Got these pretty loose. I can spin them out by hand.

It's okay if the bolt stays in there. We can get it out afterwards. The hub bolts are out. It's probably seized in there with a little bit of rust. I'm going to take a dead blow mallet and try to knock it loose. This hub and wheel bearing is seized in the bore. I'm going to try taking our old rotor and throwing some lug nuts on here. Let's see if we can use this like a handle.

Take our mallet, just try to knock it loose. I hit this with the rotor attached, and it pulled it all the way out of the knuckle, which is fine. This is the back side of our wheel bearing and hub assembly, and the connector for the ABS sensor. It has rusted into the backing plate for the parking brake assembly. It seized in here. It has come completely out of this knuckle. You can see the rust in here. It's a little tricky. It should just pull out in a perfect world with no rust. I'm going to take a bungee cord. Just hang it up by the coil spring here. Take some of the tension off of our parking brake cable.

I need to separate the hub assembly from this backing plate, and the parking brake assembly. It's pretty rusty. I'm going to take some rust penetrant, and just spray it around the edge. Then, I'll take a pick. I'm going to try to break the seal a little bit. Just trying to free some of this rust up. Hopefully work a little bit of the rust penetrant in here. Take our dead blow hammer, and try to knock this out. See if it works. Since we're smashing this with a hammer, you probably won't be able to reuse it if you're replacing this part.

We're doing the hub and bearing assembly anyways, so it doesn't matter. I'm going to switch to a blocking hammer. It's got a little more power to it than the dead blow. I'm going to try to knock this free. This just won't come apart. I'm really mangling it trying to hit it with the hammer. I've actually damaged the hub now. It won't turn. I'm going to bolt it back here in place, so that I can remove the parking brake assemblies, and then put it in the shop press in an attempt to remove this hub and bearing assembly.

To cut down on some of the brake dust that's in here, I'm going to take some brake parts cleaner before I remove all of the hardware and the shoes, and clean it out. All right, to remember how this goes back together, I'm going to use my phone. Take a couple pictures of it. Going to take some needle nose pliers and remove these two springs up top that are holding the brake shoes on. That one. Going to pull this adjuster piece out. Going to put the spring back on it just the way I found it, so I won't forget how that went together.

Now, the shoes are just on these little retaining springs, and the hardware that's underneath them. These are usually pretty soft springs. They're kind of keyed, so you can turn them by just compressing them. Sometimes you have to reach in the back and actually hold, they call it a nail that they're held onto. You can actually hold the back of it, so it doesn't get pushed through. Get these pliers in here. Push it down, and attempt to turn it. Oops. Put those springs aside. The shoe should come off this. Grab this little washer too. Slide this down. This is the auto adjuster. Put that aside so I don't lose it. I'm going to repeat the same on this side. Remove that little spring and retainer. You actually take the nail, because it looks like a nail. We're going to actually take this out. Put that aside. Same exact thing. There is a tool for this, but there's actually not a lot of clearance in here to get the special tool in here to push these in. The pliers work pretty well. Take this all down. Take this little nail out. That's interesting, this one has a little special taper to it. That's the other side.

Now, this is your parking brake cable. Let's try pushing this this way. You've got one part of the needle nose on the end of the cable, and one on this brake shoe arm. Pop it this way. It almost worked. Pull the e-brake or parking brake cable out of the backing plate. There's two 10 millimeter bolts. Going to loosen those up. Pretty rusty. I did spray some rust penetrant on the back side of them first, but now that they're separated a little bit I'm going to spray some more, help work it down into the threads. Sometimes it helps to tighten them once the oil's in there, and then work it back out. There's one. There's the other one. They should separate through. We'll just place that aside.

Now, you can actually see where our hub and bearing assembly is a separate piece from this backing place, but it has seized in here. Now that I'm done removing all the brake parts I'm going to take it back off here, and we're going to go to our shop press and attempt to press it out. I guess I can do this now. I'm going to spray a little rust penetrant. Maybe it will work itself in there. Maybe not. It's a pretty tight fit. Hope for the best. I can unbolt it from the knuckle. It's going to be totally loose, so I don't want to drop it.

We've got it set up here on our press. Got a bearing press tool. Just going to try to press it out. Let's see if this works. Going to attempt to heat up the metal on the plate. I released the pressure on our shop press. You can see there's still some smoke coming up in there. That was from the rust penetrant. I basically heated around this plate here, this metal, to try to get this metal to expand and release from the hub and wheel bearing assembly. I'm touching it with the handle here, because it's still really, really hot. I'm going to let it cool off for a little while before we go try to take this apart.

It did actually drop while I was heating it. You can see, this originally was not touching this metal plate. It was touching the back of the hub and bearing assembly. It pushed it, and now it's spread out. You can just see up here it separated itself from this backing plate. Now, there's a larger gap there, want to spray some more rust penetrant in there. All right, switch to a smaller diameter press piece, so it doesn't get caught on the outer steel piece here. I'm going to try to keep pressing it out. I'm not too concerned if this has gotten bent. It's just thin sheet metal. Could straighten it back out afterwards.

Here is our original hub and wheel bearing. It's been damaged from us taking it out. Here's our brand new one from 1AAuto.com. You can see where the ABS wheel speed sensor is. This is the correct connector. This one, of course, has been mashed in and melted from heating it. It's got a brand new one here. This spins nice and free from hitting this one. It's been jammed up. You can see this machine bore is the same exact on the new one. It's a very, very tight fit. What happens is this one has rusted in place. It doesn't take much of this rust for it to get stuck in place. Got the same four mounting style holes. Same bolt pattern. Got these openings, so that we can get through and mount the bolts in that's going to hold it in place. This should fit great, and work great in your vehicle. Definitely an upgrade over this broken old one.

Before I install this onto the new hub and bearing assembly, I just want to take some emery coth and clean up this opening, and any extra rust that's in here, so the bearing slides in nice and easy. When I install this on the vehicle, the hub and bearing assembly is going to slide right through, just like that. Normally, in a perfect world where there is no rust, when we went to replace this it would have just slid right out. Take some more emery cloth and just clean up in here any of the loose rust. Have one of the bolts handy with a socket and extension, because this doesn't really have any way to stay in place. It has to be placed onto the hub and bearing assembly, which it will only go in one way. It lines up.

Top holes are wider. Bottom holes are narrower. Slide it into place. Need to spin this hub assembly too. Bolt through. Get these snug, and then I'll come back and torque them. We torque the four bolts holding the hub and bearing assembly in place to 59 foot-pounds. Then, go in a cross pattern. I'm going to put the e-brake cable back in place. It comes through the backing plate with an opening here. Reinstall the small 10 millimeter bolts. They're very small bolts, so once I get them feeling tight I'm just going to stop. These brake shoes are in good shape. We're not going to replace them.

If you did have to replace them you would reuse this arm. This is what gets pulled when you push down the parking brake pedal, and it spreads these shoes out inside to lock the brake rotor. To replace it you'd spread apart this clip, and slide it off this pin. Then, you'd swap this over to the new brake shoe, put this clip back on, and squeeze it back together. That's really the only major thing you have to do. Other than that, you'd just replace the same hardware that we already have, and put it back together the same way you took it apart. This is what we're going to do now. I need to get the e-brake cable back into this holder here. I'm going to try some locking pliers. I don't want to crush the spring, so I'm just going to set them so they don't pop off.

Release these now. I need to attach this spring. It goes on the back side, retaining spring. I need to get it into place. This rounded part of the shoe is going to fit on this pivot part here. This nail, or retainer for the brake shoes has this bend in it, so it's offset. It comes through here, and then it's offset so that it can go around this, and set in here. I'm going to install it from the back. Hold it in place.

Slide this assembly up. Sometimes you have to hold the part from the back. The little nail. Just slide this little cup in there. Take our retaining springs, put that over the little retaining part. Try to line up the slot on the top of the pin. See that wide opening, and then you turn it to lock it. You may be able to use the opening in the hub here to help go through and set up the retaining spring. Just want to make sure that this is pushed in and turned, so that it's locked in place.

On the inside of the opposite brake shoes there's the same type of little hook. Part. I'm going to hook the spring on to the inside of that one, and then hook it on the inside of this one. Put the shoe into place, and attach the retaining spring and nail. Get these pliers. Get that one hooked in place. This is the adjuster. That one, it turns out, and pushes the shoes out. You can adjust the tension on the shoes. They also automatically adjust as they wear. This spins nice and freely, so we don't need to clean it up, but we need to install it in place before I get too far. It sits right in here, and it's going to sit. Pull this shoe up, and it's going to sit just like that. To put the other side, nail goes through the back. You can see it better on this side. Make sure that this little retaining tab goes into this little hole over here. Put that in place.

Reinstall the spring and the seat, just like the other side. This plate here with the spring, got to put the spring back on it, slides into the parking brake arm and shoe. Just separate this one a little bit. Pull it apart. Just get it lined up. It fits together like that. These springs have a hook. The hook is going to go around this portion here, and here is going to slide into the opening, to the bottom of the brake shoe right here. Put that in place, then grab them with pliers.

Pull them down and over that pin. Just make sure that that shoe fits into that slot and compresses that spring, because these two shoes should be resting on this pivot point here. Just making sure everything's connected, so all of our parking brake hardware is now in the correct place. Reconnect the electrical connector for the ABS sensor. There it is. Didn't make a loud click, but it clicked and it locked in place. Install the rotor backwards.

Take your brake parts cleaner, and clean off the oil that comes on these, so they don't rust while they're shipped. Flip it over. Make sure you install it in a way that this hole lines up with one of the openings here, so you can adjust the parking brake. I've taken the caliper off of our bungee cord. I'm going to take one of the old brake pads, take a C-clamp, and then what I'm going to do is gently compress the caliper to press the piston into the body.

That way, when we put our new pads in it will slide right together. Just going to rest the caliper like that. Take our brake parts cleaner, clean it off. Reinstall our caliper bracket. Get the top one caught first. That makes it a little bit easier. I can install the bottom one. It's a little easier because it just hangs on the top one. Reach in behind here. Get that bracket lined up. Use the 14 millimeter ratcheting wrench to snug these up.

Install our new pads. Just take some brake parts cleaner, make sure they're nice and clean. Brake caliper grease on the ears of them. Inside and outside pads are the same. I'm going to start with the inside pad. Place it in the bottom clip. Push it up into the top clip. Saps into place. Do the same for the outside one. We're just following the curve of the pad too. They're contoured, so the wider part is going to match up with the wider outside part of the rotor. Same with the inside part. We push them down into the clips. Squeeze them together. Place the caliper back in place.

Reinstall the bolts. Tighten these up. Feel them get tight, and I will stop. Going to torque the caliper bolts, 46 foot-pounds. If you need to adjust the drag on the parking brake, you can turn this so you can see the adjuster, and then you can put your screwdriver in. Just catch the little gears in the wheel just right. Now, that's how you'd adjust it so that it's actually really tight. It's holding the brake rotor.

Now, you know where the limit is. You want to back it off a little bit by turning it back down. Eventually, if you touch the parking brake pedal, it would self-adjust out. This way it just gets it closer right away. Now, I'm going to reach in and turn it down a little bit. What it's dragging on right now is just the brake pads. That should spin freely enough. Of course, when you hit the parking brake pedal it should come out locked rear wheels.

Important to note, these lug nuts have a taper. Taper meets the wheel, matches the inside of the wheel. Don't install them with flat side like this. That is incorrect. Install them with the taper to the wheel. It helps locate the wheel on the lug nut stud. I'm just using the socket and ratchet to bring these down snug before I put the car on the ground. Torque the lug nuts to 76 foot-pounds. I'm going at a cross pattern.

To reinstall the hub cap you've got to line up the opening for the valve stem with the e valve stem on the wheel. Just push it in place. Before we start the car, just going to gently press the brake pedal down. Not all the way to the floor. About a quarter of the way, and just pump it. This will bring the brake caliper piston out to meet the pads, because we've compressed it. You'll start to feel it get more solid as it pumps up.

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