How to Replace Wheel Bearing Hub Assembly 1999-2005 Pontiac Grand Am

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Hi, I'm Mike Green, one of the owners of 1AAuto. I want to help you save time and money repairing and maintaining your vehicle. I'm going to use my 20+ years' experience restoring and repairing cars and trucks like this to show you the correct way to install parts from 1AAuto.com. The right parts installed correctly. That's going to save you time and money. Thank you and enjoy the video.

In this video, we'll be removing the hub on this 1999 Pontiac Grand AM. This is Part One of Two. Again, it's the removal of the hub. Removing the hub on this car is basically the same as just about GM car from about 1993 to present. Maybe tools will vary a little bit, but the basic procedure is the same. That's any GM, any Buick, Chevy, Pontiac or Olds, Saber Bonneville, Impala, all those vehicles.

Here are the tools you'll need. Keep in mind that sizes may differ by application. You may also need an axle puller or a gear puller if your hub is stuck together.

We'll start by lifting up the car and securing it. Obviously, if you're going to use a floor jack and jack stands, make sure that you follow safety instructions. I'm going to take off the wheel.

I got the wheel off. Now, I'm going to the other side and I'm going to grab the tire, turn the wheels all the way to the left. That gets usually better access to the back of the brake caliper, which is the next thing I'm going to take off.

I remove the brake caliper and its 13 millimeter bolts one on top and one on the bottom. I have the luxury of an impact wrench. Now we've unbolted the caliper and I'm just going to grab hold of it and pull it off. It makes a little better if you have a tie on the spring here. This probably ought to do it. Basically, you might be able to just take this one off here and stick it on there and stick it out of the way. Just secure it with a piece of string or something so that it doesn't fall down in your way. I found a nice piece of wire here. I'm just going to wrap it around the caliper here just so if it does fall, something holds onto it and it doesn't fall in.

Now we're going to remove the brake rotor.

We can usually get to one bolt. I'll show you that. With the right tools, we can get to the second bolts. Those three bolts now hold in the hub and you can see I had my wrench on the top one.

I like to do this one first; it's the hardest one to get to. You can see here I got a 3/8 wrench with an extension and I can get in there nicely. It's not coming, so I can show you a little trick for some extra torque. Take a nice big wrench, run the smaller wrench. The key is to be holding the wrench against the nut so it doesn't come off and strip the head of the nut. Here it comes. Alright, this is also where having coated the backs will come in handy. Got that one out.

Now these two, I can easily get to with anything half inch or impact. The other one, we'll have to get once you turn the full steering column around. We'll just grab hold of the other wheel and turn it this way. That will make it easier to get to the third one. See if I can get this one.

What you do is just use this little tip: Just pull evenly. Don't just try and jerk it because you could knock something off. Just pull harder and harder and harder and eventually it will come.

Now what I'll do is I'll go around the car to the other side. I'm just going to grab hold of the wheel and turn it. There are a couple things here. Since this car is ABS, disconnect this ABS sensor.

Then this clip. I can just reach in behind and pull it off. That goes obviously with the hub. Here is, I hope you can see it. Get these guys out of the way. Here is my third bolt. I put my wrench on. Excuse me. Again, it's just so easy to hook onto there. Actually, the bolts aren't.

Now, I have in the past on these past on these cars, you end up just can't get the bolt out. The head breaks off or strips. What you can do. I think you can see this well enough, is you can use the sawzall, and it's actually not that bad. With a good blade, in about a minute, you can cut through the hub and then the bolt and it comes off. You just punch the bolt out the other side. Then you'll have to go down to the hardware store and get a new bolt that's the right length in size. Fortunately, on this car, we didn't have to resort to that. Now remove those bolts and go the next step.

I haven't taken those bolts all the way out yet. I'm going to remove this large center bolt first. You're really going to need an impact wrench and a large socket. I've got a 34 millimeter socket on there.

Now I've got the bolts off of that and I've got it off and actually I'm lucky here because this hub just pulled off of the axle shaft. Let me put it back on here for a second. Hopefully, if you car's good, everything will pull apart. But if it doesn't just pull apart, you'll want either an axle puller or a gear puller that basically adhere to the lug nuts and then the shaft goes in and pushes right against the axle or it clamps onto the flange here. The same thing. The bolt goes in and pushes. It's either a gear puller or an axle puller. You don't want to use a hammer. You do want to bend this with a hammer, because you'll end up ruining your CV joints. You want to press that out. I can remove my old hub. Basically, there's a connector. I'm pushing the axle out of there. I can push this axle without worrying about it too much. But you don't want to bang on it.

Obviously, this is my old hub. Here's my new hub, nice and shiny. You can see everything's the same. It's got the same connector on it. Everything on the back side is all the same. Let's make sure we have the original bolts here. Slide it right in.

Remember to check out our other videos for the installation of this hub. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Feel free to call us toll-free 888-844-3393. The company that's here for you on the Internet and in person. Thank you.