2006 Mazda 5: Rear wheel bearings and shocks
K noticed the loud whirring noise on our new-to-us Mazda 5 the first time she drove it. She's my diagnostic technician. Her diagnosis? The rear wheel bearings. So we bought a pair of them shortly after we had the car. When J and I replaced the rear brakes and rotors, I attempted to remove the four T50 Torx bolts that held on the hub. No joy. I needed better tools. Enter: my new impact wrench. Oh, and an $11 set of 1/2" wobble extensions from Harbor Freight.
Turns out, this job I've been putting off since that first attempt was not only really simple and straightforward, it was fun. Maybe I'm warming up to the satisfied feeling of fixing our vehicles, and using all the thousands of dollars we're saving to blow on things like ten dollar socket extensions.
While I was taking off the rear wheels, I opted to replace the suspension. The front suspension is noisy and needs replacing now that the car is approaching 100k. I figured I'd just do the rear, too. After all, like our RAV4, it meant removing all of three bolts. Actually, just one bolt and two nuts.
Turns out the guy who we bought Maverick from had already replaced the rear shocks with the exact same KYB ones I ordered (again) from shocksurplus.com. Oh well, they were $50. We think he replaced them to fix the whirring noise he also heard, but doesn't have as good of a diagnostic tech as I do so never replaced the bearings. Onto that, then…
Yeah, with the right tools the job was super-simple. It took maybe half an hour. The wobble extension made it possible to get the Torx bit in the cramped space, and the impact wrench whipped out the bolts without breaking a sweat.
First, I had to remove the two 14mm bolts holding the brake calipers. J torqued those down nice and tight when we did the brakes, so I had to use a breaker bar. Then off came the rotor.
Then, from behind the wheel and under the car, the four T50 Torx bolts holding the hub. Yes, the wobble socket was key. I ended up using two different length extensions. Then the hub, long overdue, was off.
Before reinstalling the new hub, I applied some Permatex anti-sieze lubricant to the mounting plate. This may or may not have been necessary.
As well as blue Loctite to the Torx bolts. That's definitely recommended.
Then reversed the steps, hand-threading the four bolts before torquing them down to not-quite 50-ft lbs (I set the torque wrench to that but didn't get all the way before fearing I'd strip the bolts). They're tight.
