Bad front wheel bearing? Torn CV joint boot? Bad CV joint? Here's how to change out your wheel bearing and drive axle.
NOTE: The following is for the driver's side of the car. The procedure should be same for the passenger's side, with the exception that two bolts that retain an intermediae bearing carrier have to be removed to get the driveshaft out.
NOTE: You will need a T-40 Torx bit to do this job. Get one before you start.
First, chock the wheels on the opposite side of the car, loosen the wheel lug bolts, jack up the car and put a jackstand under it, then remove the front wheel.
Insert a couple lug bolts partway into the hub. Have someone step on the brakes, then use a 15mm socket with a breaker bar or an impact gun to remove the driveshaft retaining bolt. NOTE: This pic doesn't show the brake disk because I took it after the disk was removed. But, it does show where the bolt is that you need to remove:
Here's a pic of the driveshaft retention bolt that was just removed:
Using a 17mm socket, remove the brake caliper retaining bolts on the back of the spindle.
Top Bolt:
Bottom Bolt:
That big piece of metal hanging down below the socket is the steering stop. Be sure you catch it when you remove the 2nd bolt.
Slide the caliper off the disk and support it with wire or a bungee cord or set it on something (I used a paint can) to prevent damage to the brake line:
Use a 10mm wrench or socket to remove the disk retaining bolt:
Remove the lug bolts you previously inserted partway. You might have to tap the disk with a hammer to break it loose from the hub. Take the disk off and set it aside.
Use a 12mm socket or wrench to remove the splash shield retaining bolts:
You need a wrench to get the top one because there isn't enough room behind the hub to get a socket in there:
Once you get all the bolts out, slide the splash shield off the hub to the rear and set it aside.
Use a socket to remove the ABS sensor retaining bolt. I can't remember if this one's 10mm or 12mm:
Remove the sensor from the hub:
Remove the sensor wire from the holder . . .
and move the wire aside so it doesn't get damaged.
Use two wrenches to loosen the tie-rod ball joint nut. The top wrench is on the flats of the ball joint shaft and the bottom wrench is on the nut:
If the ball joint doesn't fall out of the spindle, unscrew the nut until it's even with the top of the ball joint shaft and tap it down with a hammer to loosen it:
Take the nut off and push the tie rod ball joint down through the spindle and out of the way. This pic shows the tie rod end and ball joint. I put the nut back on the stud so it wouldn't get lost:
If you haven't already done so, jack up the opposite side of the car until the tire clears the ground to relieve the pressure on the anti-sway bar.
Use a wrench to remove the anti-sway bar link nut at the McPherson strut. Use the T-40 Torx bit to hold the shaft of the link from spinning:
Once the nut is loose, you can use a socket to remove it:
Push the anti-sway bar link out of the McPherson strut and out of the way:
Use the T-40 Torx bit and a wrench to remove the nut from the spindle ball joint on the bottom of the spindle:
Here's a pic of the cone-shaped ball joint nut:
Here's a pic of the two McPherson strut to spindle bolts that must be removed to get the spindle off:
In order to keep the camber adjustment the same, either scribe the locations of the spindle and strut, or measure the distance from the back of the strut to the front of the spindle at the top.
Remove the top one (I used a 13/16 socket on the nut). You will need a breaker bar or cheater as these nuts are very tight. The socket on the left is just holding the bolt from turning (IIRC it's 18mm).
And the bottom bolt:
Now you can tip the spindle out of the strut:
And off of the driveshaft:
Then lift the spindle off of the lower control arm.
This is a pic of the back of the spindle. To change the hub (if you have a bad bearing, you have to change the whole hub - the bearings are not available seperately), you need to remove the four bolts around the bearing. You can see the bolt heads here:
I used a 17mm socket and torque wrench to remove them. I had to stand on the spindle and stabilize it with my arm to keep it from moving. If you have a vise, that would probably work better:
Here's the spindle with the hub removed:
Here's a pic of the old hub (on the left) next to the new hub. I got the new hub (made by FAG Germany) for $128 shipped here: http://www.europartsdirect.com/ On the old hub you can see a black ring partially covering the chrome. This is a driveshaft-to-hub seal used on later model cars. Keep this seal and make sure you don't damage it - the new hub doesn't come with one.
A pic of the seal on the old hub. The seal only fits on one way - make sure you don't reverse it when you reassemble everything.
Here's a pic of the seal by itself:
Clean the spindle so you have a nice mounting surface. Bolt the new hub to the spindle using the four bolts and locktight. Torque for the bolts is 33 ft-lbs plus an additional 60 degrees of angle-tighten.
There are a few ways to remove the axle. I used a slidehammer connected to the axle with the retaining bolt (which was screwed into the end of the axle as far as possible by hand). I got the slidehammer from Advance Auto Parts under their tool rental program: I paid for the tool ($129) and took it back for a refund when I was done. NOTE: Only use the slidehammer if you are replacing the axle with a new one. The slidehammer will damage the axle because the axle doesn't have an axial pinion. If you are just putting on new CV boots, use a different method to remove the axle. Volvo says to use special "jimmy tools" that look like screwdrivers with their ends bent over. Here's an illustration of the tool:
And how to use it:
Haynes just says to use a pry tool like a screwdriver between the axle and the transmission housing. However you do it, be careful not to damage the transmission!
Here's a pic of the business end of the driveshaft. After connecting the slidehammer, I applied outward pressure to the driveshaft and slid the hammer to the end of its shaft. A couple pops and driveshaft was free.
This is what the transmission looks like with the driveshaft removed:
I had to wait several days to get my parts, so I just covered the hole in the transmission with some masking tape to prevent contamination:
I left the bottom portion of the tape loose where the transmission fluid was leaking out. I put a drain pan under the car to catch the fluid.
Here's a pic of the new driveshaft (top) next to the old driveshaft. I got this from http://www.europartsdirect.com/ for $70 shipped. I know, it's made in China, but it's brand new and I didn't have to mess with a core charge and shipping a core back. A CV boot kit was $35. I figured for the $35 difference I would have all new parts and wouldn't have to do the work of installing the boots, so I went with the complete new driveshaft:
To install the new driveshaft remove the masking tape, apply transmission fluid to the outside of the shaft where it will enter the transmission, line up the shaft and push it into the transmission. You may have to tap the end of the driveshaft a couple times to get it to slip onto the retaining clip. Pull outward gently on the inner portion of the driveshaft to make sure it's clipped into place.
Place the driveshaft-to-hub seal on the driveshaft using a couple of dabs of grease to hold it in place. Make sure you put it on the right way!
Clean up the spindle where the ball joints and strut attach. Drop the ball joint shaft into the lower control arm and start the nut onto the ball joint shaft.
Guide the driveshaft into the hub while you tilt the spindle back into position in the strut. You may need to rotate the hub a little to get the splines to line up with the driveshaft splines.
Apply locktight, then insert the bolts in the strut. You might need to apply some downward pressure on the spindle to get the bolt holes to line up. Partially tighten the bolts. Make sure your scribe marks line up to get the camber correct, or measure front-to-back at the top of the strut to make sure you're back to the measurement you took at the beginning (or, if you're Speed Racer and want some extra negative camber on your front end, tilt the top of the spindle in toward the center of the car: not recommended), then tighten the bolts to 77 ft-lbs. By the way, the only steering alignment adjustments available on the S80 are camber and toe. Everything else is preset at the factory and non-adjustable.
Tighten the ball-joint-to-spindle nut using a wrench and the Torx bit to keep the stud from spinning, then tighten to 37 ft-lbs plus an additional 35 degrees angle-tighten.
Reconnect the anti-sway bar link using a wrench and the Torx bit, and then tighten to 37 ft-lbs.
Connect the tie rod to the spindle and tighten the nut to 59 ft-lb.
Insert the ABS sensor and tighten the bolt to 7 ft-lb.
Clip the ABS sensor wire back into its bracket.
Install the splash shield and tighten the bolts.
Install the brake disk and retention bolt and tighten the bolt.
Install the brake caliper and steering stop and tighten the bolts to 74 ft-lbs.
Apply grease to the rubber steering stop.
Have someone step on the brakes, then apply locktight and insert the driveshaft retention bolt and tighten to 26 ft-lb plus an additional 90 degrees angle-tighten:
Install the wheel and tighten the lug bolts to 103 ft-lbs. Remove the jackstands and lower the car. Remove the chocks.
Check the transmission fluid level as some may have leaked out while you were changing the driveshaft. Top up as necessary.
You're done! You just saved several hundred dollars over having the dealer do this for you! And you know the work is done right, because you did it yourself.
NOTE: You don't have to change the hub if you just have a bad driveshaft and you don't have to change the driveshaft if you just have a bad hub. If you're doing only one or the other, just disregard the directions for that part of the job.
