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 intermediate
bearing carrier have to be removed to get the drive shaft 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.
