BMW Wheel Hub Assembly - SKF 31226757024

I think this a fine wheel bearing. It has been on the car just a few hundred miles, but so far it is super smooth and quiet. My reason for the 4 instead of 5 star rating is because I got a different product than the one shown on the photos on FCP website. Mine did not have the plastic holder inside and did require the inside dust cap installed on the spindle! It was definitely SKF brand as stamped on it, but the design was completely the same as the old FAG I removed from the wheel. Another discrepancy is that on the box it was written "Made in USA". I wish I could attach photos to show what I mean.

1. Unpackage hub and set it flat against the ground with the back of the hub against the ground. 2. Get a 1 inch socket and put it inside the bearing sitting on top of the white plastic piece inside. 3. Carefully tap it down until it's ready to come out. Now put your fingers on the bearing inside of the hub AND on the back side of the hub and flip the hub over to tap the plastic piece the rest of the way out. KEEP YOUR FINGERS ON THE BEARING on the inside AND outside to ensure that the bearing does not come out when flipping, tapping etc. 4. Once the plastic piece is removed, set your hub aside and remove the inner dust cap from your spindle. DUST CAP BMW-31206777788. You no longer need this dust cap with the new SKF bearing, it's a new design and will destroy your bearing if you leave it there. 5. Once, the inner dust cap is removed you can now install your new hub assembly. Place it against your spindle and use a 36mm socket and rubber mallet to beat it onto your spindle. 6. Screw on your castle nut, torque to spec, and fold the tab on the castle nut inward so it doesn't go spin off. 7. Lastly, install your outer dust cap PN BMW-31206777789 I decided to write these step-by-step instructions for the people that also found the other reviewers instructions unhelpful or confusing. This is a great bearing, great price, better than FAG, and very easy to install with the proper instructions.

Works great. As somebody previously mentioned, be sure to read the updated installation instructions on the SKF website.

At first I was a little concerned by how it seems like the internal contents were barely held together, but with how the hub is installed onto the car, the bearing will end up very secure. I am very glad I read the reviews here though, otherwise I would not have known to remove the INNER dust seal/ring. Be sure to remove and NOT replace that component (https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw-wheel-bearing-dust-cap-front-31206777788). Ironically that was great because using that inner dust cap to pull the inner race off with my 3-jaw puller made it a lot easier than some of the other methods I have seen. Some people have mentioned removing the white plastic ring was difficult... I used the spindle to just push it out as I was tapping it on. Just make sure you are only tapping on the inner race other wise the bearing will come apart, and watch the alignment as the bearing assembly has two parts that can shift relative to each other. All in all, great bearing and great price.

Overall, this part seems to be good quality and it is actually a better design than the OEM FAG part. You will get a document that confusingly points to the outboard seal but says that the inboard seal is no longer necessary. However, it is the outboard seal that is no longer necessary. The inboard seal has been changed to a cassette-seal, which requires that the rear dust cap (31206777788 for an e46) be removed completely or the new bearing will be destroyed. Google 'skf vkba 3667 technical bulletin' for the necessary documentation to install this part without damaging it. Luckily, FCP Euro has top-notch customer service but it was very frustrating to ruin two new wheel bearings even though they were installed per the provided instructions. SKF needs to include the technical bulletin with this part.

Great

This is a great bearing but SKF changed the design to remove the inboard seal. If you buy this DO NOT install the inboard seal as it will interfere with bearing: https://www.showmethepartsdb.com/BIN/documents/SKF/457781%20BR930349%20Note_2015.pdf SKF should include a note in the box but they dont.

One was fine but the second came apart when I tried to remove the white plastic piece inside. I am sure it was a manufacture defect. This is why I love the lifetime guarantee on parts! Great Job FCP!

The bearings are great quality and OEM fit. The only problem I had with them is the lack of instructions on how to remove the inner plastic piece. The first bearing I put on I popped the inner ring out towards the back of the bearing (sealed side). The ring came out nicely and I had no issues. Then without thinking, I decided to pop the ring out in the opposite direction for the second wheel bearing (out towards the front, the side with the exposed ball bearings). Unfortunately this resulted in the inner bearing ring popping out of place. I was prepared to leave a poor review because the bearings came with no instructions on how to remove the inner ring, but the great people at FCP made it right and replaced the bearing for free! Once I knew how to properly pop the inner ring out they went on no problem. These bearings are solid oil bearings and may make a tiny bit of noise until the solid oil has lubricated all of the bearing balls (took my car about 100 yards). After that they run noise free and extremely smooth. I am slightly concerned that there is no groove on the back side of the bearings to allow the dust cap to sit in, so I will see in a few thousand miles if this causes failure or not but so far everything has been great!

Yes when you open the box it appears that there's a bearing seal missing, but it's not the only bearing in the assembly and it gets closed off to the elements via the $6 dust cap that you should also be replacing. It's actually a superior bearing design to that of the o.e. FAG unit that had failed, so why it looks a little different is a matter of course. Search for "SKF Solid Oil" - initially the hub was impossible to turn by hand, however this is also by design. I mounted the wheel for leverage and spun it to break up the solid oil and it eventually spun more freely but still made noise. Decided to final torque the nut and drive around the block and the noises soon disappeared and it now spins as freely and silently as one would expect. I truly feel that it's an uprated piece from stock, and it's also the cheapest, so hurray.