Today I take up an offer from my neighbour Charlie to attack the suspected manky offside wheel bearing. Charlie works for BMW GB, and as such is kindly supplying the right ‘special tools’ for the job – and special they are!

I start early and get the car out of the garage.

To begin with the job is straight forward: car up, wheel off, brakes off. Then under the car to loosen the half shaft bolts, and prepare the special tools on the hub.

That adapter holds a winding tool that is used to push the drive shaft out towards the middle of the car.

Now here we have the slide hammer, still attached to my hub that I’d pulled off the outer bearing using it. It’s basically a heavy lump that slides up and down the bar. Once the drive shaft is out of the way this is attached to the flange, and the mass pulled vigorously to the end stop repeatedly until the tool, the flange, and I go flying backwards. Success!

We then have access to the bearing which is winched out with another special tool. Refitting is the reverse of removal, and below there’s a picture of the special tool being used to wind in the new bearing.

While doing all this it became apparent that the rear pads were shot as one of them came away from its backing plate. A quick trip to ECP and £29 later and new pads were fitted (to both sides).

This whole process including a trip to ECP and doing the other brakes took only 2 and a half hours – a tribute to Charlie’s knowledge and having the right tools for the job. I can’t imagine any success at all with my normal tool set.

The most gutting thing about today is that while this all went smoothly, and the old bearing certainly was a bit rough, the noise is still there. This means that my investigation focuses squarely on the differential. First stop, I’ll get the fluid changed, but failing that it’ll be time to look for another or get this one repaired. The wallet quakes in fear.