This is not a post asking "how to" or "how do I" rather a public service announcement for anyone that decides to undertake replacing the bearings them self. (it's actually quite easy)

The Story:
I recently purchased new hub bearing assemblies for my car. (I have a 2005 Cooper Cabrio). I was careful to look everything up on the vendors site (through eBay) to ensure what I bought was correct. I received the rear hub and installed it in almost no time; it went on great fit perfect looked good!!!

Then..
I tried to mount the tire and that's when I realized my lug bolts would not fit. You see I had the older (smaller 12mm) lug bolts and the hub I purchased was for the newer (larger 14mm) hub bolts. I don't blame the vendor for not knowing (I called and spoke to him) this and it was not something I thought about when buying.

I was able to get new lug bolts from the dealer, but I think a good thing to remember is that you may want to ensure that you order the correct size hub assembly to use you existing bolts or as I did get new bolts that are the correct size.

For reference I paid $65 for the rear assembly. The assembly I received is Timken # HA590161 (the vendor referenced them as NT512304)
The fronts were about $89 each and aren't here yet so I don't know what size bolts (EDIT - They will use the older 12mm bolts) I'm going to need. I should be able to update if anyone cares to know where I got the stuff.

 

Why did you change your bearings? Were you having the bearing failing noises?

 

Yes. mostly the reason.

I recently installed new Shocks / Struts / Tie-rods / etc. and still had some issues (noise in the right front) so since my car spent 6 years in the rust belt of Northeast Ohio (and I'm now in NC) I decided to just replace them all to attempt to combat the salt/rust that is taking over. I had to drill out a rotor retaining bolt on one of them and never repaired it the right way so this fixed that too.

 

Don't forget you do have a rust warranty through MINI so if the body starts rusting take it in.