this is my moms car, its needing a left front bearing assy on the wheel. from what ive found nosing around, the bearing and hub can be seperated and just the bearing bought, besides having access to a press, how bad is the rest of the job? ive took apart the front end of a S-blazer before, so i know the basics of getting a hub/bearing assy out of the vechicle, just dont know the specifics as it pertains to this chassis. thanks. Dave.

 

It should be about the same... as long as the S10 was a 4WD.
The Protégé of course is FWD and therefore you will have to release the axle assem to release the hub assem from it. After that, it should only be 3-4 bolts that mount it to the upright/spindle assem. Then slide it off... you may need a BFH and a lot of lubricant to do it though.

 

I did that to my P5- took off the assembly, loaded it into my motorcycle panniers and brought thing to my friend's shop. He told me he normally charged nearly as much to press out/in the bearing as he did to r&r the hub! He cut me a break, but next time, he's getting the whole car! Not worth the trouble to do half the job myself, in this case. You may find the same thing happening where you live, I'd check with the shop you will have the bearing pressed, before I tore into it.

 

New bearing 25$
new hub assembly 275$....WTF

I just did my front left bearing today.
you have to have a shop press it out, it takes approx 1/2 to 1 hour of labor so it could be from 30 to 90 depending where you live JUST to swap bearings. i had a neighbor do it for free so start asking friends.

you will need a breaker bar (piece of pipe works well) put this on the end of your wrench for more leverage when removing/tightening tough bolts
and the correct size 1/2 inch socket to remove the cv-axle nut

to remove hub assembly

lift entire front end not just the one side and put it on jacks. you need to lift both sides because the front sway bar will twist the strut around if one side has load on it( found out the hard way )
so with front end up it air.
take a screw driver or chisel and using a hammer, bend the lock back on the CV axle nut, youll see what i mean, instead of a pin they bend in the lip on the nut.
with lock bent. put wheel back on car and lower it down, and then loosen the cv-axle nut. lift car and remove wheel again.
you can remove the axel nut now.
remove tie rod pin, remove nut. to get the tie rod off the hub use pickle fork, or get a piece of wood and a hammer, pound the hell out of it till it pops off. make sure you have the piece of wood you you could mushroom the metal or ruin the threads.
using your block and the hammer, beat on the cv axle until it starts to slide out from the assembly, you just want too loosen it at this point
remove lower control arm by removing the 14mm bolt that pinches the hub the the ball joint on the control arm,
again using your trusty block and hammer, pound the control arm off.
now remove caliper
to do so use hex key/allen wrench, remove plastic cap on back of caliper and use the hex key to remove slide pin.
pull caliper forward to compress piston and then lift caliper and slide it off the top slide pin. support caliper with hanger or wire in the wheel well. never hang a caliper by brake line.
remove pads and brake hardware.
remove caliper track that the upper slide bolt is on. i believe these are two 17mm bolts.
to remove brake rotor/disk.
usually these are rusted on really well. spray penetrating lube through wheel stud holes and wait for 20 mins. take a hammer and tap around the studs if that doesnt work you will notice an 8mm bolt hole, you can stick a bolt in there and force the rotor off.
remove rotor
at this point you should be staring at the hub assembly supported by the 2 bolts that hold it to the strut.
with your 17mm wrenches, remove these two bolts, pull assembly the rest of the way off the cv axle and you are done.

when replacing remember to tighten cv axle nut, put wheel on, lower car to ground. tighten the cv-nut and then raise the car, remove wheel, and pound the lip on the nut back into the notch to be sure the nut is locked.