We did the bearing in my Brother's a couple weeks ago. I took the knuckle out and took it to the dealer to have them press the new bearing in. After getting it all back together, the noise worsened. So my Brother was convinced that the problem is the CV axle and he bought a new one. I put that it in this morning, and it's still the same - maybe a tiny bit quieter. What it boils down to it is the bearing is still the issue, and I get to tear it back out again. No biggie, but I'd really like to pop the butthole in the head that thought pressing a bearing into the knuckle was a good idea.
The dealer broke the new bearing (Timken) putting it in, just as I did on my own Escape. It takes entirely too much pressure to press that bastard in there. I knew for a damn fact I had busted mine because of the LOUD pop it made. This mechanic over there had to have heard it pop putting it in. I wish he would have told me. Now it's neither here nor there..... I'll be doing another one pretty soon.
This time it took me about 50 minutes. One thing that was different between mine (4 cylinder/CD4E/2wd) and my Brothers (6 cylinder/CD4E/AWD) is mine barely lost any fluid - maybe 1 cup - when I did my CV axle. My brothers lost 1.5 quarts. Kind of odd.