Changing the wheel bearings on a E39 540i or M5 looks difficult, but turns out to be quite simple.  If this is your first time, you should budget 3 hours for the job and plan on spending two hours for the first side and 1 hour for the 2nd side.  Subsequent bearing swaps take about 35 minutes per side, assuming you have air tools. The wheel bearing assembly is held in place by four bolts.  Two of the bolts are easily accessible.  Two of them are blocked by the shock absorber, which turns what should be a 5 minute job into the more complicated process documented below.
	I'm assuming that you already have the car on jack stands and the front wheels removed.  Remove the brake calipers, caliper mounting frames, and rotors.  I've upgraded to the MOV'IT/Porsche brakes, which explains why my calipers probably look a bit different than yours! If you are installing a big brake kit, it is a very good idea to change your wheel bearings at the same time.     The shock absorbers on the E39 BMW are the same part number for the left and right side.  There are marks on the back of the strut (L or R) that are lined up during installation with a slot on the back of the aluminum steering knuckle.  Rather than use those marks, it is easier and more accurate to draw your own marks with a permanent laundry marker on the strut and steering knuckle.  Clean the dirt off a small area and mark one or two vertical lines on both the strut and the aluminum knuckle.
	A closer view of the alignment marks.  A horizontal line is not required since the strut has a shoulder that sits firmly in the knuckle.  Also, the strut will have a sharp boundary between the clean and dirty sections, so it will be obvious when it is seated properly in the knuckle. Once you've marked the strut, remove the pinch bolt which is shown in this photo just below and to the right of the alignment marks.  You'll need to use a wrench on one end to keep the bolt from rotating as you remove the nut.  Before placing the nut and bolt aside, mark the bolt with the laundry pen with the label "STRUT" because it looks the same as another DIFFERENT bolt that you will remove in the next step.  You don't want to mix them up! The pinch bolt holds a small bracket (you can see it in the NEXT photo) that clips to the ABS cable and on the driver side, the brake pad wear sensor cable.  After you remove the pinch bolt, simply push this bracket out of the way.
	Remove the nut and bolt holding the rear lower control arm to the chassis.  The arm is not under any pressure and can easily be reinstalled without any special tools.  The arm is shown in the lower left of the photo.  The bolt should be marked "CONTROL ARM" with the laundry pen so that it isn't mixed up with the strut pinch bolt that you removed in the previous step. Remove the nut from the swaybar end link where it attaches to the aluminum bracket.  You will need to use a 16 mm open end wrench to keep the threaded stud from turning while you remove the nut with a socket wrench.  Wiggle the end link loose and push it out of the way.  You may need to compress the suspension slightly with a floor jack in order to get the end link loose.  Push it back and out of the way.
	A closer shot of the swaybar end link.  The 16 mm wrench is used BEHIND the bracket to keep the stud from rotating while the socket wrench is used to remove the nut.
	Spray some WD-40 or other lubricant on the lower part of the strut so that it will be easier to slide out of the knuckle.  Be careful not to wash away your alignment marks with solvent! Grab the aluminum steering knuckle and pull it down as far as you can.  Your instinct will be to try to turn the knuckle side to side, but it is held firmly in place by the front control arm.  Instead, grab the strut housing and turn the strut side to side while you pull down on the knuckle.  This is where it is helpful to have a 2nd person working with you. Pull it down far enough that you can gain access to the four bolts which hold the bearing/hub assembly in place.
	This is a view from behind the knuckle while lying down on your back.  As you can see, the knuckle has been pulled down far enough that the bottom of the strut is no longer blocking access to the upper two bolts. Be careful not to damage the ABS sensor wire. An air wrench is  helpful to remove these bolts, since that factory uses red LOKTITE and they are very long.  You'll be sweating if you have to remove these bolts by hand. Discard all four bolts after removal.  They should be replaced with new ones.
MORE PHOTOS TO COME	Installation is reverse of disassembly.  Use thread locking compound such as red LOCTITE on the four bearing/hub bolts.  After pushing the knuckle back up, make sure the marks on the strut align with the marks on the knuckle. Be sure not to torque the lower control arm bolt and pinch bolt until the suspension is compressed with a floor jack.  As soon as I find the official torque specs, I'll publish them here.