Wheel Bearing Replacment Cost?

My 2000 SL1 with 134K miles needs front wheel bearings. Can anyone do it or
should it be the dealership? Any idea on cost?

 

Not sure if those bearings are press-in or bolt-in cartridge. If you have a
good independant shop you deal with, by all means ask them. They should be
able to do the repair. Are both wheels bad? Sometimes you hit a pothole and
kill one side only.
Usually the bearing swap is done on the car without removing the steering
knuckle. Plan on getting a 4 wheel alignment anyway.

 

This is a press in sealed bearing. It does require removing the steering
knuckle. I would suspect that only one side needs replacement. IMHO there
is no reason to replace both, just replace the bad side. It is often
difficult to determine which side is bad, jack up each side and spin the
wheel to determine which one is bad. If the bearing is not too bad you may
need to jack both sides and remove brake calipers to determine which side is
bad.

I purchased a plain bearing and not the bearing and hub kit as there was
nothing wrong with the hub and no more work to change without the hub. IIRC
it would have been even harder to press the bearing with the hub installed
first.

I posted a complete write up on this repair, link is below or search Google
groups on subject "S series front wheel bearings" Mar 17, 2005.
http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.a...+author:private&rnum=6&hl=en#c3980cf51a2fabaf

If you have a shop do the work make sure they have the correct tooling as
described in the write up. Brg part # and repair quoted price also in write
up.
It is not a difficult repair but does require some equipment and experience.
We have had no further problems since repairing one side only.

 

"Private" <> typed until their fingers bled, and came
up with:

I read your writeup, but I'm not clear how you removed the hub. That is
the only step that is befuddling me - I have everything I need to put it
back together, but I haven't figured out how to get the hub out - The FSM
shows a nifty tool that the dealer has that pulls the hub out of the
knuckle, but I cannot find any place (including the Mac tool catalog) that
has this tool.

 

As a general rule, drive your car down a smooth paved road with some
slight curves in it. A large mall parking lot will work after business
hours. When you slightly turn, causing the car weight to shift, a bad
bearing will get louder. And when shifting the weight away from the bad
bearing, it will get quieter. I have yet to see both front bearings bad
at the same time, but not impossible. James

 

Further to my Saturn S series wheel bearing write up at
http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.a...+author:private&rnum=6&hl=en#c3980cf51a2fabaf

IIIRC, I looked at the illustrations of the adapters illustrated in the
Chilton manual and considered fabricating something similar but it seemed
simpler to try using the standard frame type press frame that I had, and to
use steel blocking to hold the knuckle in a level position that would allow
the hub to be pushed out. I do not remember doing any welding to hold this
blocking in place, (this is often handy to construct a more solid blocking).
I would NEVER weld on the knuckle.

IIRC, I blocked the knuckle level (above the bed of my press) and pressed
the hub out using a socket (as a press adapter) just a bit smaller than the
shaft of the hub. IIRC the bearing came apart during this pressing and the
outer 1/2 of the inner bearing (and the outer seal) remained on the shaft of
the hub.

IIRC the outer race is one piece but the inner race is in two halves. The
outer 1/2 of the inner race (and the outer seal) remains attached to the hub
and the inner 1/2 of the inner race (and the inner seal) stays in the
bearing attached to the knuckle and can be simply knocked apart (with a
hammer & punch) from the outer race which remains pressed inside the
knuckle.

The outer 1/2 of the inner race was removed from the hub by heating just
enough to expand it and it almost fell off. I did this heating with an
oxy-acetylene torch and did it fast enough that the hub did not get hot or
expand. I do not think that a propane torch would be hot enough to expand
the race without also heating and expanding the shaft of the hub. I am sure
that this race could be removed by other means like grinding or cutting but
IIRC there is not much of a lip to catch with a bearing separator in order
to pull (or press) it off. I used a torch because it seemed like the
easiest way and you have to get by with what you have available. If I did
not have a torch I would have found one to use for the 5 minutes that it
took to do the job.

I placed a bead of arc weld inside the outer race in order to shrink it and
make it easier to remove using a drift punch and hammer. If I did not have
an arc welder I would have borrowed one as while I am sure the race could be
removed by other means, shrinking is IMHO the easiest and I use this method
in almost every (outer race) bearing removal. Once you learn how easy it
makes this job you will never do it any other way.

Please note the caution I wrote in the first write up regarding the
desirability of costructing a washer type press adapter to use when
installing the new bearing. NEVER attempt tp press any new bearing by
applying a force through the balls. When using a shop to perform this
repair, NOTE the CAUTION to first ensure that the shop has the correct
addapters to prevent loading the balls when installing the bearing in the
knuckle or the hub in the bearing. ONLY PRESS ON THE PROPER RACE.

The foregoing is just my opinion and YMMV. I do not think this is an
especially dificult repair but, I do have a lot of similar experience and
have most of the tooling required.

 

That's a lot of work to get the two separated. I have a press and welder as
well, but I prefer to just take the parts (that I'd already removed from the
car) to my local Saturn service department. It takes them only a few
minutes and I recall the charge was minimal. FYI.

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]

 

As I said, YMMV. It probably took me longer to do the write-up than the
actual job. I only did the write-up because it was an area that was not
well covered by either of my two manuals. It was my attempt at contribution
to this group. I made this contribution in a format that a Google groups
search would easily find.

The closest Saturn dealer was 175 miles away.

My local parts jobber had the brg the next day.
It took my machinist friend less than 1/3 hr to machine the brg press
washer, while I waited. He was located across the street from the parts
jobber.
I now have the tooling and knowledge that will allow me to do a similar
repair on either of my Saturn cars.
It is my experience that "no repair that you are prepared for is ever
needed".

For me going to the dealer would have been a very big deal and they could
have said "We are busy, leave it with us, and come back tomorrow".

Even if there was a Saturn dealer close by it still would have taken me
longer to travel to the dealer (twice?) than it took me to do the job &
there would have been pressure to buy the part from them, probably for
(much?) more money.

Why do you have the tools if you think it is better to get the work done by
others?

I suspect that most of the readers of this group do not have the required
tooling or experience, and the dealer option is the best course of action.
However it is not an inexpensive repair and I was able to pay myself over
$50/hr (tax free) to perform this repair. I also have confidence that it
was done right.

Just my .02

 

Why do you have the tools if you think it is better to get the work done
by

Because in this case, the dealer knows how to do this job without using a
welder or having custom press parts machined as you had said you needed to
do. The amount of time it takes them vs. the amount of time it takes a
driveway mechanic with the same tools still makes it worthwhile to let them
do it with significantly less trouble and time involved. I'm all for
learning how to do new things and you can see that from my website, but the
amount of swearing, sweat, and skinned knuckles that some jobs have given me
make me want to let someone else do it - especially when the job is
virtually effortless for them due to their experience, knowledge, and
specialized processes & equipment. This has been my experience.

I do believe that the average person with a Haynes/Chilton manual, basic
tools, and some patience can do all the parts removal and reassembly
themselves and save quite a bit of money. But when it came to pressing out
and pressing in new bearings - that's where I thought I'd relay the
experience I'd had. YMMV.

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]

 

I think we are in basic agreement. There is definitely a line between what
a driveway mechanic can or should attempt to do but this is a movable line
that depends on their access to tooling and the skill set they bring to the
job. I do agree that this is one of those jobs that is very close to this
line. The basic disassembly is more likely to be within the average
driveway mechanic's tool and skill set and that the actual hub and bearing
rebuild is of a higher level of difficulty.

As a licensed mechanic and also licensed welder with much heavy mechanical
experience, I have often removed outer bearing races easily, quickly, and
successfully from locations that would require very specialized adapters in
order to remove with press or puller. I have done this successfully so many
times that it is my preferred technique, and I use it first on almost every
job of this type. I would use this technique (if possible) even if I had
the correct pullers and adapters. I have never seen additional damage
caused by the technique (when performed properly) and it works even if the
bearing race was installed using bearing glue. I have seen additional
damage caused by puller and press failures.

I suspect that we could have a similar debate on the merits of broken bolt
extraction using drilling and "easyouts" vs. welding a nut on the broken
bolt.

I think the OP has received all the information he needs to make his repair
decision and I hope this discussion benefits others.

just my .02, YMMV