man, i thought it would be an hour job... i guess not...

thanks Roo!

 

The problem with wheel bearings is that they have to be pressed into the hub. I got mine done in downtown Oakland at a place called Torchio's. IIRC, it was ~$230 incl. labor. If you're trying to do it on the cheap then you can just disassemble the hub from the rest of the car and take that to a shop with a hyrdaulic press and have them pull the bearing and press the new one in. I've heard of a few people doing that on various boards.

Oh, and my wheel didn't move at all while off the ground. That was the first thing someone suggested to me when I was having the problem with my '93 Legacy turbo.

-Brian

 

this includes parts?

 

thanks man accutually that price is a lot cheaper than i thought. someone on nasioc said that it would be around $400.

 

yep... i guess that's about the same as what Brian paid for...

 

yeah, that's not too bad. my friend had a bad wheelbearing on his 94 accord and it cost him $240 ($100 parts and $140 labor).

 

Alright, i took it into a shop yesterday (Chet's Auto Care) and Vu checked it out for me and said it's the wheel bearing for sure. Once he had it up on the lift, only the front passenger wheel has play. All the others are fine. BUT he was telling me it would take ~3.5 for one side AND that I need change BOTH sides. He said he'll knock the hours down to 4.5 for both sides and $525 OTD! I kindly declined and went to another shop.

I used to go to this shop by my work (Economy Auto), but I stop going because he wasn't able to fix my AC problem last time. But David at Economy Auto was very honest and said he is not an AC expert and advised me to go somewhere else (then I found Vu at Chet's Auto Care).

Long story short, my Protege is at Economy Auto now and should be done later this morning for $200 OTD. That's without negotiation and a straight up price after he made a call to find out the price for the parts.

I just wanted to say that I felt like Vu at Chet's Auto Care wasn't very honest with me. While David at Economy Auto can't fix everything, he is honest with me and would advise me to go somewhere else if he can't handle the job.

That's all folks!

 

Good to hear that the cost of repairs won't run you into the ground.

 

Economy Auto sounds like a decent shop. I need to get the front wheel bearings replaced on my WRX. Can you share their contact info? TIA.

 

David Chow (Owner)
Economy Auto Repair
1170 Willow Ave
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
408-244-4694

 

no kidding! don't need to be spending the bucks now...

 

well... got the car back and the big crazy vibration is gone. HOWEVER, still have a slight shake in the car. I took the car in for Road Force balance yesterday and seems like it got a little better, but it's still there. I don't know...

Man, maybe the car is just getting old or something. There is no play in any of the other wheels so I THINK the other bearing are okay too. Really have no idea...