Wheel bearing issues

[mrgrim333]

What would you say is a reasonable quote for a front left wheel bearing replacement and repair for a 91 MTX?

 

[deercrusher]

If you dot it yourself - Rockauto has the parts by timken for 50-55 dollars depending on when in 91 your car was manufactured. It's not hard to do you just need a few tools. It takes me about an hour to do one - so at a shop rate of 75 dollars an hour plus your part ----- A shop would probably be about 130 dollars per side.

 

[SHO SPD]

If you dot it yourself - Rockauto has the parts by timken for 50-55 dollars depending on when in 91 your car was manufactured. It's not hard to do you just need a few tools. It takes me about an hour to do one - so at a shop rate of 75 dollars an hour plus your part ----- A shop would probably be about 130 dollars per side.

Yea you forgot to mention he needs to have the old one pressed out and the new one pressed in. Napa or something should do that for you, you can just bring your knuckle in to them.

A shop will probably charge about 2 hours per side at their shop rate plus parts.

 

[deercrusher]

I was talking about buying the hub assembly not just the bearing. Buying one with it already pressed in and just throwing the old one out.

 

[SHO SPD]

You need the whole knuckle then, the bearing and hub press into the knuckle. The gen 3 is a bolt on, not the Gen 1 and 2

 

[rubydist]

I bring my knuckle to a local shop and they charge me their minimum (1/2 hour) to press out the bad bearing and press in the new one. So, around $50 plus the bearing, which will range anywhere from $20 up, depending on what you get and where you get it.

 

[91PDXmocha]

Ive done this a few times now, def go with a good bearing like Timkin, i see many crappy china made bearings at work that are garbage . myself I would go get a good looking set of 94-95 knuckles from the junkyard , clean them up, paint , press in new Timkin bearings and be done with it for a long time.

 

[deercrusher]

sho spd, thank you for correcting me on the bearing replacement. For some reason I thought you could just replace the bearing/ hub assembly. I haven't done this repair on my SHO so I shouldn't have replied without knowing.

 

[rubydist]

While I agree that Timken generally makes good bearings, my experience (and several others that I have talked with) on Timken bearings for the front of the SHO is that they are junk. In my case the Timken one lasted 3k miles, and from what I've heard that's a long time for that Timken bearing. I would buy anything but Timken for this application.

 

[boat]

What would you recommend then? I believe I have a left front wheel bearing starting to fail.

While I agree that Timken generally makes good bearings, my experience (and several others that I have talked with) on Timken bearings for the front of the SHO is that they are junk. In my case the Timken one lasted 3k miles, and from what I've heard that's a long time for that Timken bearing. I would buy anything but Timken for this application.

 

[mrgrim333]

So just take the whole knuckle off?
Then what replacement part numbers should I get off AdvanceAuto.com
Because I know there's a machine shop around the way that would do it for a fair price.

 

[rubydist]

I'm putting either a National or SKF into the one I'm doing this week.

 

[Eric VerValin]

Grim... you are on the right "wavelength" You want the hub / bearing "Kit" as it comes with the new spindle... you will still need to get it pressed in, and the old pressed out... it's not like a whole knuckle assembly...


As far as the Timken thing goes... I replaced 1 bearing 4 times on one side... a few of the bearings out there are "special"... they would last those few thousand miles.. but that last one seemed to hold up just fine... same part number, same process, same press.... didn't do anything different... and the first one I paid to have put in because I didn't trust my press...

 

[itwonder]

Since I'm getting ready to do my front bearings, I read through all the past threads I could find. As said above, there were many reports of problems with Timken. Several people said they used Valuecraft instead, which are the cheap ones from AZ, and have had no problems. The bearings in the Valuecraft kit are unmarked, box says product of China. I'm planning to use them because of the recommendations here. Fingers crossed.

 

[rubydist]

I put in a SKF today, $30 from Checkers on sale and $47 for the shop to press it in.