Well, I've had a noise coming from my front suspension for as long as I can remember, but always figured it was my tires. After replacing the front tires, and driving another Maxima with the same tires I realized it wasn't the tires making the noise. Tilley went for a ride after the clutch install and thought my wheel bearings might be going out.

So I took the car to my mechanic, and went for a drive, and he also thought it was the wheel bearings. He quoted me for 5.5 hours of labor ($50/hr) for replacing both wheel bearings, and $100 for both bearings. He said since our cars have press in bearings it takes much longer to get the new ones in. While he is down there I figured I would have him replace the drivers side axle seal, and the control arm joints since mine have desintegrated.

Does his estimate sounds reasonable? I don't have $600 right now, but I hear if I wait too long to get the bearings replaced I might have to replace the hub and other parts, which would be even more expensive, so I think I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and replace this crap.

Ideas? Tips?

Thanks

 

I paid $80. for the control arm on Ebay and did the install myself. No way I would pay him $600. for that.

 

My Nissan mechanic friend said it wouldn't take him more than an hour to replace remove/replace both bearings. But I'm taking everything apart myself and just giving him the passenger side knuckle so he can replace just the bearing. He also said the hub is probably damaged so he wants to replace that too so I'm looking at $200 parts for one side. I'd really like him to just do the bearing but he's going to inspect the hub too and replace if needed.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=381545

 

wheel bearings DO NOT take 5.5 hours to replace. An hour per side, maximum.
remove tie rod end, caliper, rotor, strut bolts, axle nut, and pop ball joint out of the bottom of the spindle.

take spindle to workbench,
remove axle dust seal.
remove C clip holding the bearing in place
press wheel hub out of old bearing.
remove outer race from hub with 2/3 jaw puller or hydraulic press. check wheel hub for needed replacement (likely they're shot if your bearings are known bad.... $135 each. OUCH!)
If not needed, then wipe hub clean, coat with fresh layer of axle grease, and set aside.
remove dust seal on opposite side of bearing.
remove C clip on opposite side of bearing.
stick wheel spindle in hydraulic press and press out old bearing.
press new bearing in place using parts of the old bearing as a "pusher" to keep from damaging the new one.

replace C clips on both sides of the bearing.
replace dust seals w/ new ones (they're about $10 each from the dealer. good luck finding these aftermarket)
back up inside race of wheel bearing with something to keep it from moving.
press wheel hub back into bearing.
replace on car.


bearings are about $42 each at a Jerry Rome's website, and the seals are about $10 each. You'll need 2 bearings and 4 seals. that's ~$120 in parts, plus tax, plus shipping.
Plan to replace both front hubs at $135 each, and have them on hand. If they don't need replaced, you can return them.

Labor should be ~2 hours for both sides.

You'll also need a front end alignment when it's done, so add another $30-40 to the price for that.

 

Ok, good info guys. Is there any way to know if the hub is bad before taking everything apart?
Let's say I find some control arms on Ebay....would those necessarily include the hub and bearings as well?
What causes bearings to go bad? I thought it was pretty rare for one to go bad...my car has around 100k on it...

 

you have zero way of telling on the hub until you press it out of the wheel bearing. it fits inside the wheel bearing and when the bearing goes bad, it starts slipping against the hub, ruining both of them. You won't know until you tear it apart, but plan on them being bad. Every bearing I've replaced has required a new hub, and I've replaced a dozen sets or so between myself and customers.

A new control arm wont' have anything to do with the hub and bearings. they're completely different pieces.

you could go to a junkyard and get an entire front spindle (which will have the hub and bearing still in it) for around $50-60, but there's no guarantees on how long the bearings in it will last, since the car is probably just as old as yours is with similar mileage.


Plan on replacing wheel bearings about every 100,000 miles.. our tires are roughly 850 turns per mile, so at 100,000 miles that means that wheel bearing has turned over at least 85 MILLION times, so dont' be surprised that it's worn out.

 

Thank you Matt. You're so helpful

 

Not to these guys...
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=383001

 

Nick-

If you wait a few weeks, we can try this in the garage at my new place, but I am not trying it outside.

 

Are these tools expensive? Are they among the tools that you can rent from AutoZone?

 

Jaw puller maybe, Hydraulic press(not in a million years)

 

Is there a manual bearing press?

 

they call it a bench vise..
this bearing isn't going to be something you can do by hand... I have a 12 ton hydraulic press, and it pops and creaks under the stress of pressing in a wheel bearing. I doubt a bench vise or anything else short of a press would get it in there.

 

I think Irish did his own...try to do it yourself.

 

i did my own... it took 2 hrs total. Had to go to napa to get the bearing pushed out, that took about an hour. Had to replace the hub, which was about 100 dollars.. soo about 150-200 to do it yourself

 

I paid around $400 to have my hub and bearing replaced

 

good info, ill need this during spring

 

old thread, but just found it accidentally. No, i didn't do it on my own. My bearing was covered under my B2B extended warranty, so I let the dealer deal with it

 

You should be able to take the hub to a machine shop to have the bearings pressed out for a failry insignificant fee. I'd stick to one that does work on cars and not just a general machine shop. If they scratch their heads and say, "I think I can." It would be a good idea to find another shop.

 

You people who can jack the car up, remove the wheel, unclip the brake hose, remove the axle nut, remove the tie rod nut, remove the ball joint nut, remove the strut bolts, pull the knuckle off, remove the dust seals, press out the hub, remove the retaining rings, press out the old bearing, insert one retaining ring, press in the new bearing, install the other retaining ring, install the outer dust seal, press in the hub, install the inner dust seal, install the knuckle onto the control arm, torque down the ball joint nut, torque the tie rod nut, insert the axle, torque the axle nut, install and torque the strut bolts, clip the brake hose, put the wheel back on, torque the lug nuts, and lower the car...

all in one hour certainly are big BaLLeRs yo.

I've done it in two hours at a leisurely but steady pace, but I don't think I could ever do it in an hour.

 

i think they meant 1 hour per side?

 

I did, too.

 

I had Stephen do one side on my car. He's correct about the time. But it only cost me $100 in parts for the one side. $70 at the stealership for bearing and seals (hook up price) and $25 at the junkyard for a hub with a bad bearing on it. I think the only reason the bearing was bad was from sitting out in the rain for so long. It was pretty much just seized up a little.

 

Cost me $350 at garage on my 1993 Corolla w/ 200k miles. The bearing is rusted so much that has to torch out. Image DIY in your drive when you have to put eveything back & call AAA to tow it to garage.

 

Last one I did took me 45 minutes.
then again, 3 gens have a ball joint that unbolts from the control arm. makes it a ton easier.

 

or you can remove the complete assemly yourself and take it to pepboys or a shop that has a press and let them do the labor for around $35 its a 30 min thing to press out and in. Just take it off and take the bearing to get pressed in with new hub, wheel bearing and seals. Total cost should be around $180.00 parts and labor.

 

$40 total for me . front left from junkyard and installed myself in driveway