After replacing the struts two weeks ago, I finally got around to having the car alligned today at Tire Kingdom. I know, two weeks later - just haven't had the time. While I was there I figured I'd get my 19's balanced as well. Got the typical breakdown of what is "wrong" with my car, like wiper blades, A/C belt...etc. But I've recently noticed some grinding type of sound coming from the drivers side front wheel, and it was no surprise when they mentioned that the driver's side wheel bearing was bad and the passenger side is going bad. I almost shat myself when they gave me the quote to fix it, $380 per side. The bearing itself is only a $50+ part. I did some searching on here and saw that a few people, namely Irish, had a wheel bearing replaced under his extended warranty. Called the company I have mine through, and they confirmed that it would be a covered item, they would only need Nissan to follow up with them prior to the repair. So, basically, I schedule the appointment at Nissan, pay my deductible and save a crap-ton of money.

Oh, the car was not really too bad, mostly just out of tow. The ride is so much better now after spending the $114 for allignment and computer balancing.

 

for extended warranty!

 

Paid $350 for both bearings and a 4-wheel allignment at Sears.

 

both of my rear bearings were replaced by my extended warranty

I love my extended warranty... already paid itself off and then some.

 

between o2 sensors, a tranny silenoid issue, and wheel bearings...mine has paid for itself as well.

 

This is not Nissan's Extended warrantee?

 

Mine is through a 3rd party company. One that was offered when I purchased my car. But, from what I've read, the extended Nissan warranty may cover the wheel bearings (if it's under your level of coverage provided by your plan).

 

two rebuilt transmissions, wheel bearing, and o2 sensor... I think mine has paid for itself too

 

So, the wheel bearing issue is more common that what I had initially thought. For those that have posted, were you running OEM sized wheels when it went bad or larger wheels?

 

Oem rims 235/45/17 tires

 

I'm so glad I know how to things like this myself. When I was 18 I worked in a small auto shop and hated the mechanics I worked with. They were such crooks. I did learn from them but mostly not to trust most mechanics.

I recently changed the bearings on my 1990 Bronco while installing manual hub locks and the whole thing took me only a few hours.

I also have the extended warranty and it paid for itself at 40K with a blown head gasket.

 

Konig Tantrums, with 235/45/17 rubbers

 

I would change these out myself, but from what I've read they are pressed in. Not a loose bearing that is just held in place by the hub nut. But that's just what I've read, I could be mistaken.

 

How many miles were on your car when you found the bad bearings? Also why did you replace your struts and what brand did you replace them with?

 

You would be correct. I was going to do mine until I found out they were covered by my warranty, and I didn't have a way to press them in. My front right went at about 33K miles. Nissan did the warranty work and the paperwork stated the cost +labor was $189 for the one bad bareing.

 

Actually Wheel bearings are not that big of an issue and most techs consider it a non issue. I am friends with a couple of nissan techs (went to high school with them) and they have both told me that the wheel bearings almost never go on these cars. The org is a very small population of the maxima community and also orgers are probably 10X more likely to pu undue stress on parts by their "spirited" driving habits.

$60 for the part from DaveB and about 30 minutes will fix it.

 

Sounds good, Tim. Glad to hear that the bearings are covered. Maybe I should've bought an extended warranty too?
Oh yeah and to me.

 

just fyi, the toe is what was out of spec. those keys are right beside one another but i just wanted to state for the record. i also had a front driver side wheel bearing replaced under nissan warranty with no issue. i was told by the technician that he has seen a high number of 00/01 maximas come in with defective wheel bearings.

 

bad wheel bearings are EXTREMELY common in 5 and 6 gens.
in the 3 and 4 gens, the cars are getting old enough that it's normal to see them here and there.

but I had friends locally with bad wheel bearings on almost new 5th gens (25,000 miles), and at least six people I know in the local car clubs have had them swapped under the original factory warranty on their STOCK 5th gens.

I also had a customer come in about two months ago for a suspension install on his 04.. His had a bad wheel bearing on the right front, but it had 75,000 miles on it already though. (damn!).
when I pulled the cotter pin off the hub, the nut turned by hand- so it obviously wasn't even torqued properly from the factory!

1 hr and $160 later, he had a new bearing and hub on his car and was back on the road.

 

My car currently has about 67k miles. I replaced the OEM struts because they were going bad after having lowered the car about 1.5 yrs ago on Maxspeed springs. I replaced the bad OEM struts with Tokico Blues.

 

Happy Birthday Jason. Have one for me ok?

 

I have yet another question on this topic. For those that had the bearings replaced under the extended warranty, would you recommend installing my OEM wheels prior to taking the car in for repairs? I'm thinking they may not cover them if they can attribute them wearing out because of the 19" wheels.

 

Thanks man. That shouldn't be a problem.

 

if you have them around it cannot hurt... better to be safe than sorry.

 

yea, if i had a choice i would have brought my car into the dealership with the oem wheels on, but it shouldn't be a big deal

 

if you have tires for them then i say swap them out. when i took mine in, i had my old 17X7.5 konig wheels and they did not say anything. with the larger wheel, it just gives them one more oppurtunity to hassle you.

 

Agreed. I use my OEM wheels with Falken 512s for winter driving. So I may just swap them before the appointment.

 

my friend and I replaced one of my wheel bearings at his dad's shop. it didn't take long at all, maybe 1.5 hours and the part was only $50. Took about 6 tons of pressure on the press to get the old bearing out but it wasn't that hard of a job. $380 per side should be rape.

 

How do you know that the bearing has gone bad ??

 

Is this also covered under Nissan's 60k warranty? My extended warranty to 100K is only for powertrain: certified.

 

mine was covered under 5yr/60k nissan powertrain warranty. my extended warranty was no involved.

 

Would you say that it is easy to tell if it's the bearing making the noise up front? I have taken the tire off and checked the brakes, they seem to be good, other than that, there is no noise coming from the front.

 

I had my passenger side front bearing go out after about 8-10 months on the 18's. Got it replace (not under warranty) and now about 3 months later the wheel wobbles like mad. Took it back to the shop and they said the axle nut had backed off. I asked them if they torqued it down in the first place and they said they had or otherwise they wouldn't have been able to give me the alignment. The axle nut backing off is kinda weird so not sure if they really did torque it down. I had noticed front-end problems for a bit now, just got around to fixing it though.

 

When I went to change my bearning...my axle nut was loose as well. The weight of the wrench broke the nut. The last time I loosened it was for the CV boot and I tightened it to spec... sucks having loose nuts...

 

what spec did you use? (ft/lb)



i fyou can do a bearing in 30minutes, you should go work for a dealer. should be to hard to turn a 150hour week for you.

CP labor time for front bearings on an 02-03 maxima is 2.8hr for one, 4.4 for both.

 

everyone, sorry for the completely offtopic post, but why can I only post replies and not new topics? Thanks.

 

Read the announcements at the top of the page:

http://forums.maxima.org/announcement.php?f=10

 

yeah...thanks...it's just not counting some of my posts...back on topic...

 

This new rule of not letting newbs post is actually making things worse. Cause now all we get is these newbs posting this crap in alot of threads. How is this better?

 

we should have a sticky about 'n00bs post here'


or something