Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting questions about hubs and bearings

Allright guys. I've been using this site for information for a couple years now. Everyone has lots of great information to share. Now I need some advice.

I took my car in to a local mechanic last week. I wanted him to look the car over and tell me how everything looked. My car has 130,000 miles on it and I wanted to make sure it was going to last me for a while longer.

He called me back to let me know that the front hub and bearings on both sides needed to be replaced for almost $850. (My car has been making the 'humming' noise that seems consistent with bad bearings) I told him "no can do" because I don't have that kind of money to spend. I asked him why the hub and bearings needed to be replaced and he said that there is considerable "play" in both front wheels. (I checked this out and there is quite a bit of "play") And he said that they've learned that when there is that much "play" it is counter-productive to just change the bearings, because they won't last long in the old hubs.

So heres my question. Does this sound correct? What would happen if I just had the bearings changed? How long could they last on these supposedly bad hubs? (He said there is no way to estimate how long they would last.)

I was also wondering how tough it is to do on your own. My dad is pretty proficient with cars, and he said he would have access to a press if we needed one. What other tools would we need? Is it much tougher to replace the hub, rather than just the bearing? Also, what should I be looking for when we visually inspect the hub and bearings? Are there any signs to a bad hub?

Sorry for the long post, I just need some help.
Thank you.

okay!The hub assembly has to be removed in order to replace
the bearings.what he should of said was it should be replaced with the bearing because you have to remove it
first.but....you don,t have to replace the hub.I have 16
years of experience and I can tell you that the mechanic
is covering his a$$.before you replace them make sure you
check the lower control arm bushings,ball joints and Tie
rod ends.you can save alot of time and money because you
can service these parts at the same time.I have my own
bearing press made by OTC and this will allow you to
press the bearing out and on to the car.its takes a few
hours with hand tools.I hope this will help you

The only way you have to replace the hubs is if the inside diameters of the bearings have started to chew off metal from the hubs. As a result there is nothing to press to with the new bearings. If they haven't been chewed you don't need new hubs.

The hub actually doesn't wear so no real need to replace them. To replace the bearings, you need to remove the steering knuckle and press out the old bearing and hub. Then press the hub into a new bearing and press all this back into the knuckle. A NAPA with a machine shop will do this for about $80 parts and labor per knuckle. Getting the steering knuckle off (and back on) the car is a fair amount of work but a Haynes manual or service CD will be a big help. You can loan the special tools from AZ for free. (Axle socket, hub puller) This will take about 3-4 hours per side. $200-$250/side would be a fair price for a garage to do the work.

The only reason you would need to replace the hub is if you beat the crap out of it getting it out of the bearing. A decent machine shop with the right equipment will have no problem handling pressing the hub in/out with no damage.

allright, so the only way to know if the hubs need replacing is too look at them once you get the bearings out?

the mechanic did say that he thought one side needed a new hub for sure, but he wasn't sure about the other side. If I asked him to just do the bearings and not worry about the hubs, would he do it...or if it's a bad hub, do you need to replace it. so i guess my question is: can you put new bearings in bad hubs, or would this be pointless? also, in response to saying the hubs could only be bad if i beat the crap out of them while pulling the bearings out...is this true? or could they just be bad from having the bad bearings in too long? i think the humming noise has bee going on for about 8,000 miles now. how likely is it that both hubs are bad?

i got a quote from another reputable mechanic for $390 for both front bearings. but i may just hold out and check it with my dad first.

thanks again guys

oh yeah, and are there any telling signs that a hub is bad before you can actually get in there and look at it?

YOU CAN INSTALL BEARINGS ON A BAD HUB IF YOU WANT!BUT YOU
DON,T WANT TO PAY TWICE FOR THE SAME JOB.

Jack the front end up, and try to rock the tires/wheels back and forth. If there is much play in the tires/wheels, you probably have a bad bearing, but you don't know if the problem extends to the hub, or is only with the bearing, until you get in there. However, if your bearing is worn so badly that you have also damaged the hub, then you are going to have a tremendous amount of play in the wheels. I bet that this is not the case, and that the only problem is with the bearings.

Like bentley mentions, if your bearings are so far gone that the hubs are damaged, your front wheels are going to be wobbling bad and you would probably smell something burning up from the friction heat of the bad bearing. Noisy bearings are fairly common and you can drive on them a long time before they fail totally and damage a hub or axle. Ditch the guy trying to sell you hubs, he probably doesn't have the right tools to do the job without killing the hubs.