Wheel Bearings reality check?

[skyrocketship]

Just been quoted £75 each for rear wheel bearings, plus up to 4 hours labour to remove and re fit both wheel bearings on my '86 350i.

Total cost to replace wheel bearings could be £350

The price is from a trusted specialist and I don't think I'm being ripped off - but just wanted to make sure.

Any comments appreciated!

Thanks

ps - anyone else at the Champ Car races at brands yesterday - what happened to the TVR drivers parade??

[TaSmania]

Seem to remember the bearings for my 400, changed last spring were around £50 each plus Vat from RT. 4 hours for both sides seems okay. Make sure the hub assembly bolts get new nuts and that the main hub nuts are new, fully tightened and ideally pinned (definitely on anything bigger than a 350).
GB

[danny hoffman]

Do they both need changing. I had one go on my old 280i, but the otherside was fine.

Danny

[danny hoffman]

I changed mine myself - not too difficult

Danny

[wedg1e]

Rear bearings are Ford Granada; last time I bought one it was about £24 from a motor factors. You may find an old stock one somewhere and get it for the 1980's price of £12... if you're lucky!

Ian

[jmorgan]

I took mine apart only to find it was fine and it was dry UJ transmitting the grinding through the shaft.

[danny hoffman]

I have a feeling that you may need an extra seal if you just buy the standard granny bearing

[brm brm]

Yep - definitely an extra seal needed. The price you are quoted is about right from a TVR specialist. An alternative to pinning the new hub nuts is Loctite or equivilent - saves drilling holes in the shaft.

[AndyM]

Got one bearing replaced on my 400 for £60 labour, I supplied the bearing.Good garage, he quoted me the torque figure for the bearing before I could say anything, he was ex TVR though!

Andy.

[wedg1e]

I had a rear bearing race fracture on the Tasmin: a small piece of the outer race then got mixed in with the balls and would cause some horrendous noises, especially as you went from forward to reverse, or vicky vercky. Otherwise it didn't affect the car at all. Well, apart from the noise, vibration, cracked windows, dashboard falling out, loose fillings etc... oh no I forgot: that was all in the design...

Ian

[danny hoffman]

Unlucky - moral, take your TVR to a TVR friendly MOT station in future.

Danny

[danny hoffman]

I always get my MOT from TowerView

[jmorgan]

Apart from the speed, aren't you OK to and from an MOT as long as you can prove it was booked in? Same for tax. You can take an un-taxed car for an mot as long as you use the direct route there and back?

[Toby Noble]

Mechanic called today to tell me my wheel bearing noise was in fact.....you guessed it a Uni Joint

I haven't yet picked up the car, so we'll see if he was right shortly.

He reckons wedges are very heavy on Uni joints, especially when cornering, because they don't have a "slip joint" in the driveshaft, unlike other cars.

He also mentioned that for the same reason changing the joint was harder than usual so I'm a tad nervy about getting the bill

Beyond me, but it seems like a lot of wedges suffer the same thing so he may be right.

Thank God there's no MOT in Australia

[danny hoffman]

Grease your UJs every 3 months max - and smear the end caps with grease to stop any water getting in

[mrcrappy]

yeah ive had the same problem every year take it for MOT, fail on UJS and Bearing, replace all, take it back and still fails, one mechanic failed it on the ujs but didnt even know how to change them when i asked him to do it, any way got in touch with TVR and then the ministry of transport, suprisingly the car passed when i took it back, as said before find a MOT mechanic that actually knows a bit about engineering practice and not just oil changes explain to him andhopefully youll be ok. good luck

[danny hoffman]

Well done