Dropped my car off at a mechanic to check into an issue I’ve been having (groaning in the front/left wheel). Turns out it is a wheel bearing that needs to be replaced and the mechanic quoted me $750 for the job, saying “the bearing needs to be pressed and it’s a fair amount of labor”.
Is this fair or am I getting stiffed? Thanks! Been reading other threads that estimate $300-400?
As always when in doubt you get a second opinion . It could be that this shop does not have the right equipment for the job or there is a lot of labor involved .
I paid $250 parts and labor for the front wheel bearing of my previous Toyota Corolla. It had to be pressed in also. They put in a Timken bearing and it didn’t take much time…around 45 minutes and I was out of there.Shop around because your estimate seems on the high side.
I thought sometimes they just replace the whole hub part is a little more but less labor. That price sounds high you need to get a second quote.
You didn’t mention the year of your Elantra, but when I plugged in a 2015 into repairpal.com for an estimate, my local zip code brought up an estimate for $173-266 to change a single wheel bearing…you definitely need to get a 2nd and 3rd quote
Vehicle in question is a 2011 Hyundai Limited according to the persons other thread.
You should also verify how many wheel bearings they’re replacing. If it were me, I would go ahead and replace the bearing on the other side of the vehicle as well…chances are, it’s not far behind in terms of failure.
This may explain the higher cost, but it also should’ve been clearly communicated to you.
Did you get an itemized estimate? If not, ask for one. Do that when you get a second opinion too. That way you can easily compare the two. Don’t tell the second shop what the other one estimated.
Thanks all, appreciate the help. I did call a second and third shop and was quoted $350 by one and $380 from the other. Both shops gave me their estimate, and when they then asked what I was quoted when it was diagnosed they said the shop I went to was notorious for extremely high prices and that $750 was way too high… I’m surprised since the first shop had great reviews.
Scope of work as per the first shop was to “replace the left/front wheel bearing and press the new one”, that’s all they mentioned.
You did the right thing by getting other quotes and as an aside, never give a lot of credence to online reviews. Some may be fake and in some cases people may have been robbed blind and simply do not realize it. Their car is fixed for double what anyone else charges so they’re happy with it all.
Same with a guy I know in my area who passed away back in 2011. He BSed, cobbled together, hacked up, and in general screwed everyone over yet everyone within 25 miles of him praised his name to the mechanical heavens. Go figure… 
Cool. With that said, you really should consider getting the other one replaced at the same time…see if the shop will give you a break on the labor.
YES, by about $400
That sounds right. I paid a little over $300 (each side) to replace wheel bearings on my 1995 Avalon.
This doesn’t include the cost of replacing one perfectly good ABS sensor that had to be destroyed in the process. (tech told me that the sensor would be in the way of the press, and they couldn’t remove it without destroying it. ). I believed him, as I replaced the ABS sensor on the other side a year earlier. It was defective. I too had to destroy the old one to remove it, as Toyota machined the hole too small. Talk about a tight fit! There was TSB about this, I believe.
They need to be tight due to the super tight tolerance on positioning for proper operation. I did some work recently and had to R&R an ABS sensor. Long story short, a thousandth made a huge difference in signal level. Too close and it rubs, too far and weak signal. Rust forming on the spacer was enough to cause weak signal…removing them required diligent care not to damage them…
True. But Toyota did increase the diameter of the hole:
(you have to scroll down a little)
http://new.autosmash.com/tsb/TSB_TOYOTA_AVALON.html
After I drilled out the defective sensor , I took a reamer to the hole. The shop that removed the other sensor (left front) was nice enough to let me go home without a sensor (I got one from an online Toyota dealer at a big discount). And my labor is free.
Yeah, tight but not pressed in 
I had to pry mine out a fraction at a time, going around to keep it from getting jammed. Both GM and an 03 Toyota Camry. The GM had a penta-socket head fastener on one side and a pressed in “rivet” on the other. Still struggling to understand/justify the need for such hardware…
Elantra has same bearing setup as Honda’s. A shop can lowball the cost and then have to replace more parts or remove knuckle to press out bearing. The bearing is pressed into the hub. So, assume the hub will be damaged or scored.
I took my knuckle to a shop and they pressed out my bearing and he said hub was scored but he had 1 used. For $20. I tried to pay with my card and tech said hub was his and cash only. Had to run to atm for $20 cash.
Bet tech had a few hubs in his toolbox. From other jobs?
Not necessarily. I had this setup on my old Mazda Protege. You press the hub out of the bearing, and the inner race of the bearing is stuck in the hub. You then carefully score the outside of the inner race, and strike it once or twice with a chisel…the inner race splits in too, and you’re left with the hub, which you can press into the new bearing.
That’s the official method that was listed in the shop manual, and it worked like a charm.
you can get the whole hub and bearing for like $150 , so your mechanic is telling you it is going to take him 5 hours to do the job on a bearing ?? I doubt it , i would run from that guy .
Probably since July 2020 the person has had this repaired.
