$330 for a front wheel bearing repack?
 

Am I missing something? I've been reading whel bearing posts for the past 90 minutes, and see nothing to indicate that i have a bearing problem. no whining noise when i drive the car. i took the car in to a MB deler to replace the battery, and got a free "safety inspection", where they found $1200 worth of repairs. Could they diagnose a wheel bering without removing the wheels or driving the car?:confused:

From what i've read on this forum, surely a repack just means cleaning off the old grease and putting new grease in the thing, right? How could that cost $330???!!!!:mad:

Even if I needed NEW bearings--a bearing kit is $46 on Fastlane/allparts. is that all I need? How complicated is this? Or should I just ignore the recommendation--I don't want my wheels to fall off, but I could use that money elsewhere. :veryangry Please advise.

Actually a wheel bearing can be going bad without making noises.
If the wheel bearing has some play beyond spec or doesnt spin smoothly then its most likely going. Also the wheel bearing seals may have been shot or the whoever did the wheel bearings on you car tighthen them too tightly and wore out your bearings prematurely. When your wheels starting making noise then its usually too late.

You payed dealership prices for those parts not online prices and payed for labor prices.

For the moment assume they are expensive rather than unskilled at that dealership. You can inspect and repack your front bearings yourself for possibly just the cost of replacement grease. Use threads in the archives for the proper method.

The mercedes front wheel bearings do not seem to require repacking as often as older american rear drive cars did. This does not mean they are maintenance free for their expected life. Anytime you buy an old car just assume they have not been done for far too long and do them. Really a minor job. After the first time it is like falling off a log.

Sounds to me like the dealer was trying to "pack" more than your wheel bearings. Hope he was planning on lube for that too...

if you're going to pull the bearings out why not replace them since they are probably the originals.

seals are less than $10/pair, even at napa. tub of grease= $5-$10.

so then you can go out for a nice dinner because you saved $310.

Servicing wheel bearings is a routine, preventive thing. Do you need to tear an engine apart to "diagnose" the need for an oil change?

A bad wheel bearing can certainly be diagnosed without removing a wheel or driving the car.

I thought that name looked familiar. Hows the car treating ya?

tangofox007wrote:
A bad wheel bearing can certainly be diagnosed without removing a wheel or driving the car.

niki asks: How?


Johnhef wrote:
I thought that name looked familiar. Hows the car treating ya?

niki says: the AC never worked (i think the PO fibbed about that), but otherwise she ran perfectly until last month. the heat is off, which i'm hoping is due to the alternator/voltage regulator problem. and of course--this supposed wheel bearing issue.

i'm trying to figure out: do this NOW, or wait for nice weather. how do i know if it's urgent?

A bad bearing can be felt and heard when the hub or wheel is turned by hand. Loose/worn bearings can also be detected "by hand." The condition of the grease can be observed by removing the grease cap only.

Also if you press against the top of the tire with your shoe and feel too much inward movement with a clunk, that means they are shot. It's true if you start to hear noises from them it's too late.

I had a wheel fall off at 75mph back in the day and my bearings were squeaking but I didn't know what it was (lol my how I have learned much)

Its got my spare AC compressor on it, so I know it at least worked after I put that on there.

Putting your hand on the spring while spinning the wheel and feeling for vibrations and comparing it to the other side is also another way to diagnose a bad bearing.

As for the heat, what do you mean by off? blower motor inop or just blows cold? if it blows cold, did you check the monovalve yet?

I just took our 300E in for a free inspection recently and they found a "bunch of stuff", mostly minor though. Not $1200 worth...thats for sure. :eek:

They found "excess play in front bearings" I checked the tolerance and sure enough they were loose by quite a bit, about half a turn of the main locking nut on the spindle! :eek: After I got that all adjusted the vibration when braking at higher speed is completely gone. They also said the boots on the left tie rod and center link are broken....so I'll probably have the steering stuff replaced in the spring by them, but thats all.

They even found my license plate lamps not working (its not the bulbs...) and that the washer nozzles aren't spraying correctly. LOL. It was pretty thorough. I was amazed.

Nice thing is that its free, and then I took it home and fixed some of the stuff myself. :D

The dealer wants to make more money than a simple battery replacement.
If your hearing is normal and you hear nothing as you drive your wheel bearings are fine. Wheel bearings are not a regular maintenance item. And there is no reason to think the dealer will charge Fastlane prices for parts.

According to Yahoo, "Frugal is the new sexy":

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/moneyhappy/132943

I say, DIY.