Rear wheel bearing - price alert!
#1
Drifting
Thread Starter
Rear wheel bearing - price alert!
My passenger rear wheel bearing on my 2000 FRC is making noise, so I shopped around for the best price on a Timken 512153 hub/bearing combo. Thought some of you folks might find this interesting, if you're looking to do this work.
Dealer: $$$$. I didn't even bother.
Rockauto - Generally cheapest by far, but not this time - $135.79 after 5% discount and shipped
Advance Auto - I like using them because they usually have what I need in stock, and you can always look up a coupon code for 20% or more off, buy online, and pick up in store. However, they did not list an actual "Timken" brand unit, just a "Driveworks", which I am not interested in using. Regardless - their price came in at $86.09 - for the "off" brand - with free shipping to home.
Napa: They offered a rear bearing/hub assy under their own part number - not sure of the origin, though. $111 shipped to home.
Autozone - I don't use them too often as they generally cost more than the competition and don't carry as much in stock. I tried them on a whim and found a coupon code offer as long as you shipped to home - which is fine by me. Final price: $100.04 shipped to home.
I was under the impression that the parts would cost much more - but was pleasantly surprised. Happy wrenching!
Dealer: $$$$. I didn't even bother.
Rockauto - Generally cheapest by far, but not this time - $135.79 after 5% discount and shipped
Advance Auto - I like using them because they usually have what I need in stock, and you can always look up a coupon code for 20% or more off, buy online, and pick up in store. However, they did not list an actual "Timken" brand unit, just a "Driveworks", which I am not interested in using. Regardless - their price came in at $86.09 - for the "off" brand - with free shipping to home.
Napa: They offered a rear bearing/hub assy under their own part number - not sure of the origin, though. $111 shipped to home.
Autozone - I don't use them too often as they generally cost more than the competition and don't carry as much in stock. I tried them on a whim and found a coupon code offer as long as you shipped to home - which is fine by me. Final price: $100.04 shipped to home.
I was under the impression that the parts would cost much more - but was pleasantly surprised. Happy wrenching!
#2
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St. Jude Donor '03-'04
Book mark this thread if you are using spacers on your rear wheels. Those factory bearings should be good for 400,000 miles unless you try to load them up by using spacers.
#3
Drifting
Thread Starter
Funny - mine only made it to 108K - car never raced or driven in anger.
#4
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St. Jude Donor '03-'04
I was not speaking specifically to you... Not every factory bearing in inspected... a sampling is used in quality control. You apparently got a bad one.. very very rare... These bearing are design to handle more than 10% of the total load. A side impact could damage a bearing. I've been trying to tell people who use spacers to move the load outward from the bearing that this moment causes a direct exponential increase in the load. ( these bearings are not design to handle this load... Budget management to bring this car in at the target MSRP, is the reason for limited design usage.
#5
Drifting
Thread Starter
Good point - as a fellow engineer I agree with the load and failure characteristics, but the point of this thread was not to dissect the failure modes and causes - just to let folks know that the price of a replacement is reasonable in my humble opinion.
#6
Safety Car
I know in the truck world the off-road guys would go through bearings, ball joints, etc much quicker due to their heavy wheel and tire combos that were pushed out. I could be wrong, but wouldn't a much wider and heavier wheel and tire combo under wide fenders do the same, if not more, damage as running spacers?
#7
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St. Jude Donor '03-'04
Bill aka ET
#8
Safety Car
I agree, very reasonable for the platform. Thanks for the thread and psa
#9
I thought my car had a bad right-rear wheel bearing, so I took it to a local, reputable, independent mechanic. I believe he said the caliper needed lubrication and that the disc needed sanding (?). In any case, his repair seems to have worked. No more noise.
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Thankfully do not need to replace a bearing at this point, but thanks for posting up the results of your research.
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nsogiba (05-18-2016)
#14
Drifting
The ones I bought came with a "lifetime warranty" but if I still have the car in another 140k miles, I'd be surprised.