[s-cars] Wheel Bearing replacement labor question

[Tom Green]

Hi Manny,

You leave me confused about the timeliness of this discussion.  It  
sounds like the shop has already performed
some of the tasks you have asked them to do but not all, i.e., they  
have not pressed out the bearings yet?

So you are now balking at the labor charges completed and some they  
have quoted but not performed.  Not very
timely IMO, meaning, what are the options, and are any better than the  
current deal?  Other than the thought that
you avoided being overcharged, is there any advantage to moving to  
another shop, or will you incur more costs
in changing?

You noted that the springs were not under load, but they must still be  
on the strut.  I don't understand how this is
possible or helpful to the shop since the spring is still in the way  
and they probably removed it and have to
reinstall all parts.  It appears that your asking them to do half the  
job did not result in a major time/labor savings.
You did not mention if the wheel hub was still in the bearing.  I am  
assuming it was since you would need them
to remove it and press it back in place.

It does not sound like this shop would have been successful with  
changing the wheel bearings on the vehicle
with the comments about the bearings being seized in place.  A shop  
that specializes in on the vehicle bearing
swaps might have been successful.  It does sound like they know what  
they are doing (so far).  The independent
shop is going to have to improvise to substitute for the special tools  
to hold the housing straight in the press.  You
cannot press the bearing out at any angle or replace it successfully  
unless it is perfectly aligned, so the set-up
time for this sounds reasonable.

If you can't visualize the above task, take your strut assembly and  
place it with the bearing axis perfectly vertical
as if you are going to press out the bearing and block it in place.   
Then turn it over and do it again as if you are
pressing in a new bearing.  Then turn it over again and support it  
correctly to press in the hub.

If my guess is correct that you have selected a shop that knows how to  
complete this job correctly, I recommend
that you grin and bear it and have them complete the job.  Changing at  
this point just introduces the chance of
things going terribly wrong, and then finger pointing at the the other  
shop.

Tom '95 S6
          '95.5 S6 avant
Knoxville, TN


On Thursday September 16, 2010, at 10:38 PM, Manuel Sanchez <manuelsanchez at starpower.net 
 > wrote:
> Fellow S-heads,
>
> All this wheel bearing talk seems timely.
>
> Questions are;
> a shop is quoting me 2 hours of labor total to press out my 2 front
> wheel bearings and replace with new ones. I have already removed the
> strut housing from the car and given them to the shop, so my
> inexperienced thinking was that I've done a good part of the labor
> for them. Again my inexperienced thinking hopes that all they have to
> do is carry the housing to the press and press them out and press the
> new ones in, which to me seems like it should take less than an hour
> per housing.
>
> I have been told that there is "set-up" time because the housings are
> an "unusual shape", that and the fact that my old races "were really
> seized in the housing" and so they had to use the "big hydraulic  
> press".
>
> Another bit of service that was done was the replacement of the big
> giant strut cartridge retaining nuts. This labor is also said to have
> taken almost 2 hours to do both. The springs were not under load. To
> my untrained mind this also seem like a really long time, 1 hour per
> nut.
>
> Are these reasonable labor charges based on the fact that I had
> delivered the strut housings out of the car? Would it have been
> easier to remove and reinstall the front bearings if it was all still
> installed on the car?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Manny
> 95.5 urS6 Avant (still strut-less)