[s-cars] Wheel Bearing replacement labor question

[Manuel Sanchez]

Fred,

Thanks a million for the description of the process, as I have no  
first hand knowledge of the variables.

Regards,

Manny


On Sep 17, 2010, at 9:03 AM, Fred Munro wrote:

> Manny;
>
> I can believe the shop on the press setup time. These bearings are  
> often
> very tight in the housing. I wouldn't choose to remove the strut to  
> change a
> bearing - the press setup is a real PITA due to the force required  
> to move
> the bearing and improper setup could damage the housing. The best  
> way to R&R
> these is on the car using the proper hub and bearing pulling tool.  
> I had the
> right front bearing go on the S6 a couple years ago. A friend has a  
> good hub
> puller tool and we had both sides done in 2 hours. The bearings  
> were so
> tight that a 1" drive IR impact gun on the puller tool wouldn't  
> even move
> them, but a breaker bar with a 4 foot pipe had no problem getting  
> them out.
> I always get the bearings from the dealer - the OEM bearings last a  
> long
> time and I'm not that enamored of the job that I want to do it  
> again sooner
> than absolutely necessary. These are split-race bearings and the  
> shop has to
> know what they are doing when they press the bearing into the  
> housing and
> the hub into the bearing. The new bearing can be damaged if they  
> press on
> the wrong race at the wrong time. A bearing damaged by improper  
> installation
> will only last 20,000 miles or so.
>
> The strut cartridge retaining nuts are best loosened with the strut  
> in the
> car because you don't have to worry about holding the strut while  
> you try to
> break the nuts loose. The proper tool makes this a trivial task. If  
> you
> don't have the proper tool you can sometimes get them with a pipe  
> wrench
> through the spring coil. The nuts can be rusted on and can be hard  
> to remove
> but I don't know why a shop would need 2 hours to get them off.
>
> HTH
>
> Fred Munro
> '97 S6
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
> [mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Manuel Sanchez
> Sent: September 16, 2010 8:39 PM
> To: s-car-list list
> Subject: [s-cars] Wheel Bearing replacement labor question
>
> 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)
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