It's time to replace at least one of the front wheel bearings on my '90 Plymouth Grand Voyager. The parts distributors generally seem to not stock the bearings themself but rather they stock a complete front wheel hub. Is there a reason why just the bearings can't be replaced?
John Keith snipped-for-privacy@juno.com
If you have a suitable press and adaptors/arbor plates, etc. and the dollar savings is worth it versus the extra time involved, no.
It much easier to replace the hub assembly, and I would assume that the market has driven parts stores to stock the complete hub vs a bearing. The last one I bought was surprisingly cheap (to me) and was happy to pay it to save time pressing in a bearing.
Since I work on Toyotas all day I can tell you that they frequently need the hub anyway as the looseness/chattering of a bad bearing destroys the press-fit surface of the hub. The Toyota design of front bearing needs to be replaced in pieces because it is not a bolt-on cartridge design, so we have to take them apart to repair. Of course Toyota and Chrysler designs are engineered differently, but this is something to think about...
Toyota MDT in MO
Most of the time the hub goes bad with the bearing . I would not mess with the after markets, replace the hub and bearing assembly
In 1996, as part of a general front end rebuild of my 89 Grand Caravan, I replaced only the front wheel bearings. The bearings cost about $44.00 for each wheel. However, the charge for the press work to replace both of them cost another $75.00. Not many places seem to do press work anymore. Eldred
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