Focus Front wheel bearing - how much?

MK1, 1.6 Zetec...

I did all four on the Exploder myself, it cost £200 for the parts. I also got a quote from the local garages prices ranged from £150 - £300 per corner for labour.

While I was at it I changed the shocks, disks, brake pads and calipers. There didn't seem any point to having to return to the same part of the car to do another job and the previous parts had lasted 10 years. The garages all wanted to charge for each job as if they were starting from scratch, money grubbing pigs.

Only thing that's stopping me doing that is the lack of a press to get the bearing out. I'm not on friendly terms with the local garage here after they stiffed a friend with an MOT, so I went and demanded the money back or I'd report them to VOSA. They paid up. Then I reported them to VOSA.

Yes. The Xantia's front arm bushes - the rear ones, are shot now. I'm replacing everything that has to come off to get at them for the reasons you state above, apart from the discs and pads as they were done back in March.

Smack it out with a hammer. Cut whatever remains out with a Dremel.

at an independent about 150 for the whole job. at fords about 250

It's called making a living.

Well the net result was that I told them to f*ck off and did the work myself since it's hardly difficult or time consuming. So what sort of living did the short sighted gouging bastards make from the work, eh, Bozo?

I remember seeing some pics in the other place of you doing that. Thanks for the reminder - how did you get the new bearing in though?

Well, quite. I'm going to get a *nice* car just before xmas. Definitely going to keep the Xant or Focus as a runabout for me to get to work in, so they both need sorting out. I might well try Doug's suggestion.

I've just twigged that I could buy a s/h hub assembly, get a bearing fitted to it and put that on the car myself for about £50 all in.

I just used a suitably sized/shaped bit of wood as a drift and tapped the bearing in with a hammer.

Failing that, a strut or upright from John McScrap wouldn't be all that hard to fit if you're prepared to risk getting one with a shot bearing (c:

Hehe, oops. I just semi suggested this a short way up this thread. That'll teach me.

I changed a Focus front strut (broken spring) in a car park with a mate a few months ago. It was cold, but it didn't take long and was pretty easy.

I believe that these have a middle bearing at the front as well, but I can't remember on which side. You may want to bear this in mind too.

Kostas