Wheel Bearing Replacment Cost?

Not sure if those bearings are press-in or bolt-in cartridge. If you have a good independant shop you deal with, by all means ask them. They should be able to do the repair. Are both wheels bad? Sometimes you hit a pothole and kill one side only. Usually the bearing swap is done on the car without removing the steering knuckle. Plan on getting a 4 wheel alignment anyway.

This is a press in sealed bearing. It does require removing the steering knuckle. I would suspect that only one side needs replacement. IMHO there is no reason to replace both, just replace the bad side. It is often difficult to determine which side is bad, jack up each side and spin the wheel to determine which one is bad. If the bearing is not too bad you may need to jack both sides and remove brake calipers to determine which side is bad.

I purchased a plain bearing and not the bearing and hub kit as there was nothing wrong with the hub and no more work to change without the hub. IIRC it would have been even harder to press the bearing with the hub installed first.

I posted a complete write up on this repair, link is below or search Google groups on subject "S series front wheel bearings" Mar 17, 2005.

If you have a shop do the work make sure they have the correct tooling as described in the write up. Brg part # and repair quoted price also in write up. It is not a difficult repair but does require some equipment and experience. We have had no further problems since repairing one side only.

"Private" typed until their fingers bled, and came up with:

I read your writeup, but I'm not clear how you removed the hub. That is the only step that is befuddling me - I have everything I need to put it back together, but I haven't figured out how to get the hub out - The FSM shows a nifty tool that the dealer has that pulls the hub out of the knuckle, but I cannot find any place (including the Mac tool catalog) that has this tool.

As a general rule, drive your car down a smooth paved road with some slight curves in it. A large mall parking lot will work after business hours. When you slightly turn, causing the car weight to shift, a bad bearing will get louder. And when shifting the weight away from the bad bearing, it will get quieter. I have yet to see both front bearings bad at the same time, but not impossible. James

Further to my Saturn S series wheel bearing write up at

IIIRC, I looked at the illustrations of the adapters illustrated in the Chilton manual and considered fabricating something similar but it seemed simpler to try using the standard frame type press frame that I had, and to use steel blocking to hold the knuckle in a level position that would allow the hub to be pushed out. I do not remember doing any welding to hold this blocking in place, (this is often handy to construct a more solid blocking). I would NEVER weld on the knuckle.

IIRC, I blocked the knuckle level (above the bed of my press) and pressed the hub out using a socket (as a press adapter) just a bit smaller than the shaft of the hub. IIRC the bearing came apart during this pressing and the outer 1/2 of the inner bearing (and the outer seal) remained on the shaft of the hub.

IIRC the outer race is one piece but the inner race is in two halves. The outer 1/2 of the inner race (and the outer seal) remains attached to the hub and the inner 1/2 of the inner race (and the inner seal) stays in the bearing attached to the knuckle and can be simply knocked apart (with a hammer & punch) from the outer race which remains pressed inside the knuckle.

The outer 1/2 of the inner race was removed from the hub by heating just enough to expand it and it almost fell off. I did this heating with an oxy-acetylene torch and did it fast enough that the hub did not get hot or expand. I do not think that a propane torch would be hot enough to expand the race without also heating and expanding the shaft of the hub. I am sure that this race could be removed by other means like grinding or cutting but IIRC there is not much of a lip to catch with a bearing separator in order to pull (or press) it off. I used a torch because it seemed like the easiest way and you have to get by with what you have available. If I did not have a torch I would have found one to use for the 5 minutes that it took to do the job.

I placed a bead of arc weld inside the outer race in order to shrink it and make it easier to remove using a drift punch and hammer. If I did not have an arc welder I would have borrowed one as while I am sure the race could be removed by other means, shrinking is IMHO the easiest and I use this method in almost every (outer race) bearing removal. Once you learn how easy it makes this job you will never do it any other way.

Please note the caution I wrote in the first write up regarding the desirability of costructing a washer type press adapter to use when installing the new bearing. NEVER attempt tp press any new bearing by applying a force through the balls. When using a shop to perform this repair, NOTE the CAUTION to first ensure that the shop has the correct addapters to prevent loading the balls when installing the bearing in the knuckle or the hub in the bearing. ONLY PRESS ON THE PROPER RACE.

The foregoing is just my opinion and YMMV. I do not think this is an especially dificult repair but, I do have a lot of similar experience and have most of the tooling required.

That's a lot of work to get the two separated. I have a press and welder as well, but I prefer to just take the parts (that I'd already removed from the car) to my local Saturn service department. It takes them only a few minutes and I recall the charge was minimal. FYI.

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]

As I said, YMMV. It probably took me longer to do the write-up than the actual job. I only did the write-up because it was an area that was not well covered by either of my two manuals. It was my attempt at contribution to this group. I made this contribution in a format that a Google groups search would easily find.

The closest Saturn dealer was 175 miles away.

My local parts jobber had the brg the next day. It took my machinist friend less than 1/3 hr to machine the brg press washer, while I waited. He was located across the street from the parts jobber. I now have the tooling and knowledge that will allow me to do a similar repair on either of my Saturn cars. It is my experience that "no repair that you are prepared for is ever needed".

For me going to the dealer would have been a very big deal and they could have said "We are busy, leave it with us, and come back tomorrow".

Even if there was a Saturn dealer close by it still would have taken me longer to travel to the dealer (twice?) than it took me to do the job & there would have been pressure to buy the part from them, probably for (much?) more money.

Why do you have the tools if you think it is better to get the work done by others?

I suspect that most of the readers of this group do not have the required tooling or experience, and the dealer option is the best course of action. However it is not an inexpensive repair and I was able to pay myself over $50/hr (tax free) to perform this repair. I also have confidence that it was done right.

Just my .02

Because in this case, the dealer knows how to do this job without using a welder or having custom press parts machined as you had said you needed to do. The amount of time it takes them vs. the amount of time it takes a driveway mechanic with the same tools still makes it worthwhile to let them do it with significantly less trouble and time involved. I'm all for learning how to do new things and you can see that from my website, but the amount of swearing, sweat, and skinned knuckles that some jobs have given me make me want to let someone else do it - especially when the job is virtually effortless for them due to their experience, knowledge, and specialized processes & equipment. This has been my experience.

I do believe that the average person with a Haynes/Chilton manual, basic tools, and some patience can do all the parts removal and reassembly themselves and save quite a bit of money. But when it came to pressing out and pressing in new bearings - that's where I thought I'd relay the experience I'd had. YMMV.

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]

I think we are in basic agreement. There is definitely a line between what a driveway mechanic can or should attempt to do but this is a movable line that depends on their access to tooling and the skill set they bring to the job. I do agree that this is one of those jobs that is very close to this line. The basic disassembly is more likely to be within the average driveway mechanic's tool and skill set and that the actual hub and bearing rebuild is of a higher level of difficulty.

As a licensed mechanic and also licensed welder with much heavy mechanical experience, I have often removed outer bearing races easily, quickly, and successfully from locations that would require very specialized adapters in order to remove with press or puller. I have done this successfully so many times that it is my preferred technique, and I use it first on almost every job of this type. I would use this technique (if possible) even if I had the correct pullers and adapters. I have never seen additional damage caused by the technique (when performed properly) and it works even if the bearing race was installed using bearing glue. I have seen additional damage caused by puller and press failures.

I suspect that we could have a similar debate on the merits of broken bolt extraction using drilling and "easyouts" vs. welding a nut on the broken bolt.

I think the OP has received all the information he needs to make his repair decision and I hope this discussion benefits others.

just my .02, YMMV