Bearing Pressing Question

M

MazdaSpeeder

Member
:
Protege5 (5-spd)
So I am going to do the front bearings in my P5 soon, and I've been calling shops ahead of time to get quotes on pressing out and in the bearings. I'm getting estimates of $80-$150 to do it, which seems much higher than others who have had it done. The norm I have heard from others on here is $40-$50 total. Any advice on this? Any particular type of shop you have used that gave you a good deal? I really don't want to spend $80+!
 
I've been wondering the same thing. When I replaced my bearings, I was quoted about an hour of labor to press out the bearings. I ended up borrowing a friend's 30-year old press and did it myself! :)
 
hehe its funny u brought this up, im a benz mechanic and i just replaced both my front bearings this morning before work, took me 1 hr to do both. not that hard if u have ur own press. goodluck!
 
JDMBullet said:
Just wack at it with two ppl it comes out pretty quick...(drinks)
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I've never heard of them coming out that easy on these cars. I paid a guy to do mine and it broke his press. He had to go to a friend's shop and do it. He said he'd never had any that hard to get out.
 
You want to press them out. I had a friend hammer the hubs out and he ended up mushrooming them and screwing up the splines. After figuring why the axles wouldn't go in the hub I had the pleasure of filing down the splines and grinding the other mushroomed parts. So 5 hours later I was able to drive home to only feel lots of vibration. Now I am searching for used hubs cause they are $170 each new.
 
cbrcrx said:
I've never heard of them coming out that easy on these cars. I paid a guy to do mine and it broke his press. He had to go to a friend's shop and do it. He said he'd never had any that hard to get out.
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Well hey let me be the first came out fine on my P5 YaY (band2) Op do as you wish just saying press isn't your only option.
 
just take it to a shop, im a mechanic and i see alot of people screwing up there cars trying to doit themselves, take the hubs out urself pay pepboys 80.00 and have them press them out and in the proper way....80.00 is not worth the hassle. plus if the screw up the bearing or ur hub they buy a new one.
 
Yeah, even if I could get them out myself, I would rather not...this isn't a CAI or something. If I screw something up, my wheel might fall off, so I want to make sure it's done right. I think I have found a shop that will do them for $25 apiece, so I am going to go with them. After calling a ton of places, it seems that some shops just charge flat to do it, and I had to find one of those shops. In any case, thanks for the responses...case closed.
 
JDMBullet said:
Um yea ok anyway good luck op on your wheel bearing quest.Too many know it alls on here.
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Yeah, maybe pounding the bearings to smithereens may have worked for you, but if the average joe who doesn't know how the bearings are supposed to come out starts going to town on them with a hammer, I can almost guarantee that he's gonna warp his hub and steering knuckle in the process.

I'm not trying to be a know-it-all. I'm just not going to recommend or support such a brute force method of trying to remove something so critical to the proper function of a car.
 
I'm right in the middle of doing this. Make sure whoever does this uses the proper tool to press the axle out of the hub (axle removal tool). Beating it out destroys the end of the axle and you will need a new one. If you wait until the bearing fails to replace it, chances are it will ruin the hub where the inner race of the bearing seats causing the new bearing to fail prematurely.

www.onlinemazdaparts.com
Front wheel bearing: $32.02
Front hub: $164.98
Complete axle/CV joints assembly: about $65ea with core (O'Rielly/Advance/Autozone, etc...)

If you end up with a messed up hub and need it overnighted, you might as well order it from your dealer because Jason at onlinemazdaparts.com will have to charge like $55 for shipping. Auto parts stores/chains do not carry or order the front hub.
$211 overnight from the dealer.

I recently had my CV's re-built and the guy beat the ever living **** out of them to do it. Now, as my mech tries to replace a bearing that failed (135k/mi) He almost couldn't get it off and the threads were totally unusable for the removal tool. He also found the hub shaft to be unusable from the failed bearing. Tomorrow, the new hub comes in and I will find out about the other beaten axle because I decided to have that bearing done before it fails and destroys the hub.
 
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yeah they tend to be in there real tight on these. Also, don't forget to get new inner bearing seals on the hubs - mine were really shot. Might as well help delay the next bearing change. Most guys can finesse these on with a little delicate tapping, but you might have them put them on after they press in the new bearings.
 
hub.jpg


Harbor freight, about $50 and you can do it as many times as you want, like a cheap hooker.

This is the front hub bearings on my 88 323GT
 
I am totally getting one of those (bearing puller thing-a-mijiggy) it is a pain to have to pay someone else to press out the bearing
 
sethro_GT said:
hub.jpg


Harbor freight, about $50 and you can do it as many times as you want, like a cheap hooker.

This is the front hub bearings on my 88 323GT
Click to expand...

Something tells me that won't work with our cars. They take a helluva lot more force to press out the bearings than would be needed for the traditional tapered wheel bearings like you have.
 
I think my front right bearing is shot (rotational wha wha wha noise, really bad at highway speeds) so when do it I'll try this thing on it. So they're not tapered? Just flat rollers or balls? Is it two bearings per side or just one?

You know, I tried to download the manual on the sticky but it never works. Anyone have an e-copy of the FSM they'd be willing to share?

Just did a search on rockauto, man that things a beast and I assume its only one per hub.
wheelbearing.jpg


my 88 323 has 2x of these per hub and I only need to pull one off.
bearing_taper.jpg
 
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