800 Dollars for a Rear Wheel Bearing Replacement?

[ASubu]

I was charged $800 dollars for a rear wheel hub replacement on a 1999 Subaru Legacy Outback.

They quoted 400, then called me after it was taken apart and said because it was a 'different' subaru outback, a 'legacy' model, that the seal, hub, and bearing must come off as one and replaced together and cost around 800 instead of the 400 of the original quote.

Why did they charge another 400 dollars? Does it take more time to take that off? In my rush, I come back later to two friends saying they know people or can personally do it for a hundred dollar part swap and about 2-300 dollars worth of labor. Why did I get charged so much? Did they play me and use the old, car already taken apart, call up the customer and make up a story to get more money trick? I feel abused!

 

[Yuriman]

Wheel bearing is $10 on RockAuto.

http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...,1357354,brake+&+wheel+hub,wheel+bearing,1672

I certainly wouldn't want to do the labor myself, but there's no way it took them 15 hours to do it.

 

[ASubu]

It took 7 hours. They said they needed not just a wheel bearing but the whole hub, bearing, and seal assembly because they are sealed and can't be taken apart. They also said that the Legacy Outback is like that while the regular Outback is not like that and that is why the charge increased. Thanks for the reply.

 

[mindless1]

They might be lying. It could be that they don't want to take it apart, with many vehicles the extra labor costs as much as the whole new assembly, can be a PITA to press an old crusty bearing out, but sealed "usually" just means they need a new $4 seal too.

So, replacing the whole thing typically takes less time. It looks like (I could be wrong) it's just a matter of taking off an axle nut, "maybe" disconnecting the (trailing arm or lateral link?) to gain clearance to press or hammer the axle out, maybe 4 more bolts for a bearing carrier or the hub assembly itself.

I must be missing something, for your friends to state $200-300 labor. It seems like an hour's worth of work to a mechanic familiar with those vehicles, to replace the whole assembly. Getting a bearing out could take minutes or hours depending on rust, technique, trial and error. It seems easy to say just use a press, but if the biggest press you have isn't cutting it, and a torch doesn't change that...

I guess I could see it taking a shadetree mechanic two hours for the whole assembly (or longer if they're crippled by lack of the right tools) but then it's $100/hr labor, not a shadetree mechanic rate. Then again it's ~19 years old, if a rusty bolt shears off then !@#$ could take a while to resolve that, but that's not something accounted for on (adds to) a several hours labor estimate.

 

[bigi]

You've been fvcked hard in the ass. Very hard.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

On the receipt, how does the parts/labor breakdown look? (It was itemized, right?)

I must be missing something, for your friends to state $200-300 labor. It seems like an hour's worth of work to a mechanic familiar with those vehicles...

I did a bit of googling, and I'm not 100% sure (since it's the internet) but I'm seeing people reference "book" times as high as four hours for a rear wheel bearing replacement on a '99 Legacy.

I'm not a mechanic and I don't have a "The Book" so I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

 

[Viper GTS]

For what it's worth when I had to do one on my Forester I ended up spending $1200. I had to rebuild the entire corner basically because they couldn't get things apart. I insisted upon all OEM parts, and there were a lot of parts plus a lot of labor.

In a perfect world would that be necessary? Probably not. But you're dealing with an almost 20 year old car, it's definitely no longer a perfect world. Mine was five years newer and still needed all that to make it whole.

YMMV.

Viper GTS

 

[EXCellR8]

400 bucks is a bit of coin but not unreasonable for that job, especially if the car had some rust or rot issues. I've done the procedure on my impreza and it took almost all afternoon. it's a very common issue with a lot of subarus.

I've also had the other side done and my mechanic charged me like $250 I think. but this is an '06 subaru... older ones can be quite a hassle especially if you need to torch and drill things apart. not sure if it would equate to double that original quote though...

 

[NutBucket]

For a sanity check call a dealer. They'll quote you the book price so at least you'll have some idea. Then you can put it on the shop to justify the (extra?) cost.

 

[JCH13]

It took 7 hours. They said they needed not just a wheel bearing but the whole hub, bearing, and seal assembly because they are sealed and can't be taken apart. They also said that the Legacy Outback is like that while the regular Outback is not like that and that is why the charge increased. Thanks for the reply.

Having just done this exact operation 3 times of different cars this weekend... once I extracted my head from my ass I could do a bearing+2 seals in ~ 2 hours. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, if something goes sideways it can take significant extra time to sort things out. If this was not a Subaru mechanic and they had to 'learn' the nuances of Subarus it could easily stack up to 7 hours. Still doesn't feel like a fair price unless they replaced numerous suspension components (like Viper GTS). I can argue it either way...

What exactly is listed on the receipt?

 

[Rifter]

For reference i just did this on my 98 4runner, I have no press so paid a shop, family friend of a mechanic ive known for decades, he does give me a deal on most work.

Paid $1000 Canadian(so like $700ish USD) for wheel bearing and axel seal drivers side, new rear brake pads and drums on both sides, new backing plate on drivers side, and new wheel cylinders both sides(axel seal leaked oil into drum on drivers side ruining brake pads, so decided to have brakes done as well). Also new ABS speed ring drivers side, it snapped during disassembly. Was about $300 in parts rest labor. Labor also included swapping out the factory locker which had stopped working for another OEM locker that i provided.

 

[EXCellR8]

there were outbacks based off of both the legacy and impreza but I can't recall which used what hub style or when it was changed etc.

OP, you could very easily find all of the information on NASOIC forums... especially service related inquiries from people who know Subaru maintenance. even though it's a legacy-based outback there are some members on there who're seasoned with either submodel

 

[dave_the_nerd]

n/m

 

[ASubu]

Wow, thanks for the responses. I've used all those forums, they posts are backed up waiting to be approved.

Yep 800 dollars and no not a whole round of work like you had Rifter.

This make sense to anybody? I can understand in some situations a 700 to 1000 dollar charge, but for one part, one change over a few hours and with a pretty shoddy explanation over the phone of why it doubled because the car is not an outback but a legacy outback?

<img src='https://i.imgur.com/tWKH011.jpg' />

https://i.imgur.com/tWKH011.jpg

 

[mindless1]

Labor was only $360 so they didn't bill you for 7 hours. Where things seem to have gone wrong is the premium price for the hub and especially the bearing. The thing is you can't really argue with them after the fact. Once you approve the work your only recourse is if you can prove that the work wasn't done, old parts they claim replaced are still on the vehicle for example.

 

[JCH13]

On Rockauto a Timken rear bearing is $37, rear hubs range from $10-143, and wheel seals range from $1-8.

Seems like you were taken for a ride on parts cost. Perhaps they were OEM, which would command a premium, but it's unlikely that OEM is worth it given the age of the vehicle.

 

[HarryLui]

If you didn't want to pay the price, do it yourself.


Sure you can bring your own parts to an mechanic, but beware there will be no warranty with bought in parts and some shop will flatly refuse to install your parts.

 

[Meghan54]

there were outbacks based off of both the legacy and impreza but I can't recall which used what hub style or when it was changed etc.

From what I've gleaned, the Outback version of both models was just a trim level, the top trim. There were no differences between the Legacy Outbacks and "regular" Legacies, at least in the rear end. At least no differentiation is made when looking up rear hubs/bearings....only Legacy, Impreza, etc. No Outback breakouts.

And the rear wheel bearing is a separate item, not integral with the hub.

Like this:

Tons of bearings without hubs; hub kits incl. bearing, but aren't pressed in. At least on RockAuto and other parts places. Looks like the OP was fibbed to by the mech. in saying there was a difference between regular Legacy and Legacy Outback parts.

 

[NutBucket]

Subaru calls that the "Hub-Rear Axle" (#2)...where the wheel studs mount. The bearing is the "Hub Unit" (#1). Each of those parts is about $200 OEM.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

n/m

 

[mindless1]

If you didn't want to pay the price, do it yourself.


Sure you can bring your own parts to an mechanic, but beware there will be no warranty with bought in parts and some shop will flatly refuse to install your parts.

What is this warranty you speak of? Long ago when I used to let shops touch my vehicles, the warranty on the work was close to nonexistent, mostly "Problem is fixed when you drive off and for a few weeks at most".

DIY, at least you have the part itself warrantied (with some exceptions), sometimes even lifetime especially if you pay the premium that places like Autozone charge for the exact same part you can get cheaper elsewhere w/o the lifetime warranty. I never consider the warranty worth the premium, but may use that as the consolation for paying a premium just to get the part locally and be able to finish a job the same day, while the vehicle is taken apart, disassembly is fresh in my mind, the right tools are laid out around it, etc.

 

[EXCellR8]

...Looks like the OP was fibbed to by the mech. in saying there was a difference between regular Legacy and Legacy Outback parts.

perhaps, or the mechanic was trying to offset the cost of labor because of an issue with disassembly or they ordered the wrong part or something. either way, it's a bit sketchy.

i had an older civic that was only worth around $1,200 bucks or so; on the way home from work one day the brakes failed and I had to have one or two of the main lines replaced. $300 or $400 for the job when it was all said and done. cars suck, and the older they are the more likely you are to get worked over by cheap parts and heavy labor costs. it's never good news, which is why I always see if I can do it at home--within reason of course I don't exactly have a state of the art setup.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Those are Dorman part numbers. Looks like they marked up about 300-400%.

My guess is they went to replace the hub, found the bearing was shot, so replaced that too and doubled your labor charge because reasons.

 

[JCH13]

To be fair the bearing race could be seized/rusted onto the hub such that it would be unsafe to reuse the hub after separating them.

 

[ASubu]

Thanks for all the assistance in this. One more thing is that now the wheel wobbles at speeds around 40 and up. I have to look through and see if it's a misshapen tire as they tires are old. However the suspension is pretty much like driving with two sticks tied with strings as it is completely out of alignment. Was their 'total suspension/alignment/steering' charge supposed to take care of the alignment and all that? I know I probably sound stupid asking this here but there is an image of the invoice above and now I'm going to have to spend time to check everything out on the vehicle.

The e-break also is completely disconnected but that's another story.