hillsnow

Hi All! Lexus wants to replace my LS400’s front wheel bearings for $1900. Do you think this sounds about right or would anyone recommend another mechanic aside from Lexus in the Northern Virginia / Washington D.C. area?

Thank you!

YODAONE

​Only front bearings?

The front spindles must be removed.

Some parts and labor there...

Ball joints? Upper control arms? Strut bushings, etc.

Purchase bearings, seals and stake nuts from Lexus.

Remove the spindle assemblies yourself and have a competent machine shop handle extraction and insertion of wheel bearings.

Make sure th torque specs are followed on every nut and bolt.

paulo57509

Totally rough estimate. You can get prices for the parts at any dealer's website.

Dealer list for the bearings = $100/each
Dealer price for seals = $15/each
Dealer price for axle nuts = $3.00/each
Dealer price for grease caps = $13/each

Total parts (MSRP) = $262.00 (estimate)
$1900 - $262 = ~$1638 for labor. I don't know. Labor rates are really region dependent. On the surface it sounds like you'd get calloused ankles.

They might be hedging their bets that some other stuff may be worn out. How many miles on your car?

Edit: Is an alignment included in the estimate? If they're going by the book they'd put it on the rack and at least check it.

hillsnow

The car has 267,000 miles on it. Sounds like it’s overpriced for sure.

bradland

Just for comparison sake, Rockauto sells NSK, Timken, and SKF bearings for the 90 model all under $40. Any of those 3 are a good choice.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...l+bearing,1672

Sin1UZFE

That's alot for just bearings
for example my shop charged 150 each due to pressing etc

Losiracer2

you can source a used good knuckle from a JY for $50. That may be the way to go.

But if you wanted new parts. RockAuto has Timken bearings (made in Japan Koyo is stamped on mine) for $34 each and I purchased Beck Arnley wheel seals (made in Japan) for $3 a piece. Then the rest is just unbolting the lower balljoint, and upper control arm and taking the knuckle to a machine shop to have the old bearings pressed out and new bearings pressed in, maybe $50 for the two.

EthanS

About 1 year ago I replaced my front left wheel bearing and wheel hub. (Machine shop recommended a new wheel hub after showing me scoring on the original hub, due to said worn bearing)

All OEM parts ordered online or local dealership pick-up: wheel hub, bearing, and seal. New wheel hub sub-assembly was by far the most expensive part at $180. Bottom line I spent $385 total.
$385 includes machine shop labor to press bearing.

Just my 2 cents!

400fanboy

Anyone have any pricing\info on the rear wheel bearings? Mine are starting to go. No drivability impacts yet, or noise, but it fails the 12-6 wiggle test just a tiny bit so it's only a matter of time.

I got quoted 6hr of labor per wheel. Said you have to take apart a ton of **** to replace the wheel hub (they can't just press in the bearing, nobody around here has a press ). What kind of work is required to do the rears?

deanshark

I found this for 96 rear hub bearings. No pics. It sounds about right.
https://www.2carpros.com/questions/l...xle-or-hub-bea

Losiracer2

Rear NSK wheel bearings can be found on rockauto for $26 and corresponding Beck Arnley seals for $3-4, all Japanese made parts. I have them sitting in front of me. I have all the rear bearings parts but what i'm most afraid of is breaking an ABS wheel speed sensor since its 20 year old plastic and has never been removed. Those run $228-270 a piece on rockauto and they're required to remove in order to get the carrier off and bearings out.

You might also want to consider replacing a couple arms in the back and possibly the 2 knuckle bushings in the carrier. 3 Arms: Trailing arm, Control arm and Toe arm are back there each that have a bushing attached. Upper control arms are also there, that's my problem now, D/S bushings are shot and P/S wheel bearing in combination of UCA bushings are bad too. Makes the car feel very loose in the rear end and requires a lot of steering corrections.

deanshark

Agree on the bushings, and bushings, and bushings. No sense on the full arms, unless they're bent somehow. Oh, did I mention bushings? Yes, there's alot of 'em, but well worth changing them when the axle carrier is out, all in one shot. That would tighten that *** up alot. I've seen kits with all of them, or at least most of em.

400fanboy

I've replaced all the rubber upfront except the control arms; so my focus has now moved to the rear. But good to know Losiracer, thanks a ton for that.

Is the rear end one of those "while you're in there" situations that the labor is the real pain, and not the parts, so while you have it all apart you should just be doing everything?

Would you include the rear shocks in that list as well?

hillsnow

Update for everyone, I took the car to a local shop to have a second look. They said the dealer is trying to overcharge us for something that doesn’t need to be done. He said the wheel bearings were perfectly fine and the front left wheel just needed lubrication. He showed me the exact issue and why it wasn’t the wheel bearings. (He also has an LS400 so I think his judgement is good) He said he has seen a lot of Lexus come through that have similar stories of dealer fraud. He has called Pohanka Lexus on this to tell them what they are doing is wrong. I will not be bringing my cars there again most likely...

EthanS

I'm glad that you got a second opinion. And one from a local shop owner who owns an LS400, no less! Lucky you have him as a resource.

So I'm curious - what WAS the exact issue that he showed you? What are your next moves?