I had a wheel bearing wear out at about 75k miles due to bad factory alignment. My dealer said that will be $900 per side to fix. After I held my temper back, they said they can replace just the bad side. The bearing is part of the hub, which is part of the brake, which is part of the ABS sensor and so on. The part alone was about $600. Now the good news: Since it was caused by the factory alignment being out of spec they paid for everything. Good job Toyota.
What year Prius do you have. With 75k miles it must be a classic. Glad to hear that Toyota took care of it even if it was not under warranty.
whoa whoa whoa. tell us your story here. what year prius is this? what problem did you take it in for? part should be no more than $450, labor 1.5 hours... and wondering how out-of-spec factory alignment kills a wheel bearing... unless we're talking so out of spec that the car isn't drivable... what were the specs they cited? this is ridiculous. the rear wheel bearing is very similar in a camry (difference is how the bolts go in), DH just did one today, part was $200 and he actually felt guilty about charging the full 1.5 hours...
I had the right rear wheel bearing assembly replaced on 2001 Prius. The part cost was quoted as about $225, and I would guess that the labor is 1 or 1.5 hrs. This was done under warranty. Seems rather mysterious that suspension alignment could cause this.
It was on a 2004 model(yeah I drive a lot). You could hear the bearing making more and more noise inside the car (and of course on a jack when spinning the wheel). The right rear alignment was excess toe out (beyond factory alignment limits, they had to order a shim kit to fix it) found at about 40k miles. No major driving problems except the "normal" freeway instability (car felt about the same after the alignment shim kit was installed). Left rear was in spec and did not fail.
200, Seems that if the dealer said that both sides should be replaced, and that it's under warranty, that you should insist that they do the repair as they said was best under that warranty. Should that left side fail at 105k miles and you're out of warranty then you're SOL.
Thank you 200Volts for the heads up. Was there any driving indication of the rear misalignment? How was the problem identified at 40,000 miles? I've heard many reports here about Priuses delivered out of alignment and requiring shims to correct. This is the worst outcome I've heard of so far. Scary, if the dealer didn't cover it. Does anyone have advice on early alignment checks as a form of preventative screening? The cost and different shops reporting wildly different alignment status on a single vehicle as reported in another thread make this sound a little daunting.
well it's always a good idea to have your alignment checked regularly- tire wear and suspension wear are reduced greatly with proper alignment... and since you can put your toe out by hitting a curb or driving on badly potholed roads, it's not something you can just do once and forget about.
At 40k is when I got involved with PC. Plus I was changing tires, so this was the first alignment with the car. Never touched a curb, hit a few "medium" potholes (but the right FRONT was not out of alignment). Never had a change in dead center for the steering wheel. I measured tire wear in 3 spots on all tires with a micrometer depth gauge and the driver side wore out the fastest (rotated about every 5k miles). I'll have to look up my records to see exactly how much excessive toe out there was.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jul 31 2006, 04:07 PM) [snapback]295275[/snapback]</div> the left side shouldn't be affected... sounds like a ploy to collect more money. <_<
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Jul 31 2006, 05:47 PM) [snapback]295372[/snapback]</div> They were honest with me on the left side. They said it is "standard policy to replace both at the same time" , but when I said do the right side only, they said no problem ( a "semi" ploy and "standard" policy-but not standard conditions).
Now, I just had my alignment done on a Hunter?: Front: -0.7 -0.8 before: Camber : -0.7 -1.4 before [range -1.3 0.2] 3.3 3.3 before: Caster : 3.2 3.2 before [range 2.4 3.9] 0.01 0.05 before: Toe : 0.00 0.02 before [range -0.10 0.10] 12.7 12.8 before: SAI : 12.8 13.6 before [range 11.8 13.3] 12.0 12.0 before : Included Angle : 12.1 12.1 before [range 10.5 13.5] 0.0 0.6 before : Cross Camber [range -0.8 0.8] 0.2 0.2 before : Cross Caster [range -0.8 0.8] -0.1 -0.7 before : Cross SAI [range -0.8 0.8] 0.01 0.07 before : Total Toe [range -0.20 0.20] Rear: -1.1 -1.1 before: Camber : -1.8 -1.8 before [range -2.0 -1.0] 0.35 0.35 before: Toe : 0.24 0.23 before [range 0.03 0.28] 0.7 0.6 before : Cross Camber [range -0.5 0.5] 0.58 0.58 before : Total Toe [range 0.05 0.55] 0.06 0.06 before : Thrust Angle So, Longo was telling me that the left toe being off is okay and won't cause tire wear, and I got that in writing. They also told me that because I'm at 55K miles I am beyond the 36K warranty, and Troy's extended warranty "supposedly" won't cover any repair work on axles and suspension, although the warranty link seems to actually specify otherwise. So, am I out of spec enough to bug Toyota and Longo to get my rear toe fixed with shim or new rear axle, or just leave it? Galaxee/DH? I appreciate any help on this. I don't mind my front toe so close to 0.0 instead of the 0.05 john1701 suggests, and it seems the guy who did the alignment left my steering pointing a couple degrees to the left when it was perfect after the steering recall. <_<
This price for this part new is $232.38, I just found it online for $185.90. http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/ind...amp;catalogid=1 Nate
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(200Volts @ Jul 31 2006, 06:56 PM) [snapback]295379[/snapback]</div> If it's a "ploy" then it's an industry wide ploy. A year and a half ago I had the right front bearing replaced on my wife's Malibu. Got the same spiel, that it's recommended to replace both sides at the same time but they would replace only one side if desired. And this was at a Midas shop, not a dealer. I believe it was like $300 or so for the Malibu.
NuShrike, I had positive toe (OUT) that caused by failed rear wheel bearing. They way I'm reading your alignment you've put 55k miles with out of spec toe out. Mine failed shortly after this. If you hear a hum, then a wine from the back this is one of the bearings going bad. Jack up the rear of the Prius and spin the wheels, then if you hear any grinding noise, then you've got a bad bearing. It is very obvious if it's bad.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NuShrike @ Nov 10 2006, 02:53 PM) [snapback]347089[/snapback]</div> realistically, the chance of seeing significant tire wear are pretty low with that number. if you don't notice it in the handling or anything, it's not really worth it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Nov 10 2006, 06:24 PM) [snapback]347283[/snapback]</div> Thanks for the advice and reply! Then, I'll probably just listen for bearing issues as 200volts suggested, and now think about tweaking the front toe in a bit, but then I'll just leave the rest alone...
