2010 Prius Rear-hubs replaced..why?

Please post a picture of the defective parts. You only have one post, so you may have to put them in a photo album here and then post the BB code link. http://priuschat.com/forums/album.php?do=addalbum Since you paid for the repair, you are entitled to get the old parts back. Do the bearings turn freely and with any catching or roughness? Please also post the name and location of this dealer.

What were the symptoms that led you to have the dealer check these? While having both go bad at once just doesn't happen, it is a common practice to replace the pair if one goes bad. It is possible that you had one bad one and whoever it was that you were talking to just made up a plausible story.

 

My first thought is that you have been ripped off by an unscrupulous dealer. I assume that hubs mean wheel bearings and no modern car should need rear wheel bearings after 45K miles, dirt roads or not. Those bearings are sealed and should last virtually the life of the car. I have driven both of my Prius (gen2 and gen3) on dirt roads and have had no problems, as have others. Also $700 seems pretty spendy for what should be a fairly simple job.

I would recommend contacting Toyota and see what they have to say about bearing life, if they really were bad it may be due to defective parts installed at the factory. As suggested by Seilerts post some pictures of the replaced parts.

What were the symptoms that led you to take the car in to start with?

 

I would think that the hubs are considered drivetrain items and would be covered under 5/60, but I guess this varies by mfg.

At one point I was looking at high mileage 3rd gen Priuses on auto trader and decided to input their VINs into Toyota's owner portal. My discovery was that two of them needed front hubs replaced at around 100k.

45k does seem a bit early but is not impossible. I would've asked the dealer to see if Toyota would cover some of the repair cost.

 

I also drive on dusty gravel roads every day. I've also driven through floods and fords. I haven't had any hub problems on my Gen III.

 

That's good that you complained at 35000 miles. Now you have an excellent chance at getting reimbursed. Let us know what happens!

 

Hi.
Sorry to hear about the hubs.

There are a number of reasons why hubs (on just about any vehicle) can go bad in 45K miles.

Do you live near the shore?
Has the car ever sat unused for more than two weeks?
Does the car always get used every weekday?
Do you live near any wet lands?
Etc, etc.

For me, I have the bottom three issues. Having a car sit for more than a month and living near wet lands, and often having a very wet back yard for many weeks during the Spring, I go through brakes, brake lines, calipers, hubs, etc much more than ~99.9999% of the people. But, considering there are a many millions of people in the US, that still leaves a good number of people.


Also, there's the possibility that the hubs had a manufacturing flaw.


FWIW: I go only with orig manufacture, of an aftermarket company that makes better than OEM (like MOOG).

I had a car sit during the winter, and the brake pad rusted to the rotor! Even that was a new one for me. How does "asbestos-like" stuff "rust" to metal? Well, I use semi-metallic hi-perf (and also high dust :-P) brake pads. Doh!

 

From Advanced Vehicle Testing Activity - Hybrid Electric Vehicles, it seems one of the Gen 3 Priuses in their fleet recently had "Replaced right rear hub assembly" at ~138K miles. PDF at http://avt.inl.gov/pdf/hev/ms_6063_2010_toyota_prius.pdf.

 

If you still got your paper work from the early vist that shows you brought up the problem before your warranty was up. I would take it up with the owner of the dealer.

 

It seems to me if they can't figure out the cause maybe they should cover it?

I think the old Toyota was managed by the Toyoda family and cared a lot about customer service, now the 21st century Toyota is run by bean counters that only care about the this years bottom line. Unfortunately a lot of other companies are managed the same way.

 

Did you call the Toyota Customer Experience line?

 

That's actually common and is/used_to_be the industry standard way of dealing with a failure where it may or may not be a manufacturing/design fault.

If a person pushed enough and up high enough, the regional rep (or what ever) would offer to pay 50% of the price. Pretty much, it's a close to break even for the dealer and the company at that point.

GM was famous for doing that when people complained about all of the repairs because GM started to make/sell pure cr*p. My '92 Olds had the head gasket go at ~40K miles because, like just about every GM car with Aluminum heads, the GM design was a pure a total POS.

I currently have 4 GM cars (1969-2000). I've owned many more. Any idea why I would never buy a new GM car?



Back to the orig post...
My guess is that the rust seen by the mechanic(s) and factory reps is not something that is typical at all, nor what's expected when a manufacturing defect is the cause. And, it's not very clear that the rust/problem was a result of mis-use, incorrect storage, severe water/weather damage (e.g. car being under water), etc, etc.

So, what's a manufacture going to do? Well, the best solution is to offer to pay for 50% of the repair.


As for your next new vehicle. If you don't want a Toyota, that's fine. That's 100% up to you. But, consider what you might be getting regardless of who you go with. If it's a POS GM (sorry, that's redundant ), then IMHO, even if they pay you $15K to take it off their lot, you'd still be screwed if you own it for more than 5 years.

If you do want to consider another truck, then, IMHO, check out the only other manufacture that still sells/produces quailty vehicles - Ford. IMHO, I'd put an F150 up against anything made by anyone else. And, the yearly Sales and Market Share numbers for an F150 back up my view.

No, I don't own an F150 or a truck.



FWIW, *I* think that Toyota's offer is fair. It may not be 100% right, but life is not 100% right. So, having something close to fair is pretty good.
Don't forget, from my armchair, pull it from my rear diagnosis, I blame the problem from the car being near water/shore/wet lands, etc.


Good Luck with your Prius repair!

 

i would never buy another gm product, cracked exhaust manifolds, my fault? front rotors drilled almost an inch off center? so the vehicle feels like the wheels out of balance ! no thats not their fault. or a ford, needed a alternator after 14,000 mi. they wouldn't cover it. charged me $500.00. water leaks under the dash, when it rained, 2 inches of water on floor! not their fault! (couldn't find anything wrong) i could go on and on. by the way all the cars were new. why these company's are still in business is beyond me. but i sure as heck am not supporting them. so do what you gotta do, thats all i can say.