Today I am seeing/hearing another ominous sound. I have self-diagnosed the problem as a front passenger side wheel bearing, If it is a bearing what can I expect it to cost ? I don't plan on doing this myself. Do I need to do the driver side ? There seems to be no problem yet with the driver side. I do notice some odd tire wear beginning on the side with the noise. The tires only have about 8k miles on them. Also will need to replace water pump , front and rear brakes, typical services for 135K car and probably wheel bearing (1 or both sides). I was about to address the issues with elevated ping levels from my recent post with new spark plugs, pcv valve, etc. Some of these items I'll do myself. Just wondering what else is coming after this. I know it is using oil. Just haven't quantified the amount yet. I do have the option to take over my daughters 2013 Civic EX with 26,000 miles on it. It would cost me about $12,000. Some minor body damage which if I had done would run about 1000.00. She moved into the city and needs to sell it. It is a nice little car. Just very boring to drive. Not bad on gas and probably good for over 150K miles. Like I said .. boring to drive especially for more than a year or two. Can anyone offer some guidance and know the pricing on the bearing job ? I really love the Prius and would get another one except for odd styling on the new ones. Thanks in advance.
I just was reading through an older thread about wheel bearings where PriusGnome posted that his similar situation was caused by debris in the brakes. This might be something I will have checked out when I have my tires rotated today. I only noticed this sound yesterday after pulling the wheel covers to give the car a fresher look. The wheels themselves were pretty filthy. I didn't have time to clean them so I drove the car with them dirty for several miles. When I came home I cleaned them and replaced the wheel covers thinking that maybe the wheel covers purpose was to cut down wind noise and air resistance. Noise did not change. Something may be between the pads and the rotors. I did not notice much difference in sound when I hard left or righted with the car last night when I was checking for possible bearing noise change during the maneuvers. Hmmmm.. Seems too conicidental. I will update. Thanks PriusGnome
Co-worker had the front right side bearing replaced on his 06 by a hybrid-specialist shop for about $300. Prices vary; especially by region.
It's rare to need to replace any of that... Don't start replacing parts till you know what it is. Brakes won't need replacing till over 300k in most cases. Remember regen takes the punishment slowing the car so the brakes do little and really never overheat which is what kills them. Maybe if you've ran in high water but otherwise not likely it's bearings they are sealed anyway.
The tire wear is indicative of something that should be checked right away. Can you describe the wear pattern? That may give a better idea of the cause. It's at the right TIME for the WP and tune-up items, but REALLY early for brakes. Are they worn out or just a piece-of-mind thing?
Tire wear with only 8k makes me think tie rod bent or loose etc.. A good chuck hole can do it running over a curb. At any rate am alignment is on order. In doing so they will know if the tie rod is the culprit. Sometimes the bolt can simply come loose too that holds it fixed in position. Take care of the obvious first, it often fixes the issue.
An alignment is NOT in order, at least not until the CAUSE is found and corrected and performing an alignment will not do that since it involves measuring and performing simple adjustments.
No actually an alignment is in order. Unless whatever is really bent or broken so you can see it an alignment on the machine will instantly tell you what is really out of alignment. It's the first thing a tire shop does to determine what's whacked out. Then they fix it and put it back on the alignment machine to determine if what they replaced fixed it. If so they go forward with the alignment. Front suspension is complicated. Everything interacts with each other.
Yea, not. IF the "alignment shop" you use needs a computer to tell them what to check, you are unlikely to be dealing with a shop that UNDERSTANDS alignments - that is why they have a computer, to TELL THEM. Having alignment checked it not at all the same as "having an alignment (performed)". A CHECK will tell you if you are off and where, while actually performing an alignment will, assuming they actually use the correct specifications, get all the wheels pointed in the right direction by making nominal adjustments that are built into the vehicle. ANY person who is both experienced and has been properly trained in vehicle alignments can do a BETTER job with mechanical tools than any snot-nosed trainee can with even the most expensive computerized equipment. Furthermore, the experienced and trained person can identify the ROOT CAUSE of an alignment issue, without costing you much money.
