I recently had front wheel bearings replaced on f350 2004 4x4. Went back to garage where this was done several months laterwith noise in front wheel. They replaced wheel bearing and hub unit again. Said bearing was bad. Said they were going to try and warranty bearing. Got a bill from them for $749.00 . they warrantied bearing but nothing else. This is a garage where I have gone for 25 years. I don't think I should have to pay for hub ruined by bearing. They should guarantee their work. What do you think? I also had to go back because they didn't put snap ring in completely and lost lock out hub. Then some sensor on other wheel for anti lock brakes went bad. Warranteed it. Al total I made 4 trips there for front wheel bearings and already paid for it once. Now they want me to pay again.

 

They should at least give you break on labor or not charge at all. Replacing a bearing is not a $750 in labor job even at $100hr.(I know I have done enough of them)

It is possible for the unit bearing to be too tight and fail prematurely however it is not super common. The ABS sensor often gets damaged if it is removed from the unit bearing.(it sticks in the bore) On a new bearing there is no reason to remove the ABS sensor to install the bearings.

 

The wheel bearings are actually part of a sealed unit called a hub assembly, the hub, bearings and spindle/mounting flange are all pressed together so there is no adjustment and no replacement of just the bearings. Basically all the tech has to do is bolt the assembly on. Obviously it can be disassembled and rebuilt but it is extremely difficult and does not really make sense as the entire hub assembly in a quality aftermarket brand like Timken is usually under $200.

Almost every brand I have seen has at least a one year warranty. The job to change it out is not difficult, I have replaced many of these and had my own on and off several times over the years, usually takes about a half hour. $750 is in the range you would pay for replacement at the dealer with OEM parts. I would certainly feel that you are getting ripped off.

At the very least your parts should be under warranty, charging full labor would be at the discretion of the shop. Personally I would at least have given a break on the labor, that goes a long way to making a customer a repeat customer. A quality part that fails prematurely is not necessarily the shop's fault either, so labor is understandable.

 

these are the kind of stories that make me want to either do the work myself, or take only to ford repair shops. general repair facilities are not experinced with ford trucks.

 

Most of the aftermarket parts companies offer some sort of labor reimbursement to shops that sell their parts. For example, Autozone will pay the shop 50% labor on some parts and 100% on others. $750 for replacing one hub is absolutely ridiculous and I would be questioning the hell out of them about that and why did they not try to recoup some of the labor from the place they bought the parts. Or maybe they did and double dipped.

 

This is one of the reasons why I installed Dynatrac "Free Spin" kit in 2011, to get away from unit bearings in my (early) 1999 F350 4x4 dually

It was not a cheap conversion, but since I haul over 4000 lbs slide in camper, I did not want to mess with unit bearings.

The Dynatrac kit is well made and it solved the unit bearing problem 100% - Spyntec also makes a similar kit.

 

I thought about the Dynatrac but I don't see the point. I can get a Timken unit bearing for $185 a piece and shoot some grease in it through the ABS hole every 30k miles or so. No tearing apart the Dynatrac setup, cleaning and repacking the cup/cone bearings. Only have to pull the caliper and rotor to get at the ABS sensor.

 

It would be pretty easy also to pump up the Dynatrac with grease if that is all that's needed - no need to "tear it up" for that!

The point was to get something that is serviceable if needed and have the bearings further apart from each other for improved strength.