Not happy Jan.

Have had a whirring noise in the Toyota Aurion for quite some time. I thought it was tyre noise and left it at that. Had to get a Rego inspection on Wed and the mechanic seemed to think it was a wheel bearing. Sent me to the Toyota joint for them to have a look and give a second opinion. Mechanic there was very good also, took me for a drive,explained a few things then I left the car with him to diagnose. Two hours later his boss rang me and confirmed it was right hand front wheel bearing. I said just replace it mate and you may as well do the left one while she's up on the hoist. Reply........No worries mate that'll be, (wait for it)......Not $300, not $500, not even $600................$2,100!!!!!!! This isn't a typo.

Anyway, after I picked the phone back up I kindly asked him to put the car back how it was and I'd come and pick it up.
Now I'm no expert on this sort of thing, but I have changed plenty of wheel bearings and I may be wrong but I thought $1,100 was a little bit steep. I have looked up whats involved on the computer and its no different to any other front wheel drive car.It should be 1-1.5hrs work per wheel ( $300 labour) and $120 each bearing ($240). Lets round it up to $600. Where does $1,100 come from?

Have other members got an idea of what a reasonable cost would be for this job? Cam, what do you think?

Cheers Jimmy the " bemused " Boy.

That's BS Jim.

I have a mate with an Aurion, what sort of Kms have you got on yours Jimmy?

Only 85K Steve. You'd think they'd last longer than that but thats not the issue. I'm happy to replace them but not at that sort of cost. If I had a press I'd have a crack at them myself.

Last time I changed front wheel bearings was on a commodore.

I'm sure the bearing kits for both wheels was less than $100.

Unless technology has changed greatly, you remove the bearing outer using a brass drift and used the old bearing to help install the new one.

I definitely did not use a press as I haven't got one  

Hammy wrote:That's BS Jim.

Yes, but did you let Jan know?

Quite typical for a lot of dealerships. They jack the price up in the service and parts departments because they make f*#k all in sales.

I had a similar problem when my car was still under its new car warranty. I took it to my local Ford dealer to have a few things sorted. I asked him if machining the front rotors was covered under warranty and he told me it was. Later that afternoon I got a call to tell me that during the course of removing the rotors they felt that the pads wouldn't make it to the next service and they recommended that I have them change them. I asked how much = $180. Now you might think well that's not to bad, but bear in mind that they already had the rotors off so therefore so were the callipers. I told him to forget it.
After I picked the car up I headed down to my local Bursons and picked up a set of pads for $70.
The next day I decided to change them. The ones in the car were .5mm more worn than the new ones. In other words they were bloody nearly brand new.
The dirty bastards were going to charge me for new pads and replace nothing. I guess in some way to reclaim what it cost them in the warranty repairs.

Hence I've never been back

MM theres a big dealership around here thats renowned for that sort of shenanigans. Ive had mates mark their oil and air filters and when they've picked the car up they've been charged for both but neither were replaced. I don't know how these scumbags still operate. This is not the dealership I went to yesterday though.

When I went to pick the car up I asked the mechanic if anything special was involved and he said no, straight forward job, how much did he quote you? When I told him he shook his head, apologised and handed me the keys. He was a really genuine, nice young bloke who obviously sees this on a regular basis.

They like to prey on the unwary

If you don't want to tackle it yourself , take it to a private mechanic instead ................that's just crap ! ( don't tell him what you were quoted until he has told you his quote though )

Thats exactly what I'm doing in about 10mins Paul.

We owned a Camry many years ago.  It was a good little car.  The first service it required we put it into a Toyota dealership in Canberra and got the shock of our lives when we went to pick it up.  Same problem.  Just exorbitant costs, like $85 for a fuel filter.  We never went back to them.  The most expensive service of any car I've ever owned.

OK heres the update. Went to a private mechanic who I know is a top bloke. To cut a long story short $158 per bearing for Toyota genuine parts. And he quoted me $300 per wheel including bearing to do the job. This is a worst case senario at 1.5hrs per wheel. Said it should be an hour per wheel if nothing goes wrong so it will be somewhere between $5-600 max.    

I then told him the dealership quote and he had a good old giggle and wondered how they're still open for business.

Happy now Jan. 

Jimmy the Boy wrote:Have had a whirring noise in the Toyota Aurion for quite some time. I thought it was tyre noise and left it at that. Had to get a Rego inspection on Wed and the mechanic seemed to think it was a wheel bearing. Sent me to the Toyota joint for them to have a look and give a second opinion. Mechanic there was very good also, took me for a drive,explained a few things then I left the car with him to diagnose. Two hours later his boss rang me and confirmed it was right hand front wheel bearing. I said just replace it mate and you may as well do the left one while she's up on the hoist. Reply........No worries mate that'll be, (wait for it)......Not $300, not $500, not even $600................$1,100!!!!!!! This isn't a typo.

Anyway, after I picked the phone back up I kindly asked him to put the car back how it was and I'd come and pick it up.
Now I'm no expert on this sort of thing, but I have changed plenty of wheel bearings and I may be wrong but I thought $1,100 was a little bit steep. I have looked up whats involved on the computer and its no different to any other front wheel drive car.It should be 1-1.5hrs work per wheel ( $300 labour) and $120 each bearing ($240). Lets round it up to $600. Where does $1,100 come from?

Have other members got an idea of what a reasonable cost would be for this job? Cam, what do you think?

Cheers Jimmy the " bemused " Boy.

 
My wife used to work there in Stock Control and Registrations.  They are back stabbing, lying, deceitful cunts.

   Don't hold back Mick, tell us what you really think of them.

Thanks for the confirmation of what I guessed was the case.

I know on more than one occasion people have bought a car from them close to the end of the month, but weren't going pick it up for a couple of weeks only to find out 3 years later they were out of warranty 2 weeks earlier than they expected. Allegedly, in order to make their sales figure for the month the prick sales manager at the time registered the car straight away, which meant that the owners missed out on 2 weeks of warranty, which could have cost them thousands of dollars. Thankfully Toyota honoured the warranty on 'good will'. Allegedly.

Personally, if I wanted to buy a new Toyota, I'd take a trip to see Tim O'Malley at Tumut Toyota, or down to Albury to Jacobs.

Conversely, when we replaced our Camry we bought a Liberty Wagon.  I cannot speak highly enough of the guys and girls at Jupiter Motors.

Next step.  Ring Bearing Dynamics or similar after market supplier and get a price for non genuine.  
I'm sure that you know that Toyota don't have a bearing manufacturing plant to make "Genuine" Toyota bearings.  They all use outside supplies.  
Do it Yourself,  Jimmy. 
I did the Festiva.  They require pressing onto the hub. Any local machine shop will do the press work, 10min max, for a carton of ale. 
Save yourself a few hundred dollars more.

Jimmy the Boy wrote:OK heres the update. Went to a private mechanic who I know is a top bloke. To cut a long story short $158 per bearing for Toyota genuine parts. And he quoted me $300 per wheel including bearing to do the job. This is a worst case senario at 1.5hrs per wheel. Said it should be an hour per wheel if nothing goes wrong so it will be somewhere between $5-600 max.    

I then told him the dealership quote and he had a good old giggle and wondered how they're still open for business.

Happy now Jan. 

He's charging around $100 per hour for his labour. He's getting paid like a politician    

I just checked aftermarket bearing kit prices. Allied Bearings in Cairns want $58.15 per wheel.

I'm not suggesting you purchase them in Cairns but there are CBC Bearings, BSC Bearings and SKF Bearings in Wagga which should have similar prices.

So, $300 - $158 + $58 = $200 per wheel. That's $400 all up which is what I would expect to pay. I hate robbing bastards.

2 replaced wheel bearing = half a Honda vfr . 

gus wrote:2 replaced wheel bearing = half a Honda vfr . 

Thats a great deal, Jimmy. 
Do all four wheels and Gus will swap his Vfr for the used bearings.  Bahaha.

Just imagine how much fun I could have with 4 wheel bearings .

You could get Gazzar to work his magic with them.  

The bearings on my VT commodore were sold as a "front wheel hub assembly". 3 Allen bolts and the whole lot came out! 
Lots of stories regarding dealers trying to rip me a new one (trying to charge me for a clutch fluid flush....it's an auto, also wanted $1200 to replace a rear main seal......which was still under warranty, and many more!)
so now I do all my own servicing and repairs....

Thanks for all your input guys. I know its still expensive, I could stuff around and try to do it myself but Its the bosses car and basically Im not allowed to touch it. For a couple of hundred bucks Im happy for him to do it. The fella at the dealership said he had a hell of a time pulling the right hand side apart so this bloke can have the headache. I also didn't want to walk into the shop with pre bought bearings and say, here put these in will ya. Id actually rather not get toyota ones if they only last 80K but it feels as though I have something to fall back on if he does the work and they fail. Anyway they're ordered now and its booked in so this saga will be over soon. Thanks again.