Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 09:13 am, by: Rowan Mutu(Dadzi)
Hey guys,
After 12 months of having a 'bumping' sound coming from the rear of my car, many trips to the mechanics and many perplexed mechanics telling me that they've checked the car over and can't find the source of the noise, I've now found a mechanic who believes that the problem is the RH wheel bearing. I'm now wondering what a fair price would be to get a wheel bearing replaced on a Uzz31?
I've been quoted $1,250 to get both rear wheel bearings replaced, or $740 to get just the RH rear replaced which is the major culprit.
I'd be interested to know what other members have paid for the same operation.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 10:13 am, by: Vincent Chan(Vincent191)
Rowan, are you sure a faulty wheel bearing gives off a "bumping" sound? I have not replaced wheel bearings on a Soarer but $1250 sounds very expensive. Maybe others can shed more light on this.
I also have a bumping sound from the rear and I think it is my bushes.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 10:22 am, by: Ken Nakken(Veloce_2185)
I agree $1250 does sound very over priced.. as for a wheel bearing would have thought the noise would be more of a whining or squeal noise and more dominant at certain speeds or cornering.. Is the bumping noise constant? nothing lose in the boot, soarer have a few things in there boot?
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 01:38 pm, by: Rowan Mutu(Dadzi)
Guys, to be honest I've got no idea what a dodgy wheel bearing sounds like! My car basically sounds like one of the rear wheels has got an egg in it and the rear-end is bumping its way along the road, but three mechanics have looked it over and tell me that the wheels are fine. I'll definitely be getting a second and third opinion about the wheel bearings from other mechanics before forking out $1,250!
Ken, it's definitely not something in the boot. The bumping noise is rhythmic and it speeds up in line with the speed of the car.
Vincent, I let that guy out of my boot months ago. I'm now as confused as he was to find himself in my boot in the first place!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 02:09 pm, by: Ken Nakken(Veloce_2185)
Probably the only other thing i can think of if its not a wheel bearing is a flat spot on the tyre and/or a fault with the tyre.. my wife recently got new tyres, one of the tyes was faulty producing a bad droning noise in the cabin... maybe change the wheel to your spare for a lap of the block to see if that makes a difference?
Evan Kaio DieHard "Beautiful sunnny, (our Coach sacked most of our All Blacks) 'Canes' country '91 UZZ31. 92 TT
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 09:04 pm, by: Rowan Mutu(Dadzi)
Hmmm I couldn't rule a flat spot out completely, but an issue with the tyres was my first suspicion many months ago so I rotated the tyres around at that time and the noise continued coming from the exact same location.
The car is at a different mechanic now and he'll be taking it for a drive tomorrow to try and suss out the issue so I should have an update on the prognosis by tomorrow night.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 10:13 pm, by: Jack Driver(Jacko)
Here's one not mentioned yet. My left rear hub has apparently become "belled" around the seat of the bearing. The symptom is a tinny little clunk of movement when the rear is up and you grab the wheel and try and wobble/turn it as a front would with the steering mechanism. Seeing as you've got pro's looking at it I guess you'll eventually get to the bottom of it.
Saturday, March 24, 2012 - 11:56 am, by: Rowan Mutu(Dadzi)
O.K guys, I took the car to a second mechanic (without mentioning anything about my previous quote) and received some good news and some bad news.
Bad news: the second mechanic re-confirmed that the noise is being caused by a worn out RH rear wheel bearing. So this will definitely need to be replaced.
Good news: this mechanic quoted $350-$400 for the job, and said that there was no point replacing the LH Rear until that started to play up - which could be next week, or could be 5 years from now. That sure beats the $1,250 quote that I received from the original mechanic. I should add that both mechanics come highly recommended, so I don't feel like the quality of the job will be reflected in the difference in price. Once the job is done, I'll give a shout out to the mechanic I'm referring to for anyone in the ACT/NSW area (so long as they do a good job of course!)
Friday, April 13, 2012 - 03:27 pm, by: Rowan Mutu(Dadzi)
Hey guys,
So following on, I just got the car back from the mechanic. The parts ended up being a bit more than anticipated, and the labour a little bit more also, so the total job came to $520 to replace the RH rear bearing. I'm happy with the price, and am (so far) very happy with the job - my soarer is rolling nice and smooth once more! If anyone in the ACT/NSW region happens to come across a similar issue, I would not hesitate to recommend Premier Automotive in Mitchell ACT (02)62428450.
Of course, I have always previously gone with Neil Griffiths for any Soarer issues, but since he's not taking on too much work these days, Premier will definitely be at the top of my list of mechanics from now on.
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