The car in question is a Toyota Yaris Mk1 1.0 litre from around 2000.

The Toyota garage quoted £2,000 to fix a few bits, including fitting two new rear wheel bearings. The rear wheel bearings come as a stub axle assembly, and a quick internet search indicates that main dealer prices are around £250 each plus fitting and VAT, so around £1,000 fitted for both sides.

Another internet search brings up pattern replacements priced from around £140 down to as low as £30. While £30 is obviously more attractive than £250, I can’t help but think there’s such a thing as too cheap, especially for components which effectively hold the wheels on!

I’m wondering what the mechanics amongst us think…

Find a back street garage with some friendly grease monkeys, a dirty bog next to the tea making area and lots of personal recommendations. They will understand the cost / benefit ratio of keeping a 16 year old jap hatch on the road for another year or two (or longer, if you tell them).

Then they’ll fit the right parts quicker and better than you could do yourself, dealing with any rusty/seized fixings along the way. You won’t be sponsoring fancy waiting rooms and dolly bird receptionists…..win all round!

£2k on a 16 year old Yaris? You could buy 2 more Yaris’ for that.

When bills starts arriving that total more than the value of the car, that’s when I get a new car.

I wouldn’t spend £2k on that car at all. I doubt I’d spend half that. We’ve just sold a Focus estate that was newest than your Yaris which had developed an intermiitant electrical fault that may or may not have been linked to the instrument pack. It was somewhere between £300 and £800 to fix but with no guarantee of sucess. So we got shot and bought a Mazda 6 estate a year older but with less than half the milage for £2400. I wanted to keep the Focus longer but we’ve had 7 years use out of it for £5380. Can’t complain.

Genuine parts and dealer labour rates..
I’d get a quote from an independent garage, you’ll probably half the bill, if not more…that’s if all that really does need doing, and it doesn’t just want a couple of bearings.

Well, when quoted £2k to fix the Yaris, the owner did choose to buy a new car. He’s passed the Yaris on to me, and I’m hoping to be able to fix it for a fraction of the main dealer price. The other requirements are a couple of tyres and shocks. I was really just wondering how cheap to go on the wheel bearing assemblies.

Have a look on http://www.eurocarparts.com/wheel-bearing-and-wheel-hub

For an idea, I wouldn’t be buying genuine Toyota parts for a car that age/value

and you’re seriously considering paying for genuine parts? 😯

I’ve bought pattern parts to put on much newer cars than that – nothing wrong with them, in general most of the difference in cost is due to increased mark up somewhere along the line rather than any quality difference.

I was really just wondering how cheap to go on the wheel bearing assemblies

As cheap as you can, I’d say. They won’t make the wheels fall off; they might wear out in 40k miles rather than 100k, but they’ll outlast the car. I stopped using main dealers after I saw them take the wheel bearings out to change the brake shoes, lay the bearings directly on the concrete floor and then refit them. A caring mechanic is more important than expensive parts.

The shoddiest work I’ve ever had done was by a main dealer’s workshop. I’ve since learnt that you don’t even have to take it to one for stuff which requires specialist manufacturers’ diagnostic tools – the local independent is far, far better (and half the price).

I’d say put it in for an mot, ok it’s £40 wasted but that Will give you a better picture of what really needs doing.

Main dealers have a habit of reccomending you replace the whole engine because of a faulty spark plug, they generally try and extract as much cash from the customer as they think they can get away with.

Thanks for that.

I use an independent garage for my car, but I thought I’d have a go myself at doing up the Yaris. I was also thinking about sorting out any obvious problems (like the tyres) and wheel bearings (if they’ve definitely had it) and then taking it for an MOT.

and you’re seriously considering paying for genuine parts?

I don’t think the OP is considering that in the slightest. 😯
As long as you’re getting a reasonable brand from a decent motor factor, you should be fine.
I’d be more than wary of buying from an unknown source from places like Ebay.

Most car manufacturers do not make their own parts, specialist companies do. So for bearings if they are made by the likes of SKF or FAG then they will be every bit as good as genuine.
For filters Bosch, Hengst or Mahle are common OEM producers. Ferodo make brakes for Porsche, VW and others etc etc. Basically if you buy from a reputable OEM producer then the parts will be OK.

Are you sure it needs 2 new wheel bearings? Are they rumbling?

If there is a rumble make sure it’s not the tyres wearing unevenly.

On my last car, Kumho KU31s wore unevenly on the rear of the car only (apparently common on that platform), causing a rumble that sounded just like knackered wheel bearings.

I’ve changed 1 wheel bearing.

It was such a pig of a job I was happy to pay a man £200 to do the other when it went.

(mk3 mondeo – same as a similar ear tranny and X-type jag, jag parts where half that of ford branded ones).

If you want cheap start trawling scrappers for parts, some low milage granny mobile that’s been scraped down the side.

Easy jobs with the right tools. The right tool is a 20tonne press.

I’ve changed 1 wheel bearing.

It was such a pig of a job I was happy to pay a man £200 to do the other when it went.[/quote]

+1
There are some jobs that are more aggro than they’re worth. Wheel bearings are one; driveshafts are another.

Easy jobs with the right tools. The right tool is a 20tonne press.

eggsackly

Well he appears to be unsure about getting pattern parts, and I’m not sure what other alternatives there are if he decided against that.

I haven’t even seen the car yet, so I’m just going on what I’ve been told.

The rear wheel bearing assemblies are like these £30 jobs

Some of the cars have an ABS sensor which are built into the assembly, but I’m not sure if this particular car has ABS or not. As you can see, they’re fixed onto a backing plate on the axle with 4 studs. It doesn’t seem to be a complicated job as long as the studs aren’t seized!

The car has been maintained at the main dealer (including £900 for brakes 6 months ago!) It sounds like the dealer must be charging top dollar for labour.

For an old car like that I’d just get what’s cheap at Euro or suchlike, I’d avoid the cheap Ebay tat but that’s about it..

I had seized front brake calliper slide pins on my Mazda 6. Main dealer quoted £240 a side for replacement calliper brackets (no moving parts, seals or pins). In the end I freed one side off with heat and the other as a £15 used part from ebay. Dealers charge £100/hour these days labour.
Wheel bearings should cost you £100 a side from your local garage. Bearing presses required so not a diy job.

No need for a press to do these as they are bolt on hub units

Go one up from the cheapest bearings from a local factor

well worth fixing the car by the sound of it = no expense spared at main dealer

Those hubs should be an easy swap with no need for press etc.

I work in an automotive test lab so have a slightly different perspective on these things. The hub itself does a bending fatigue cycle with every revolution so is fairly important / safety critical. The fatigue load is biggest when running fully laden and cornering heavily – so if trundling round unladen then things are maybe slightly less critical. I’d still not buy unknown cheap stuff from ebay – go for a known manufacturer supplied by a reputable stockist and should be fine.

I wouldn’t hesitate to use non Toyota parts but as others have said, but only from a reputable supplier. No way would I be buying some eBay wheel bearings claiming to be the real deal for a fraction of the price. There’re a lot of fake junk out there.

I was chatting to a main dealer mechanic once on a drive for a car issue and he told me that they had charged a customer £2k for a exhaust system on a performance(!) Corrola when you could have an aftermarket one for £250

Exhausts are a licence to print money, stainless replacements are usually a fraction of manufacturers parts.

If the studs aren’t seized. Big if there.

My dad’s old Nissan 200sx..
£350 for a nissan mild steel backbox
£250 for a scorpion stainless steel one

I was also thinking about sorting out any obvious problems (like the tyres) and wheel bearings (if they’ve definitely had it) and then taking it for an MOT.

if you do that then you’re putting brand new tyres and bearings on a car that might then fail on issues that you can’t afford to repair, you’ll not get that time or money back from the scrap yard and you won’t be adding value to the car. Know what the whole job is going to be before you start it.