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$240 to repack the front wheel bearings!?


Patrick
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What are the symptoms? Or is this a part of regular maintenance?

 

I don't think mine were ever done (60,000 mile coming up) and do you think they should be repacked?

 

Thanks,

 

Brian

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not normally ... I haven't done mine in over 100k miles ... a quick way to know for sure if you need them done is to grab a wheel from the top, shake it back on forth in the direction of the opposite wheel ... if you hear or feel any play, you should have them done ...

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That sounds like how you check for loose wheel bearings. Do you mean the bearings should be packed only when you adjust them? I can only remeber packing bearings on older cars (rear wheel drive) when the front rotors were taken off to be re-surfaced. I still can't see how the garage can tell him the bearings need to be packed. Is front bearing failure a problem with Pathfinders?

 

Brian

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they need to be repacked when you reinstall the hubs/rotors on a Nissan (w)d21 ... you have to remove the outer bearing to even get the hubs/rotors off and you have to remove the whole hub/rotor assembly to get to the bearings which is a total pain in the arse... so they HAVE TO be repacked when you reinstall them ... that is why I ALWAYS recommend just getting the whole thing done - seals, brakes, rotors, hardware, bearings, and packing and a rebuilding/greasing of the hubs ...

 

and asumming that the wheel bearings were properly set in the first place, having slack in the hub is a good indication that they need to be repacked, and set properly again ... either way it is really unavoidable ...

 

most older cars have a hub/rotor assembly that is relatively easy to remove SEPERATE from the bearing and spindle assembly ... hence the ease of it ...

 

basically Nissan just decided to put a whole lot more parts in a more compact space to make it that much more of a challenge ... and that is why it is such a feat whenever we actually fix something on our Nissan's all by oursleves! :D

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I paid about $6 for new inner seals, and $5 for synth bearing grease. $30 or so for the hub tool. Took an afternoon the first time, could probably get that down to 2 hrs if I got serious about it...

 

-al

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Just talked with a small garage- Complete Tire. They said they would repack the wheel bearings with new seals for about $100.00 and a front and rear alignment for $45.00 with tire rotation! Hopefully they won't jack the price on me when the see what a pain it is to get to the bearings.

This might fix the road wander that my truck has. It wasn't a fun trip from Maine to NY swerving all over the highway!

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Hopefully what they meant was a thrust alignment.

A two wheel alignment means they're only going to calibrate one axle.

A thrust alignment means they are going to take the rear axle into consideration when they do the toe adjustment on the front axle (so all four wheels will be pointing in the same direction. )

A REAL four wheel alignment means setting the caster/camber/toe on the front axel and camber/toe on the rear axle back to factory specifications. Since there is no adjustment (short of frame-straightening equipment) to adjust the solid rear axle, it can't be done. At least not for $45...

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:furious: It was Les Schwab, who knows. That was the trip where I drove up the road afterward and the bolt they stripped while putting shims in my control arm popped out, and front of the Pathy fell nearly onto the street.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Peter, if your swerving all over the road you have worn struts and shocks. Possible rear trailing control arm bushings too. I am in the process of changing them all out. I got heavy duty Car Quest(Gabriel) Shock and struts. Made all the difference over the stock non-gas shocks, struts go on Monday and bushings should be in Monday so maybe Tuesday. I can not wait, this turck was all over the highway and in a high wind give up. Very dangerous. I hope this fixes it.

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