Wheel bearing replacement COSTS WHAT????
 

I’ll admit it, I was a kind of do it yourselfer when I had my older Mercedes but there’s not much I can do other than easy maintenance on my 2012 E 350 Sport (90,000 miles).

I had to get new tires which I bought from a tire store because the ones that were on it were noisy, mismatched and it was driving me crazy. The guy came and sat down with me and said the car needed new wheel bearings because they were loose and what I thought was road noise was actually the bearings. (I don’t have a lift or a floor jack so I can’t check it). Just for kicks I had him go ahead and do an estimate and fifteen minutes later he came back with an estimate of $1,850!!!!😳

I said thanks but no thanks and called the dealer just for kicks and got an estimate of $2300!!!!!!!

Can anyone think of ANY REASON that replacing wheel bearings should cost that much???? I’ve had wheel bearings replaced on other cars and NEVER paid more than $400 a side!

what gives????

Is that all four wheels, or just the front or rear axles? For all four wheels it's certainly within the realm of reality (about $500 a tire, $100 for parts, a few hours labor). I'd contact another indy and see what they say.

Edit: The fronts need to be pressed in and out, the rears are bolt-on units (still a bit of a pain).

I'm curious, what was the behavior of the noise you were hearing? I'm getting what sound like road noise around 40mph, but it goes away at higher speeds. I'll likely replace the bearings in a little while, but I've really grown to hate throwing parts at noises.

That sounds a bit extreme. Did it cover all four sides?
Which tire store in Lexington did you go to?

Max

It’s the fronts only. I questioned that BOTH are bad and I’m also guessing that they want to replace the whole hub assembly as a unit rather than press out the bearings.

The sound is is kind of a woofing sound that starts about 5 mph and goes away at about 55. It does change when you turn the wheel.

I thought that id be able to hear a difference when they put the new tires on but they said that they won’t replace the tires until the wheel bearings are done first.

Big O tires

Then I'm not surprised on "high" estimate. This place typically knows what James Motor Company will charge for this job an scale it down a bit.
Also, not surprised that they asked you to replace the bearings. If faulty they can impact tire wear.
I do have a local guy (in Lexington) that I used several times to work on my cars. He has a small shop (one man operation) off Liberty road.
I can give you a reference if needed.

Max

can you pm me?

PM sent
Max

In all those years I buy & maintain MB for whole family, the only bearing that failed was ... idler pulley on W211.
Some of those cars had 300k miles, 30 years and as far as I could tell still on factory bearing grease.
In last years MB is sending parts manufacturing to different countries and I already have record about substandard W212 wheels made in Czech Republic, so unless that might be another of those situation, I think you can just adjust the bearing, put fresh grease in it and call it a day.
Love those 4-digits job inspections done from comfort of office chair.

I'm guessing you're right. They probably want to replace the whole hub. Definitely call around and find a place that is good with pressing new ones in. It's probably worth asking them directly if they plan on that approach or not.

I have a 28K mile E400 4MATIC that is in the dealer now getting a front passenger wheel bearing replacement under warranty. Thought it was odd to have fallen apart at such low mileage... Anyways, I had my indy price the part and the bearing itself is only about $50 bucks at their cost, so I can't imaging why it would be as expensive as what you were quoted. That being said, why the hell is my bearing failing at 28K? I think my W211 OM642 (at 132K) is still on her originals.

YouTube video
 

Just watched a YouTube video (from Mercedes Benz UK) on how to replace a front wheel bearing on a W204 C class. Replacing the whole hub took 20 minutes from beginning to end. Is the W212 that different from the W204? So why does the dealer (and an Indy) claim it takes 6-8 hours of labour in the USA? And is the complete hub REALLY $375 a piece????

Most people who buy MB as a new vehicle do not really care of the repair cost. They buy a luxury vehicle with high cost and understand repair cost is high but they do not need to worry about it. And most of them lease the car for 2-3 years so in that time there is no cost for repairs.

MB service has priced everything based on the fact that majority of their customers do not question the cost of service.

Bearing failing that quick is very odd and as it happened I would call it a bearing defect unless it was not lubed correctly.

Bearings are cheap to buy (usually) and with a little bit of hands on work you can save some pretty $.

I think you guys ought to just give it a try, once in your life. Replacing modern unitized wheel bearings is a GIANT PITA regardless of if you're working on a carport or in a fully-equipped garage. I just did my Audi's and at $35 for a bearing and $23 for a hub (plus maybe another $50 total for new torque-to-yield hardware) I'd have gladly paid $1000 to have saved me a week's worth of cursing and throwing tools. And I do have a press and all the right tools, and have done MANY of these and dread every single one. And I looked up the price of the bearings for my wife's W212 4matic, anticipating this nightmare that is inevitably to come one day, and they're NOWHERE near as cheap as my Audi parts, even through discount websites and cheap Chinese bearings.

Realistically to do the two front bearings on my Audi I have about 6 hours per side of horrendous, frustrating, backbreaking labor. I could have done it much faster and easier if I had simply removed the entire spindle assembly and put the whole kebab in the press, but then I'd have to separate the ball joints on the LCAs, which are original, and still OK, and I'd probably tear the boots, necessitating replacement, and there goes all my cost savings.....

Like I said, try it a couple times, you'll be throwing money at a pro in no time....my problem is 1. my tiny bank account and 2. my enormous ego.

You can buy new hub
can take old hubs to machinery shop to press the runner out,
or when I was doing control arm bushing and shop wanted $100 for press time, I invested $130 in 1 of those.
Press alone is not enough as you need some sized sleeves, but nothing that neighborhood plumbing place will not have on stock.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...b4ed3622d4.jpg

This is exactly what im planning on doing , replacing the whole hub , which is a little bit more expensive than just a bearing , but for the money you saving so much more time and nerves lol

Can you post the part numbers for the assembled hub?

I did some looking around this morning and (at least on the 4matics) based on the diagrams I saw, swapping the bearing looks to be the same procedure as this:


Naturally that's assuming everything goes as well as it's supposed to, but if the hub can be knocked out and the bearing pressed in and out of the knuckle as shown, I think I'll be buying a press for the garage. Worst comes to worst I'd just bring it to the garage down the street. They've pressed things like control arm bushings for me in the past.

Now I've gotta get WIS behaving...

make certain to have them check the muffler bearings too while they're in there :y

The video shows 4Matic, what has different bearings.
One thing to remember for DIY, you want to break loose axle nut (36 mm) with wheel on the ground as even good quality impact wrenches will not do it alone.
That often means wheel removal to push the cap out, than reinstalling wheel on 3 bolts, lower on the ground and put the big socket with as much leverage as you need.
Everything comes out easy for this guy. That doesn't happen in real life often.