Hello,

I have a 2006 Chevy Malibu and need to have the front passenger side wheel bearing and hub assembly replaced. It started making noise a few weeks ago and I've completely stopped driving it as I think its gotten worse. The guy that checked my car out (identifying the wheel bearing as the problem) wanted to charge me a total of $550 to fix. $100 for the part (which is about right) and $450 for labor which seems outrageous.

I live in northern Virginia so I expect labor costs up here to be higher, but not that high. I watched a guy on YouTube replace the wheel bearing on a 2006 Malibu in under 20 minutes. Labor at $50 per hour, that should only be $25 in labor plus $100 for the part. If I had the tools, I'd do it myself.

I would greatly appreciate if anyone can tell me what it should cost, on average, to replace the wheel bearing, or if the prices I've been quoted seem right. Thanks.

 

I can't say what the standard time is to do this fix, but that is how repair places come up with the charges. If it says that this procedure takes 1 hour, then one hours worth of labor is added to the part cost and any "fluids and shop supplies" needed to do the job.

If you can get this done for $550 that doesn't seem to high. Just think of what "normal" costs are when having work done on your car. Hey - shop around at different places.

Also what tools to you think you need to replace this yourself? I've not done it on my 2005 Malibu, but I did do it on a 98 Plymouth Breeze, and a 00 Chrysler Cirrus, and on these cars, they're the same other then the body design, replacing the wheel bearing wasn't hard at all. Need no special tools other than a bigger torx socket. Can't see the Malibu being any harder

 

I have a 2001 Chevrolet Malibu purchased used. One day I was going somewhere and the check engine light went on. I found out it was the right passenger side wheel bearing sensor. I had it
replaced by a mechanic and he charged me a decent fee. I made
sure I kept my receipt for the part, and lo and behold the same
thing happened again. This time I only had to pay a labor rate
of 1 hr.

 

if its a sealed hub and bearing assembly the usually labour time is about 1 hour.
If your in a rust belt, there may be added labour time if things are seized but maybe 0.5 hours more.

all common repairs has a flat rate time that is published for every make and model

$50/hr door rate is the cheapest I ever heard of. How would they stay in business? Techs should make 1/3 of the door rate in a flate rate shop. That would mean the tech is making $17/hr. Is this a one man shop?

 

Find a shop that can or will replace the bearing only. You need a shop with a bearing press. Cost Sb in the 200 dollar range

 

its a sealed bearing so the hub and bearing are one combined unit.

 

I've had this work done once already and after 43k miles the right side has failed again.
I was charged $250 for the part. I see Moog makes one for under $200. I don't have the price of a GM part. Labor was $170 , taxes , hazard material disposal it all came to roughly $500 dollars. I had the work don Now a new shop gave me a higher price but got there in a different way ,. They want $376 for the part and $190 for labor. Total cost $589 dollars .
How can the part cost over $176 dollars more even if it is a GM part which I don't know if it is . They give me a two year warranty , the first shops work lasted 3 years . There is something wrong with the repair business , if I were younger I would open my own shop.

 

there are different levels of part pricing depending on the quality of part. the labour should stay the same.


cheap bearing assemblies don't last long. I've seen them bad out of the box.


make sure they put on a new axle nut and torque it to spec. this preloads the bearing assembly. to tight or to loose and premature failure. the nut is one time use. old nuts back off and become loose.