Questions and Answers
VW Jetta Wheel Bearings
Q. Hi Vincent, I own a 1996 VW Jetta with 86,000. I've been having a problem with the front wheels so I took it to a local mechanic. I recently moved and could not take it to my trusted mechanic so I found another person through a reference and I am trying to assess his performance.
The car needs new wheel bearings on both front wheels. When the mechanic ordered the parts he got the wrong bearings and he said there is a split in the part number for that year Jetta. Now that he has the correct parts, he went to fix it and found that I also need two new hubs. He called to order those and the VW dealer parts ran $149.00 for each hub and his "source" can get them for $47.00 each. This mechanic has had the car for over a week and he thinks it'll be done tomorrow.
My questions are:
- When a mechanic diagnoses a problem, should they define clearly all the parts required?
- Is the error on the original bearings he ordered understandable?
- The price differential between the hubs is huge, what may the reason be and should I be concerned?
- The repair cost for this job will be about $480 - $55 per hour x 4 hours for labor the rest is parts, what do you think of that?
- Should I be concerned moving forward about maintaining the bearings? Could this problem have been prevented?
Thanks for any and all advice you can offer. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
ChristineA. Okay Christine, I'll take your questions in order.
1. Yes, they should. But sometimes parts damage is hidden until you get into the middle of a job. You don't know what's in a box until you open it. In this case the damage to the hubs was not evident until the wheel bearings were removed. Since bad wheel bearings don't usually damage the hubs, there was no reason for the mechanic to reasonably expect them to be damaged. I would, however request the old hubs be returned to you so you can have them inspected by a different mechanic to see if they are, indeed, damaged.
2. I don't see how this could be, the same wheel bearing was used from 1994 to 1998, according to the VW parts book.
3. The difference in price could be that the hubs he installed are used. A perfectly acceptable way to save money on a repair without compromising the quality of the job. He should have made you aware that he was using used parts and not new.
4. Four hours labor is what the book calls for and the bearings are about $83.00 each so he's not too far off. Maybe a little high because the prices I have are for parts from VW. Aftermarket prices are somewhat less.
5. The front bearings on your car are sealed bearings so there is no maintenance to do on them. There was nothing you could have done to prevent them from going bad.
Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA
