Wheel Bearing on Altea FR

[Sus]

Could do with some advise here please. I have been told that the wheel bearing on rear passenger side is on its way out and the garage has quoted me just over 200 quid to sort now im getting the feeling that im being diddled here am i right.

And how easy is it for me to do myself, I used to service my previous car myself and i changed my pads and discs with no problems so i dont mind getting my hands dirty and breaking a nail or two

 

[pdh 14a]

Whats the mileage on this? I know a lot of wheel bearings have been mistakenly diagnosed due to road noise rumble,which is linked to the poor wheel alignment!
if the cars under 60k,i would look into that first!

 

[Sus]

The car is a 57 plate with just over 30k on the clock. Thing is i was aware of noise on certain road surfaces it sounds like something is caught on the wheel like bag. I really dont know how to describe the noise but like you say i thought it was just road noise and the tyres.

The back tyres are the one on when i got and they dont seem to be wearing much but the front ones are iv just changed them and there was uneven wear on them.

 

[cadman2k]

Wheel Bearing

I had the start of a rumble which i suspected was tyre wear and it turned out to be one of the rear bearings, its not a cheap job I actually replaced both sides together as after reading aup about them it seemed like a Audi\VAG Common issue, the mileage on mine was 80K but a friend of mine had his done on an audi at 27K!!
Just leave it for a while, will not do any harm as the modern bearings are not like the bearings of 25 years ago. The Noise , if it is the bearing , will get worse quite quickly from this point on (couple of weeks) till it almost becomes unbearable.
The delay I had was the dealer not having the right tool to remove the old bearing which came if i'm not mistaken as part of a New Hub Assembly where the bearing is pre-pressed from the factory, If the £200 is what your being quoted then I suspect it is one of those as looking at my invoice I paid about £350 for both sides done together.

 

[Sus]

They said that yes it came as a full hub but there were two and the bloke wasnt sure which one was which and the company he priced it from didnt know either so he quoted me the more expensive one but there was only approximately 20 quid difference in the parts.

The noise hasnt changed at all to be honest I am aware of it but only on certain road surfaces so im looking into what garages near me do the 4 wheel alignment.

 

[cadman2k]

Bearing

Definately recommend the 4 wheel alignment, especially if your going to put new tyres on, 1 of my gripes in the first few years of ownership was front inner tyre wear, i didn't get aligment done till the car was over 3 years old and had 50K + on it, since having that done it has significantly improved that, I was told alignment can be out as soon as they leave factory if not done correctly.

For the bearing issue, if it is the bearing you will soon know about it, If you car is on 17" rims and a certain brand of tyre you could have the known issue of rear camber problems (I know this was common on the Leons), basically your rear tyres would end up like the edge of a 50p piece and generate road noise (normally after tyres had about 7K on them)
I'm sure if you search on the forum you will find something on that subject.

I purchased Genuine Seat Parts for the Bearings, did'nt want to go down any other route as tend to prefer piece of mind with some fallback if parts fail/wear unexpectedly.

 

[Sus]

Thanks for the replies I will be taking a wee visit down to Carlisle to have the 4 wheel alignment done hopefully within the next week to see if it makes any difference and if it doesnt I will purchase the hub and get it done after new year

 

[Pioneer Auto]

Our advice would be to replace the rear tyres first as they are common for wearing into 50p shapes causing this type of noise, or you could swop wheels front to rear to see if noise moves.

 

[Sus]

The tyres on the rear have loads of tread left tho i had them checked so when i put new tyres on should i swap the back to the front and news on the rear?

 

[Pioneer Auto]

the tread depth does not matter it will be the fact they are misshaped that is causing the noise we think

 

[Sus]

Ok thanks for that i will get onto the case

 

[THE_ORACLE]

Hi had the same problem but it was obvious i had a rear bearing on its way out. It had taken a week to drive me crazy.

I had 4 wheel track/castor/camber etc done about 3 months ago with brand new tyres on, so i knew this wasnt the problem.

Had the bearing replaced yesterday at £250.. .. 1.5 hrs labour, Part and diagnosis

Quiet at last but cost me £250 so i can hear the kids screaming again now

What i now need to know is do i need to get 4 wheel checked again???